United States Department of Transportation
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Analyzing the effects of transit network change on agency performance and riders in a decentralized, small-to-mid-sized US metropolitan area : a case study of Tallahassee, Florida.
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2013-05-01
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[PDF-6.86 MB]
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NTL Classification:NTL-PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION-Bus Transportation;NTL-PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION-Transit Planning and Policy;NTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-Surveys;
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Abstract:On July 11, 2011, StarMetro, the local public transit agency in Tallahassee, Florida, restructured its entire bus network from a
downtown-focused radial system to a decentralized, grid-like system that local officials and agency leaders believed would better
serve the dispersed local pattern of population and employment. The new, decentralized network is based on radial routes serving
the major arterial roads and new crosstown routes linking the outer parts of the city, where population and employment is growing.
Local officials and agency staff hoped the change would increase transit’s attractiveness and usefulness to the community.
One year after the service restructuring, overall performance results are similar to those experienced in other cities that have
implemented major service changes. Overall ridership and productivity are lower than before the service restructuring, due to
the short time frame for rider adjustments and longer-than-anticipated headways, but new ridership has appeared in previously
un-served or under-served corridors and neighborhoods. The service restructuring resulted in longer walks to bus stops, due to
the removal of stops from many neighborhoods and their relocation to major roads, but overall transit travel times are shorter
due to more direct routing. No particular neighborhoods or community groups disproportionately benefited from or were harmed
by the change.
The service restructuring was supported by some segments of the community who viewed the older system as ill-suited to
the increasingly decentralized community, while it was opposed by other community stakeholders who worried about the loss
of service in some neighborhoods and issues of access and safety, particularly affecting elderly and disabled riders, at new
stop locations. StarMetro’s extensive public outreach efforts and ongoing service adjustments have reduced the intensity of the
opposition to the service restructuring over time, although some segments of the community continue to voice their concerns
about the effects of the change on transit-dependent, disabled, and elderly riders.
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