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- All Subjects: public transportation
- Creators: Salon, Deborah
- Creators: Barone, Richard
Universities host a large, young and diverse population that commutes to the same location every day, which makes them ideally suited for public transportation ridership. However, at many universities in the US, this potential for high levels of transit ridership is not being maximized. This research aims to identify the areas where Valley Metro’s public transit service to ASU’s Tempe campus is over- and under-performing in comparison with the overall public transportation service to the entire Phoenix metro area. The hypothesis states that proximity to campus and the convenience of using public transportation would be the two main factors in determining the success of an area’s public transportation service. ASU’s Parking & Transit Services provided confidential data with the addresses of all the students and employees who purchased a parking pass, transit pass and bike registration. With these data, the public transportation mode share for commuters to ASU in each census block group was calculated and compared to the mode share for the general public, which was based on US Census data. The difference between the public transit mode shares of ASU pass holders vs. commuting by the general public was then computed and analyzed to identify areas as hot and cold spots. These heat maps are then compared to the hypothesized factors of proximity to campus and the convenience of public transportation in terms of the light rail line, park-and-ride lots, and number of transfers needed to connect to campus. The transfers were estimated using origin and destination survey data provided by Valley Metro. Results show that the convenience of public transportation was a driving factor in explaining where the transit mode share to ASU is higher than that of the general public, whereas the proximity to campus had little impact on the areas with high ASU-specific transit mode shares. There is an absence of hot spots directly around the campus which is explained by the combination of both high transit share for the non-ASU population and the large share of ASU students and employees using active transportation and free circulator buses this close to campus. These findings are significant specifically to ASU because the university can learn where the transit service is performing well and where it is underperforming. Using these findings, ASU PTS can adjust its pricing, policies, services and infrastructure and work with Valley Metro and the City of Tempe to improve the ridership for both students and employees. Future research can compare more factors to further interpret what leads to success for transit service to university campuses.
Successful public transit systems increase the value of locations they serve. Capturing this location value to help fund transit is often sensible, but challenging. This article defines location value capture, and synthesizes lessons learned from six European and North American transit agencies that have experience with location value capture funding. The opportunities for and barriers to implementing location value capture fall into three categories: agency institutional authority, agency organizational mission, and public support for transit. When any of these factors is incompatible with a location value capture strategy, implementation becomes difficult. In four of the cases studied, dramatic institutional change was critical for success. In five cases, acute crisis was a catalyst for institutional change, value capture implementation, or both. Using value capture strategies to fund transit requires practitioners to both understand agency organizational constraints, and to view transit agencies as institutions that can transform in response to changing situations.