Rail Transit Ridership: Station-Area Analysis of Boston’s Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
This paper examines factors associated with transit ridership in Boston, Massachusetts. With the use of automated fare card data and boarding counts, this paper specifies and estimates direct-demand models of station-level ridership for Boston’s urban rail system during different time periods (e.g., a.m. peak and off-peak). The models include transit infrastructure and service characteristics, such as number of bus connections, as well as station-area characteristics aiming to represent economic activity, the built environment, and socioeconomics and demographics. The results show that population and employment are important drivers of overall daily demand and also show the importance of street design characteristics, various transit levels of service indicators, transit network accessibility, and station location relative to the central business district. Some variation in influencing factors was detected across different time periods and for weekday versus weekend boardings. The models reasonably replicate total observed boardings, but important under- and overpredictions at particular stations suggest areas for additional research. Applying the model to a light rail extension currently under development in the region predicts total weekday ridership up to 47% higher than official forecasts. The paper concludes with areas for future research.
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780309441346
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Authors:
- Chen, Szu-han
- Zegras, Chris
- Publication Date: 2016
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Print
- Features: Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: pp 110–122
- Monograph Title: Public Transportation, Volume 6: Marketing, Fare Policy, and Transformative Data Trends
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Serial:
- Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
- Issue Number: 2544
- Publisher: Transportation Research Board
- ISSN: 0361-1981
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Employment; Population; Rail transit; Ridership; Transit oriented development; Travel demand
- Identifier Terms: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
- Geographic Terms: Boston Metropolitan Area
- Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01594327
- Record Type: Publication
- ISBN: 9780309441346
- Report/Paper Numbers: 16-6025
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Mar 21 2016 4:47PM