Transit Ridership Growth in Small Urbanized Areas: Lessons from Seven US Transit Systems

Abstract

This study examines seven small urbanized areas (UZAs) in the United States where public transit ridership increased between 2005 and 2017 in order to identify lessons for other similarly situated communities and to advance understanding of these largely overlooked transit environments. Based on hour-long phone interviews of transit leaders in these seven communities, the study reveals that these agencies have been proactively reaching out to their community members and protecting their local reputations, making smart, data-driven incremental service improvements tailored to meet the needs of their communities, and have relied extensively on partnerships with major activity centers (universities, employers, and the like) to grow their rider markets. So far, these strategies have been successful in these seven UZAs, although they continue to face the same kinds of challenges to transit use that are faced by the bigger city peers.