Ridership-Boosting Strategies for Transit Agencies with Different Characteristics: Insights from a Nationwide Survey
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2025
Subject Area
planning - methods, planning - surveys, planning - marketing/promotion, infrastructure - fleet management, operations - frequency, ridership - growth
Keywords
public transit, strategies, COVID-19, policy implementation, effectiveness, ridership
Abstract
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.
Rights
Permission to publish the abstract has been given by SAGE, copyright remains with them.
Recommended Citation
Chen, A., Li, W., Lee, C., Towne Jr, S. D., Zhong, S., & Ory, M. G. (2025). Ridership-Boosting Strategies for Transit Agencies with Different Characteristics: Insights from a Nationwide Survey. Transportation Research Record, 2679(4), 478-492.
