The People Part of Transit Paper Session funnels research on operator and rider behavior and ways of improving ridership for specific subgroups of the riding public.
Full Details about the Paper Session can be found here: The People Part of Transit Papers
Authors: Dong Zhang, Farrukh Baig, Hong-feng Xu, Hui Jin, Dalian University of Technology, Li Li, Chang'an University
Metro travelers’ travel experience is highly influenced by fellow passengers’ misbehaviors like eating or littering in the carriage, which is common to see in the metro carriage nowadays. Although various regulations have been implemented by operators to reduce such misbehaviors, little research has investigated theoretically the incentives of such behavior to provide targeted guidelines for specific passenger segments. To this end, this study explores for empirical evidence on how educated young students’ demographics and perceived social norms associate with their misbehaviors, i.e., eating in the carriage, public display of affection, sound blaster, cross-legged sitting, leaning against the pole, and littering, in the metro carriage. With the structural equation model, it is revealed that both injunctive and descriptive norms impose significant impacts on passengers’ inappropriate behaviors, with the effect of the former generally to a larger degree. Gender heterogeneity in passenger misbehavior is also observed where males significantly perform better in eating in the carriage and cross-legged sitting. These findings may decode the underlying motivation of passenger misbehaviors and provide guidelines for effective intervention with targeted policy design and implementation.
Authors: Anastasia Belikow, James DeWeese, Ahmed El-Geneidy, McGill University
Express buses—characterized by limited stops and sometimes higher frequencies or priority traffic measures—offer a cost-effective and efficient way to boost service convenience and reliability for riders. This paper assesses how equitably the benefits of express bus routes are distributed in Montreal, Canada, by analyzing the spatial and socioeconomic distribution of travel-time reductions and improvements in accessibility generated by these increasingly common services. To isolate the impact of bus express routes, we use GTFS data, Open Trip Planner software and the 2013 edition of the Montreal’s origin-destination survey to contrast travel time and accessibility at the trip and census-tract levels under two scenarios: (1) the existing, complete network and (2) a hypothetical network with express bus routes removed. Results show bus express routes have a sizeable impact on the wellbeing of Montreal residents, with monetized time savings estimated at $6,236,713 but the benefits do not accrue evenly. The greatest travel-time savings redound to the wealthiest of express bus users. Indeed, express bus users living in the census tracts that experienced the strongest accessibility gains earn, on average, almost $24,000 more than the average for census tracts with lower gains. While some people with incomes below $30,000 realize important travel-time savings from existing express routes, the services do not appear to significantly enhance access to jobs with wages below $30,000, except in some areas on the western part of the island. These results suggest that as planners and policymakers continue to implement new express services ample margin exists to improve transport-equity outcomes by more explicitly considering the spatial and sociodemographic distribution of accessibility and travel-time-reduction benefits.
Transit Blues in the Golden State: Comparing Transit Ridership Trends in Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area
Authors: Jacob Wasserman, Brian Taylor, University of California, Los Angeles
Public investment in transit increased following the Great Recession, yet transit use nationally was mostly falling, even prior to the 2020 pandemic. We investigate this troubling disjuncture by comparing transit ridership trends during the 2010s in two of America's largest regions: Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. While both California regions have lost transit riders in recent years, we see substantial differences in the scale, timing, geography, and modes of these declines. In the LA Area, ridership has fallen longer and further than in the Bay Area, spread more across routes, times, and sub-regions and concentrated on the region's dominant operator. In both regions, increasing auto access appears to play a central role in falling ridership, albeit in different ways. Greater LA has seen increased automobile ownership and use, particularly among high-propensity transit riders. In the Bay Area, as jobs and housing have dispersed from one another, ridehail services like Lyft and Uber may be eroding non-commute transit use.
