Bus commuting, subway commuting, and walking to workplaces in US cities: Socioeconomic factors of transit commuters

Most previous studies that examine the controversies involved in transit subsidies concentrate on large metropolitan areas in the United States. The main contribution of this article to the extant literature is that it investigates bus ridership data in small- and medium-sized US cities, which has been primarily ignored in earlier literature. The article also analyzes data on bus commuters, subway commuters, and walkers to workplaces in the eight largest cities with extensive subway systems and 22 other large cities. The analysis employs the 2010 US Census (IPUMS data). Generally, the characteristics of subway commuters are quite different from those of bus commuters. The characteristics of walkers in all the US cities are very similar to those who commute by bus