With COVID-19 no longer classified as a public health emergency, transit agencies are seeking strategies to boost their ridership. Although previous studies have compiled many viable strategies, there is limited knowledge about their effectiveness for agencies with differing characteristics and how their implementation may have evolved post-pandemic. This paper bridges this research gap by identifying effective strategies for agencies of different sizes, regions, and service types. We based this study on a nationwide online survey of 244 transit agencies recruited via email and employed logistic regression analyses to test associations of the perceived effectiveness of strategies with agency characteristics. The findings reveal that marketing and promotion strategy implementation rates increased during the pandemic; however, such increases were short-term and not incorporated into the agencies’ future implementation plans. Moreover, increasing the service frequency emerged as the most effective strategy, whereas fleet electrification, despite being a lower priority for ridership recovery, proved significantly more effective for agencies with firsthand experience. Policymakers and transit agency managers can use the findings of this study to identify strategies that their peer agencies of similar sizes, regions, and service types consider effective for boosting ridership and promote transit use for everyone, especially for those lacking alternative means for transportation.
Ridership-Boosting Strategies for Transit Agencies with Different Characteristics: Insights from a Nationwide Survey
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
2024-12-12
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Transportation Research Record | 2019
|Examining Transit Activity Data from StreetLight Using Ridership Data from Virginia Transit Agencies
Transportation Research Record | 2023
|Online Contents | 1995
A transit ridership‐revenue model
Taylor & Francis Verlag | 1984
|Rising Gas Price and Transit Ridership
Transportation Research Record | 2009
|