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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

EXPANDING BEYOND THE UNIVERSITY: AN EXAMINATION OF HOW THE UNIVERSITY MARKET AFFECTS TRANSIT SYSTEM RIDERSHIP

Colleges and universities have become an extremely popular market for transit systems. They allow transit providers to partner with universities and businesses to grow ridership while offsetting operating costs. Simultaneously, the lure of a densely populated campus with limited service needs provides a relatively simple and low-cost opportunity to attract new customers to an existing transit system and develop a new generation of transit riders. For the most part, evidence of new university systems translating into new users on existing routes is limited. Transit agency staff has a tendency to consider increases in system-wide ridership as evidence of the university community developing into a new expanded ridership base. However, this is a tautology-any increase in service level will automatically increase ridership-just at varying degrees. Student use of on-campus services also tends to create additional new routes to outlying areas such as university owned off-campus housing and private student apartment complexes, which are not marketed or classified as official university services. Although these routes may be non-university routes, they are campus oriented with limited numbers of stops and have campus as the primary destination. Since establishing "The T", a new expanded transit system for The University of Tennessee's flagship campus in Knoxville, TN, Knoxville Area Transit (KAT) has seen direct evidence that new or expanded on-campus transit can increase student use of existing non-university routes beyond the campus-oriented routes such as those to apartment complexes. To facilitate the transition from university transit to local public transit, KAT has employed a brand-identity marketing scheme combined with promotions for off-campus routes for shopping and entertainment has created the right mix of services to encourage students to try transit. By reducing regular fixed route information costs, drawing parallels between the on-campus and off-campus transit services and offering incentives for students to use mass transit, KAT's generation of future riders is beginning to ride now. This paper employs a case study of Knoxville Area Transit core system routes between January 2000 and December 2003 for the purpose of studying ridership increases attributed to the use of a $25.00 student/faculty/staff pass. Examination of ridership on off-campus student-oriented routes, core fixed routes, and the number of trips in which the UT pass media is used revealed that there has been a considerable increase in the number of student riders using KAT's core fixed route system. This supports the premise that on-campus transit systems can produce increases in student use of the core transit system.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Features: Figures; References;
  • Pagination: 9p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00980149
  • Record Type: Publication
  • ISBN: 1931594120
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Oct 14 2004 12:00AM