Facing the future of transit ridership: shifting attitudes towards public transit and auto ownership among transit riders during COVID-19.

ABSTRACT: Public transit agencies face a transformed landscape of rider demand and political support as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes. We explore people's motivations for returning to or avoiding public transit a year into the pandemic. We draw on a March 2021 follow-up survey of over 1,900 people who rode transit regularly prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, and who took part in a prior survey on the topic in May 2020. We investigate how transit demand changes associated with the pandemic relate to changes in automobile ownership and its desirability. We find that pre-COVID frequent transit users between the ages of 18-29, a part of the so-called "Gen Z," and recent immigrants are more attracted to driving due to the pandemic, with the latter group more likely to have a

SUBMITTER: Palm M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9617532 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature