How to Create Attractive Transit Systems
Instead of “build it and they will come”, the philosophy should be “build it so they *want* to be there”.
One can imagine it takes money to run a transit system, and as such, one might also envision those managing these systems wanting a lot of passengers. For this reason, managers might ask themselves the following question: How can we increase our customer base? We will suggest answers to this question below.
To begin, we consider the transit system in Taipei, Taiwan, and the article written by SmartCitiesDive, “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: How to Make Public Transit More Effective”.
They first emphasize the significance of transit being on time and not constantly changing or being delayed. Transit schedules which are constantly changing or being delayed can create havoc in riders’ days, and arriving late can mean they lose income and potentially even job opportunities, as they miss important job interviews.
Additionally, knowing transit is unreliable can cause some riders to respond by intentionally arriving (awkwardly) early to work to avoid being late. For some of these people, this can mean having to spend more time outside, which in extreme weather might be very uncomfortable. It can also mean they are spending money they would rather save on a cup of coffee until their workplace is open; or it can result in them taking space in their workplace from others as they have to wait to start their own work. None of these scenarios is ideal for these riders.
This article from SmartCitiesDive also stresses the public transit system in Taipei “is kept clean through banning smoking, drinking, eating and chewing gum while in the station or on the train”. From our own experiences, Calgary Transit has tried to do the same in the past (pre-Covid pandemic) times to little or no avail, with an exception (to some degree) being smoking.
Realistically, these bans can be difficult to uphold, particularly when bus and train drivers are the only ones present to do so. Additionally, these rules are easier to uphold in cultures with more collectivist thinking, as people are more likely to think of their peers rather than just themselves.
Cleanliness is particularly relevant for commuters — imagine going to a job interview and your clothes are dirty because you accidentally sat on a seat someone else had dirtied by putting their feet on it.
The authors also suggest ensuring comfort to help maximize ridership. On a personal note, we have sat on uncomfortable bus seats, which does not make for a pleasant ride.
Additionally, available transit systems must also make sense in terms of their location and the number of riders. One way to attract additional riders is to provide safe and pragmatically comfortable waiting areas with lit shelters that include seating for passengers waiting for their rides. Modern transit systems should also consider bike racks on the front of buses.
To further increase the number of public transit passengers, SmartCitiesDive promotes the idea of having places where people can park their cars and ride the trains and buses. This means these park-and-ride areas serve a purpose, and their locations must be carefully planned so they attract as many potential passengers as possible, some being car drivers. Finally, for public transit systems to be and remain desirable, they need to be well-constructed and well-maintained.
Overall, SmartCitiesDive suggests a different philosophy than the current “build it and they will come” one. Instead, it should be “build it so they want to be there”. Providing customers with a travel experience that is modern, well-maintained, safe, clean, quick, and convenient is all reflective of this newer philosophy.
Moving on, Liftango suggests ways to make taking public transit more attractive, which include providing customers with USB ports, charging stations, free WiFi, and air conditioning, i.e., modernizing fleets.
Other thoughts taken from this article include making public transit a convenient means of travel, affordable fare prices, providing vehicles and waiting areas that are as clean as possible, and comfortable seating on buses and trains, points also made by Sustainability Directory. Additionally, investing in more environmentally-friendly products and energy can encourage commuters to feel more positive about choosing public transit, not to mention propagating the positive aspects of using public transit in the media.
Your Ride On writers can also think of many other positive aspects to taking public transit. For example, using public transit allows one to read, as well as email people while travelling; one can get more exercise while helping the environment; one does not need to pay for parking or worry about where to park; and one can talk to friends who are going the same way as you are.
Making it easy to pay for transit through a flexible payment system helps to maintain and possibly even increase the number of riders. For example, in Calgary, one can pay their train fare at a station with cash, credit, debit, tickets, or (physical or electronic) passes. To pay for bus fare in Calgary, one can also use cash as well as prepaid physical or electronic passes and tickets.
Overall, a pertinent message is that in order to maintain and potentially increase the transit system’s current customer base, it needs to do its best to provide safe and well-maintained, modern services.
Next, Rollison and Coombes (2023) inspires us to ask the following question: now that we know how to make transit more appealing, how do we motivate people outside of these parameters to use it? These researchers feel two approaches can accomplish this goal: one way is through non-financial means, which has been alluded to earlier in this discussion, and the other one involves financially incentivizing people to use public transit. We will now elaborate on these two approaches.
Non-financial means of nudging people to use public transit involves “car dis-incentivization” and “prioritizing public transport service”, which one could imagine includes building more transit stations and increasing the number of public transit-only spaces — such as bus dedicated lanes — which results in buses getting people to their destinations faster. This is particularly important when transit is running late. Expanding and increasing the frequency of their services is also clearly a large part of this equation.
The result of implementing these tactics can be a substantial increase in traffic congestion, making driving significantly less pleasant and frustrating some drivers to the point that they, in turn, choose to become public transit users. As a result, these acts can become a subtle means of increasing ridership. The authors also mentioned allowing more people to live near public transit, which has a significant potential to attract more public transit riders.
