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Title:

Assessment of the Association of System-Related and Place-Related Variables with Bus Ridership in New Jersey

Accession Number:

01623269

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

This paper examines system-related and place-related variables that may affect bus ridership by taking the case of the service provided by New Jersey Transit, an agency that provides service throughout New Jersey and in adjacent parts of New York State and Pennsylvania. Understanding the effects of such variables on bus ridership can be important for a variety of reasons, including ridership prediction, service effectiveness assessment, and service quality improvement. The primary objective of this paper is to test statistical models that best describe the effects of such variables on average weekday ridership for bus routes and bus trips, where ridership per bus trip is derived by dividing route ridership by bus frequency. For prediction purposes, it uses ordinary least squares models, generalized linear mixed models, and a path model. The paper concludes that developing a model that includes a large number of variables with significant and expected signs is difficult due to certain statistical issues despite the variables having strong individual correlation with ridership. The path model showed that the direct and indirect effects of the variables can be different when bus frequency is taken into account. The overall analysis showed that system-related variables, including length of route, frequency of buses, and number of stops, better explain ridership than variables pertaining to places served by routes. The paper concludes by stating how transit ridership models could be improved with better quality data.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP050 Standing Committee on Bus Transit Systems.

Monograph Accession #:

01618707

Report/Paper Numbers:

17-00203

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Deka, Devajyoti
Wang, Chihuangji

Pagination:

17p

Publication Date:

2017

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References; Tables

Identifier Terms:

New Jersey Transit

Geographic Terms:

New Jersey

Subject Areas:

Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-00203

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Dec 8 2016 9:58AM