COVID-19 caused dramatic shifts in travel patterns and transit demand, but with potentially inequitable impacts across populations. This work is important because it documents how the pandemic affected different demographic groups differently, providing evidence about the resilience and vulnerability of different user populations. The analysis contributes to understanding how external shocks affect transit systems and which populations are most vulnerable to disruptions.
This paper investigates how COVID-19 changed public transit ridership patterns across different socioeconomic groups in Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee. The work analyzes boarding data, paratransit demand, and cellular mobility data to understand changes in transit usage before, during, and after pandemic restrictions. The study examines whether ridership changes were distributed equitably across populations or if COVID-19 disproportionately affected certain groups including lower-income residents and mobility-impaired transit users.
The analysis shows that COVID-19 caused significant initial declines in ridership that gradually recovered, with ridership declining more in higher-income areas initially but recovery being faster there. The distribution of changes across socioeconomic groups and mobility-impaired users varied, suggesting that the pandemic's impact on transit access was not uniform. The findings highlight the importance of understanding how external disruptions affect different populations and the need to protect transit access for vulnerable groups.
@article{wilbur2022_trr,
author = {Wilbur, Michael and Ayman, Afiya and Sivagnanam, Amutheezan and Ouyang, Anna and Poon, Vincent and Kabir, Riyan and Vadali, Abhiram and Pugliese, Philip and Freudberg, Daniel and Laszka, Aron and Dubey, Abhishek},
journal = {Transportation Research Record},
title = {Impact of COVID-19 on Public Transit Accessibility and Ridership},
year = {2023},
number = {4},
pages = {531--546},
volume = {2677},
abstract = {COVID-19 has radically transformed urban travel behavior throughout the world. Agencies have had to provide adequate service while navigating a rapidly changing environment with reduced revenue. As COVID-19-related restrictions are lifted, transit agencies are concerned about their ability to adapt to changes in ridership behavior and public transit usage. To aid their becoming more adaptive to sudden or persistent shifts in ridership, we addressed three questions: To what degree has COVID-19 affected fixed-line public transit ridership and what is the relationship between reduced demand and -vehicle trips? How has COVID-19 changed ridership patterns and are they expected to persist after restrictions are lifted? Are there disparities in ridership changes across socioeconomic groups and mobility-impaired riders? Focusing on Nashville and Chattanooga, TN, ridership demand and vehicle trips were compared with anonymized mobile location data to study the relationship between mobility patterns and transit usage. Correlation analysis and multiple linear regression were used to investigate the relationship between socioeconomic indicators and changes in transit ridership, and an analysis of changes in paratransit demand before and during COVID-19. Ridership initially dropped by 66\% and 65\% over the first month of the pandemic for Nashville and Chattanooga, respectively. Cellular mobility patterns in Chattanooga indicated that foot traffic recovered to a greater degree than transit ridership between mid-April and the last week in June, 2020. Education-level had a statistically significant impact on changes in fixed-line bus transit, and the distribution of changes in demand for paratransit services were similar to those of fixed-line bus transit.},
contribution = {minor},
doi = {10.1177/03611981231160531},
eprint = {https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981231160531},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981231160531},
keywords = {COVID-19 pandemic, transit ridership, equity, socioeconomic disparities, mobility-impaired users, pandemic impacts, transportation resilience, urban mobility}
}