Ridership Models at the Stop Level

University Transportation Centers Program2004PDFTech ReportChu, XuehaoUniversity of South Florida. National Center for Transit Research (U.S.)University of South Florida. Center for Urban Transportation ResearchUnited States. Department of Transportation. Office of Research and Special ProgramsFlorida. Department of TransportationUnited States. Department of Transportation. University Transportation Centers (UTC) ProgramAusman, JohnUniversity of South Florida. Center for Urban Transportation ResearchUnited StatesLevel of serviceAccessibilityDemographicsBoardingPublic transitBusesTrolley carsWeekday boardingTransit Level of Service (TLOS)Street environment for pedestriansTransit interactionStopsNCTR-473-04BC137-31DTRS98-G-0032This report documents the development of a ridership model at the stop level for Transit Level of Service (TLOS), a software package of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for measuring transit availability and mobility. This report is in two separate parts. This first part discusses issues in formulating a ridership model on several aspects, including literature review, the study area, analytical framework, data needs, and model-formulation issues. For each issue, the discussion focuses on the alternative approaches to dealing with the issue, any resolution, and CUTR\u2019s recommendation, if different from the resolution. The second part discusses the data made available by Kittelson and Associates, Inc. under a separate contract with the FDOT, the data used for model estimation, and the selection of a final model. The final model relates average weekday boarding at a TLOS stop with six categories of factors: 1) socio-demographics in a catchment area; 2) TLOS value; 3) the street environment for pedestrians; 4) accessibility to population and employment; 5) interaction with other modes; and 6) competition with other TLOS stops. Despite some data limitations, the model fits the data well and behaves as expected.143