The influence of light rail transit on transit use: An exploration of station area residents along the Hiawatha line in Minneapolis

Authors

Jason (Xinyu) Cao
Jessica Schoner

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2014

Subject Area

mode - tram/light rail, place - north america, ridership - behaviour, ridership - growth

Keywords

Propensity score matching, Self-selection, Transit-oriented development, Travel behavior, Urban form

Abstract

Rail transit is often implemented in the corridors already with high transit demand. When evaluating their ridership benefits, previous studies often choose the city/county/region as control groups, rather than comparable corridors without rail, and hence overstate their impacts. In this study, we employ propensity score matching to explore the impact of Hiawatha light rail transit (LRT) on transit use. We find that compared to residents in similar urban corridors, the Hiawatha LRT promotes transit use of residents who have lived in the corridor before its opening, and that residents who moved to the corridor after its opening use transit as often as new residents in the comparable urban corridors without LRT. We conclude that besides LRT, land use and transportation policies are necessary for ridership growth.

Rights

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

Comments

Transportation Research Part A Home Page:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09658564

Recommended Citation

Cao, X.J., & Schoner, J. (2014). The influence of light rail transit on transit use: An exploration of station area residents along the Hiawatha line in Minneapolis. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice Volume 59, January 2014, Pages 134–143.