Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Transit Demographics

Public transportation services are provided in every state in the United States in some form or fashion. Most urbanized areas operate fixed-route public transit services and many rural areas have fixed or demand-response transit services. In addition, many public transportation services are provided for the transportation of the elderly and people with disabilities.

The demographic characteristics of transit riders thus reflect the demographic characteristics of the population of the geographic area served by the provider. Public transit providers use publicly available data to understand the characteristics of the population in their service areas and may periodically survey their passengers to understand the demographics of transit riders in order to enhance or adjust existing services to meet their customers' needs. Publicly available data on demographic characteristics of transit users include the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), the Federal Highway Administration's National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), and the American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) onboard surveys.

The characteristics of transit riders vary depending on the form of transit (for example, bus, subway, or train), the trip purposes (for example, work, leisure, or school), and trip frequency. In order to understand transit demographics, one must first define what universe will be measured. Nationally, according to onboard surveys conducted by the APTA, the majority of riders on public transit (59 percent) rode transit to get to and from work in 2007. Another 11 percent rode public transit in order to get to and from school, 9 percent of riders used public transit to get to dining or shopping, 7 percent for recreational/social reasons, 3 percent to reach medical services, and 12 percent for other reasons.

Because the majority of public transit users ride transit to get to and from work, and because census data is used to help plan for transit services and allocate resources, the ACS reports the modes of transportation used by workers on the journey-to-work (or work commute). The NHTS provides statistics on people in households who used public transportation during a specified travel day and the data can be sorted by trip purpose, including the work commute.

Both the ACS and the NHTS are surveys of a randomly selected sample of the population in households. In contrast, the APTA survey collected demographic information of riders who were riding on public transit vehicles throughout the country.

Characteristics of Public Transit Riders

Nationally, the population using public transportation is racially and ethnically diverse, but over-represented by racial and ethnic minorities, primarily because of differences in socioeconomic resources.

Although the majority of the U.S. population in the early 21st century is non-Hispanic white, representing 68.1 percent of the civilian workforce, only 39.9 percent of workers commuting to work between 2006 and 2010 were non-Hispanic white, according to the ACS. Non-Hispanic blacks were more likely than any other group to ride public transportation and accounted for 23.9 percent of work commuters using public transportation.

Two of the fastest-growing groups in the United States, Hispanics and Asian and Pacific Islanders accounted for 24.1 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, of public transit riders on the journey to work. The APTA survey of riders found similar statistics when surveying passengers riding on public transit systems in 2007. Continued growth in the minority population, and in particular in the Hispanic and Asian and Pacific Islander population, will mean that public transit riders will become increasingly Hispanic and Asian and less non-Hispanic white.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution