How Might Adjustments to Public Transit Operations Affect COVID-19 Transmission?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, public transportation systems worldwide faced many challenges, including significant loss of ridership. Public agencies implemented various COVID-19-related policies to reduce transmission, such as reducing service frequency and network coverage of public transportation. Recent studies have examined the effectiveness of these policies but reach different conclusions due to varying assumptions about how passengers may react to service changes. Some studies proposed optimizing public transit operation timetables, service frequency, and network coverage to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission while also maintaining and/or increasing the level of ridership. However, there is currently no method available to perform such optimization. In response to this informational gap, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley developed a framework to assist public transportation agencies to determine a near-optimal system timetable design, and develop network reopening plans for public transit. The team evaluated different reopening policies using this framework and developed an optimized timetable for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system.