An Exploratory Study of Transit and Active Commuters in US Transit Station Areas

Abstract

Researchers have examined transit and active commuting in relation to land use, infrastructure, and economic factors, but few have considered their relationship with each other, especially not for the US. This thesis aims to understand the relationship between transit and active commuters within and between rail transit station areas. Multiple linear regressions were conducted at the national level and for each metro with rail transit service. Each regression used one of the four commuter types (home- and work-based transit or active commuters) as the dependent variable and the other three as independent variables. In addition, bivariate regressions were performed between the four commuter types and 30 demographic, economic, or transit service attributes at the national level and for 24 metros with rail transit. This study found that the number of significant relationships between commuter types was positively correlated with the number of station areas in a metro, with work-based relationships being most common. No station area attributes from the bivariate comparisons improved the fit of the national level models, suggesting that further analysis of metro attributes and models may be fruitful. The main finding was that station areas with large populations of transit commuters also had large populations of active commuters, although this relationship varied between metros and home or work transit or active commuters.