Project Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated a five-year decline in public transit use both in California and nationwide. Current and potential service cuts in response to falling ridership could further reduce transit availability and jeopardize the livelihood of transit workers. This research will develop a metropolitan transit performance index that accounts for changes in vehicle revenue hours (VRH) and vehicle revenue miles (VRM) to compare transit’s recovery across state regions. It will also develop an analytical framework to inform agency decisions on how best to respond to reduced transit demand by utilizing low-capacity demand-response paratransit vehicles or increasing service on fixed-route large-capacity vehicles, given the health risks of each mode, and projected changes in per-passenger costs. The index, and other performance metrics, will be presented in a regularly-updated visualization tool. An initial short paper discussing observed trends will be produced at the time the visualization tool is released. A second short paper will be made available in November or December, 2020 with an updated discussion based on trends to date. In addition, a guidance document will be produced for agencies wishing to analyze the economic costs and benefits, as well as potential technical and labor relations obstacles, of deploying additional demand response service versus adding more fixed-route service.
