Citation

LaBelle SJ, Stuart DG. Transp. Res. Rec. 1995; 1503: 79-87.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

After only 12 months of operation, the Chicago Transit Authority's new Orange Line, providing rapid rail service from Chicago's Loop to Midway Airport, had reached a weekday ridership of 37,500 passengers. Preliminary analysis indicated that the line had increased transit ridership overall in the southwest corridor by 31.0%, raising transit's mode share of work trips from 16.4% to 21.5%. Based on an on-board rider survey done after 4 months, nearly one-quarter of daily boardings were new to transit, representing former automobile commuters or new trips for which the automobile was a candidate. That share grew to over 25% by the end of the first year. Core, secondary, and tertiary markets were defined in March 1994 in the southwest corridor, together providing 84% of the line's ridership. Demographic and travel characteristics of the transit riders surveyed are compared with comparable market-area data from the 1990 U.S. Census. Survey data regarding the intensive marketing campaign that accompanied the line's opening are analyzed. A separate analysis comparing diverted and new transit riders with those who shifted from other transit services is given. A series of guidelines is drawn for successfully inaugurating major transit-service improvements designed to decrease reliance on automobiles. The origin-destination and access-mode data from the March survey were also used to measure the net decrease in automotive cold starts and vehicle kilometers traveled. These measures were developed to estimate the air-quality benefits of this new rapid-rail service.

Language: en

Keywords

Automobiles; Statistics; Rapid transit; Surveys; Railroad transportation; Air pollution control; Environmental impact; Mass transportation