On the financial end of nudging people to use public transit, there are a few means. One way is making public transit more affordable, such as discounted ticketing and fare caps. For example, the City of Calgary offers low-income transit passes to help people who find it difficult to afford the regular prices of transit passes.
Another means is making it more expensive to own and employ a personal vehicle. This could involve increasing fuel costs through a gasoline tax, which goes toward funding public transit. Other ways to encourage more people to use public transit include increasing the cost of owning a car by raising the average parking fee and reducing the number of available parking spaces.
When public transit is made available and many people use it, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and C40 Knowledge Hub argue it can significantly reduce pollution. Some view public transit as a public good — although not necessarily in an economic sense — because it helps connect people from diverse backgrounds, it takes people to work and school (which benefits the economy), and it can reduce emissions when it has many riders.
The authors also communicate the pertinence of a well-designed service that is accessible and welcoming to all. Additionally, public transit should provide service where there is a demand for it.
For public transit riders, it is no surprise the authors define high-quality public transport services as “reliable, frequent, fast, comfortable, accessible, convenient, affordable and safe, serving routes for which there is demand.” To create such a desirable transit system, the authors argue transit planners and managers need to understand their riders’ behaviour, and this research should be ongoing with respect to the nature of the means of transport, accessibility, the type of land used for transit, and other factors which influence policy and planning.
Historically, research not only considers riders’ behaviour at the moment, but also tries to meaningfully apply this information to “predict” how ridership will evolve and use that knowledge to develop its public transit services. Currently, scenario-based approaches are utilized, which are “informed by the city’s vision for the future, and the desired and anticipated changes to travel patterns that are needed to meet that vision, to develop transport infrastructure and services to meet evolving needs”.
Employing a scenario-based approach to route planning, Vancouver considered transit investments, predictions of future demand, land use — such as considering people's need for “pedestrian-streets” and safe biking passages — and various forecasted growth projections.
Another type of scenario assessment is called “scenario analysis”, an overall assessment which is applied in Stockholm, which is employed to measure the public’s transportation demands. For example, it measures where transit is needed, the optimal type of transportation considering the demand and land type, and the city’s population growth.
Building on the previous measurements mentioned, this assessment is utilized to consider city planning. It also tries to learn how to balance means to reduce emissions and care for the environment with the infrastructure needs demanded by traffic, and how to apply this knowledge optimally.
In Jakarta’s Metropolitan Area, four scenarios were analyzed in terms of factors that affect public transit ridership for ten years. Hence, they researched multiple scenarios to extract effective advice concerning public transit. This approach may be ideal, because considering one means of analysis may result in some factors being missed and/or a less accurate picture of people’s relationship with public transit.
If the knowledge from these types of analyses is applied to these cities, it is with the desire of creating accessible, inclusive, and time-efficient places in which to travel. Additionally, while analyzing people’s relationship with transit by considering four scenarios over ten years may be more costly than considering only one, the knowledge gleaned by doing so may save the city money, as it may allow for better choices around transit to be made. Intelligently applying these assessments can enhance the desirability of that city.
Overall, we glean from the above information that research is needed to understand how a public transit system can best serve the public and run optimally.
All of these elements that make public transit attractive are costly. As far as covering these costs, there are five main means of raising revenue for public transit, and these are public finance, public subsidy, raised revenue, private investment, and multilateral development banks.
The most interesting of these — in our opinion — is raising revenue, as there are various means to increase funds for public transit: transport taxes (such as toll road fees and gas taxes), parking fees, fares, road pricing, and potentially more. Public finance involves funding from every level of government, and these institutions also publicly subsidize public transit systems, as fares alone do not cover their costs.
There are also private businesses which partner with, and invest in public transit. In some cases, multilateral development banks provide financial support for public transit. Overall, the greater the funding, the better the public transit service is, and the more optimally these services are provided, which, as alluded to earlier, are important means to increase ridership.
Safe travel experiences and a well-coordinated bus system enable people to travel safely and quickly. Public transit systems, and how well they run, have a significant ripple effect on the personal and professional lives of those who use them.
As public transportation takes people to work and school, it can also have a significant impact on the economy, either benefitting it indirectly, by getting people to work on time and energized, or it might have some negative impact when schedules are delayed, which may equate to more workers who are tired, and therefore less productive.
Considering the example just shown, along with many other reasons, public transit has a ripple effect, impacting not only the lives of its riders but often also the lives of people with whom these riders regularly engage. Public transportation is also a crucial part of people’s lives as it is a key tool in the fight against climate change.
The more people who use public transit, the lower greenhouse gas emissions will be, and greenhouse gas emissions create climate change and wildfires. The wildfires destroy the habitat of many animals, and they also emit even more greenhouse gases, intensifying climate change, which negatively impacts the Earth even more.
In the end, public transit is important as it impacts the lives of many people. Thus, it is pertinent for cities to do what they can to keep public transit systems running optimally and serve their customers to the best of their ability.
We hope you enjoyed reading this article, and we hope to see you here again next time.