An Analysis of the Effectiveness of the Priority Seat in Transportation: Through a Comparative Study of Six Areas in Japan
Authors: Yoshito Dobashi, Nobuaki Ohmori, Utsunomiya University, Katsunori Suzuki, Hokusei Gakuen University
Priority seat systems are widely introduced around the world to provide seats for elderly and disabled passengers as well as pregnant women and injured passengers. In Japan, such a system is recommended in the national guideline. However, the manners of using priority seats differ from country to country, and even among areas within a country. In our previous study, we examined the effectiveness of Sapporo Subway’s special seat system as compared to the priority seat system in subways in the Kanto area. In this present study, we will extend our research to other areas in Japan, namely the Sendai Namboku subway line, Kyoto Karasuma subway line, Kobe Saishin subway line, and Fukuoka Kuko line, to further examine the effectiveness of Sapporo’s special seat system. We conducted observation surveys in six areas including Sapporo and the Kanto area to check whether priority seats are used by targeted passengers such as elderly and disabled passengers. We collected numerical data in the six areas and compared how the seats are used by general passengers. As a result, we found that Sapporo subway’s special seat system stands out for its effectiveness. We also analyzed the responses to a questionnaire survey conducted in Sapporo and the Kanto area in our previous study. By combining all our findings, we will explore measures for an even more appropriate and effective usage of priority seats.
“Without Transportation, Everything would be Difficult”: Transportation Barriers among Immigrant Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence
Authors: Shamsun Nahar, Texas Woman's University, Courtney Cronley, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
The current study reports on transportation barriers among a transportation underserved and under-recognized population - immigrant women who are survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). Using an exploratory cross-sectional qualitative method, two focus groups were conducted with a total of 15 immigrant IPV survivors (25-68 years old). The study participants immigrated to the U.S. from Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Lebanon, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Honduras, Jamaica, and Nigeria. Three key themes highlight the essence of the transportation barriers among these immigrant women who are survivors of IPV in the U.S.: (1) “my mobility was in my ex-husband’s hand”, (2) transportation disadvantage blocks independence, and (3) public transit out of touch with IPV survivors’ needs. The study found that transportation is used as a means of control and coercion among IPV perpetrators and lacking this basic resource impedes the women’s ability to re-gain independence as they exit the IPV situations. Although access to transportation is a basic right, the women’s descriptions of the perpetrators control tactics in denying them access to the family car or preventing them from going to work highlight the essential role of transportation in their daily life. The study findings also suggest that public transit resources, like buses, are designed without considering the unique needs of the female IPV survivors and other highly vulnerable populations. Findings highlight the need for transportation planners and engineers to consider more multi-modal and creative transportation solutions for such populations.
Driving Behavior Study of Bus Drivers: An Insight to Job Satisfaction
Authors: Xuesong Wang, Shoumic Chowdhury, Yujun Jiao, Tongji University
With a growing population, bus service is an efficient mode of transportation in cities. However, traffic crashes involving buses can bring more casualties and economic losses. Bus drivers, an integral part of this service, should be monitored closely. Job satisfaction, an overlooked criterion in the industry, is a crucial component that often leads to absenteeism and counterproductive behavior. Therefore, this study aims to examine the factors affecting job satisfaction and the impact of job satisfaction on risky driving behaviors. Considering historical crash involvement as risky driving behavior, questionnaire survey data of 3,638 drivers from a bus company located in Shenzhen were analyzed. Decision Tree was used to classify the data and an ordered logit model was conducted to predict factors contributing to job satisfaction. An ordered logit model with stepwise forward regression was performed to predict the significant factors responsible for risky driving behavior. Results show that: (a) age, monthly salary, insomnia state, drivers' past medication history, daily driving hours, work schedule, sleep duration during workdays all significantly affect job satisfaction, (b) job satisfaction is a crucial indicator of risky driving behavior. Moreover, quarterly safety education, driving experience, insomnia state, and lapse also have a significant impact on risky driving behavior. The results will help bus companies modify management rules to improve drivers’ job satisfaction to decrease the probability of crash involvement.