Cross-Elasticities in Frequencies and Ridership for Urban Local Routes

Recently published:

• Totten, Joseph and Levinson, D. (2016) Cross-Elasticities in Frequencies and Ridership for Urban Local Routes Journal of Public Transport 19 (3): 117-125. [doi] [umn]

Observational data from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul region’s Metro Transit, are analyzed to determine the effects of service levels on ridership levels at different intervals. This research is innovative because it compares changes in service levels and ridership in several service intervals, and includes the elasticities and cross-elasticities, or the influence that these service levels have on different service intervals’ ridership. These cross-elasticities are not known to have been researched previously, and are found to have little effect during the week; however, weekend ridership was found to be influenced by rush hour and overnight frequencies. Future research should replicate this study in other cities, and should use express and suburban routes.