Who Commutes using Bus, Subway, Railroad, Cycling, and Walking in the US?

Abstract:

In this study, we examine the time-trends in non-car commute modes from 2004-2019; we exclude the data following 2019 due to the idiosyncratic impact of the pandemic. In this study, we simultaneously examine income, age, and other demographic characteristics in the choice to select different modes of transit. We find that while bus transit has decreased, other forms of transit have increased over this period. Moreover, while there are income effects, it is not as simple as public transit is used more by the poor. Instead, the choice to use transit is dependent on both the mode and the specific income bracket. Similarly, different immigrant groups seem to have differential impacts on commute choice.

Our results are in contradiction to some of the literature in this area and conventional wisdom. Our data suggest that, as expected, lower income groups and some underrepresented minorities are important users of public transit. However, they are not the only important groups. In fact, in the case of railroads, non-Hispanic whites are more likely to commute by train than those that identify as Hispanic, and the relationship between income and subway usage is strongly positive. This upending of conventional wisdom leads to a different understanding of the barriers to higher public transit usage and what investments in transit could lead to higher ridership.