INCREASING TRANSIT RIDERSHIP: THE EXPERIENCE OF SEVEN CITIES

During the last five years several transit systems have experienced large and sustained increases in ridership. The objectives of this study were to identify and analyze the factors to which the ridership increases are attributed and the techniques used to gain ridership that are transferable to other systems. The seven systems chosen for evaluation and the percentages of change in ridership between 1971 and 1975 were: Eugene, Oregon, 411%; Madison, Wisconsin, 49%; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, 40%; Portland, Oregon, 57%; Salt Lake City, Utah, 118%; San Diego, California, 114%; and Vancouver, British Columbia, 57%. All of these cities possessed a common set of ingredients essential to their successes in increasing ridership--strong public and political support which resulted in the availability of substantial financial resources. It was found that most ridership gains were in large part attributable to service expansion, especially the expansion and addition of routes in areas that previously had been poorly served. Fares remained constant or were reduced in all of the cities studied. Furthermore, the energy crisis was credited with having an immediate positive effect on transit use. The types of techniques used in increasing ridership, which are transferable to other systems, are in the areas of: (1) planning, scheduling, monitoring and evaluation; (2) marketing; (3) transportation system management; and (4) route structure. /FHWA/

• Corporate Authors:

  Urban Mass Transportation Administration

  Office of Policy and Program Development, 400 7th Street, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Sale, J
• Publication Date: 1976-11

Media Info

• Pagination: 28 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Energy; Public relations; Public transit; Ridership; Transportation planning; Transportation system management; Urban transportation
• Uncontrolled Terms: Public support
• Old TRIS Terms: Low costs
• Subject Areas: Energy; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00165762
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Urban Mass Transportation Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: UMTA-UPP-S-76-1
• Contract Numbers: UPP-S
• Files: NTIS, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Mar 29 1981 12:00AM