No Longer Seat-Less in Seattle: The Role of Coordinated Transportation and Land Use Planning in Sustaining Transit Ridership through the Pandemic Recovery Period

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2026

Subject Area

place - north america, place - urban, planning - surveys, planning - service improvement, ridership - behaviour, land use - planning, land use - impacts

Keywords

public transit, travel behavior, land use planning, bus ridership, transit ridership, coordinated planning, built environment

Abstract

Transit ridership had been decreasing in major cities across the United States prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, with Seattle as a notable exception. I examine the relationship between travel behavior and Seattle’s land use planning program in conjunction with transit improvements. I use econometric methods to analyze multiple waves of the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) Household Travel Survey from 2014 to 2021. Living in one of Seattle’s Urban Villages is significantly associated with a higher likelihood of taking transit. This relationship holds during the pandemic time period and when controlling for self-selection.

Rights

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

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