The impacts of extreme weather events on U.S. Public transit ridership

Authors

Nicole S. Ngo
Shahinur Bashar

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2024

Subject Area

place - north america, place - urban, mode - bus, mode - rail, planning - methods, ridership - modelling

Keywords

Climate change, public transit, ridership

Abstract

Climate change is expected to dramatically change weather patterns across the U.S. To understand its impact on public transit, we use regression analysis to investigate: 1) the relationship between public transit ridership and very hot and cold days and days with heavy precipitation across 48 U.S. cities between 2002 and 2019, 2) how this relationship has changed over time, and 3) if there are differences in this relationship based on sociodemographic characteristics. We find a modest reduction in unlinked passenger trips (UPT) per capita, our proxy for public transit ridership, for each additional very hot day, very cold day, or day with heavy precipitation. The greatest reductions associated with very hot days occur toward the end of our study period and in lower-income cities. We also find greater reductions in UPT on buses associated with several consecutive days of cold and heat, but less so with rail.

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.

Comments

Transportation Research Part D Home Page:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13619209

Recommended Citation

Ngo, N. S., & Bashar, S. (2024). The impacts of extreme weather events on US Public transit ridership. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 137, 104504.