Demand-Responsive Transit Shuttles: Who Will Use Them?

Large urban areas often have rail systems that rely on feeder buses to expand their service area. This paper explores the possibility of expanding access to existing rail transit systems through demand-responsive shuttles. The study analyzes the effect of several factors on an individual's willingness to use a door-to-station shuttle service. Using survey data collected in a case study of one urban and one suburban neighborhood (N=800) served by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit, this paper uses descriptive statistics and ordered logit regression to investigate the influence of several factors on peoples's willingness to use the shuttles. The results indicate that 21% of the respondents were strongly inclined to at least trying the service and paying for it. Residents of the urban neighborhood and those who lived more than half a mile from the nearest transit station were more willing to use the shuttle. Interestingly, 20% of single-occupant automobile users in both the urban and suburban communities were highly willing to use the shuttle, if only on a trial basis. Furthermore, those who park-and-ride in the suburban neighborhood and those who carpool or ride transit in the urban neighborhood were most likely to try the proposed shuttle service.