Access and Transit System Performance

Alireza Ermagun and David Levinson

No 129, Working Papers from University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group

Abstract: This study disentangles the impact of financial and physical dimensions of transit service operators on net transit accessibility for 46 of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. To investigate this interaction along with the production efficiency of transit agencies, two types of analysis are used: a set of linear and quadratic regressions and a data envelopment analysis. We find that vehicle revenue kilometers and operational expenses play a pivotal role in enhancing the accessibility to jobs by transit. The bivariate linear regression models indicate a 1% increase in operational expenses and vehicle revenue kilometers increase the number of jobs that can be reached within 30 minutes by 0.96 and 0.95%, respectively. The results of the quadratic functional form, also, show transit services may have both increasing and decreasing accessibility returns to scale depending on system size, and the results are sensitive to the model used. Overall, the highest system efficiency (access produced per input) is found in the New York, Washington, and Milwaukee metropolitan areas, while Riverside, Detroit, and Austin perform with the lowest efficiency.

Keywords: Public transit; Accessibility; Envelope of output; Returns to scale; Metropolitan area (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 D24 L92 O18 R14 R41 R42 R48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-tre and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in Applications of Access (2021), editor David Levinson and Alireza Ermagun. Chapter 14, pp. 259-274

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http://hdl.handle.net/11299/179832 First version, 2015 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nex:wpaper:accessibilitytransitperformance

DOI: 10.25910/Z07C-KX08

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