United States Department of Transportation
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The Effect of COVID-19 on Mobility and Equity: A Case Study on Transit Users in Baltimore, Maryland
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2023-08-01
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[PDF-39.87 MB]
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Edition:Final Report
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Abstract:This study investigates the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the public transport ridership of the Maryland Transit Administration and nine self-identified peer agencies using data collected from National Transit Data (NTD), General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), American Community Survey (ACS), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The analysis is based on passenger trips, vehicle revenue hours, and vehicles operated in maximum service. A comparison analysis is conducted by mode from March to December of 2020 (during the pandemic) versus February of 2020 (before the pandemic). The comparison between 2020 and 2019 is performed separately for each month. This study also investigates transit riders’ and operators’ behavior and experience during and before the pandemic via an online survey questionnaire. A dashboard was also developed to show the effect of COVID-19 on employment, mobility, transit ridership, and transit services. Based on the NTD analysis, the fewest passenger trips happened in April 2020 for most cities. The largest maximum ridership decline happened in Washington, D.C., (82.2% bus; 93.7% rail), and the smallest maximum ridership decline occurred in St. Louis (47.9% bus, 60.8% rail) and Baltimore (53.2% bus, 93.6% rail) compared to February 2020. Unlike rail, bus ridership in the 10 agencies was not correlated to the service metrics and faced a smaller decline in ridership than the rail mode, probably because of having more captive riders. While reducing bus services is financially justified, it is a more critical service. This study highlights at least one difficult decision that transit agencies have to make: where service reductions should be implemented to have the least impact on captive transit riders/essential workers.
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