Public Transportation

Public Transit Use in the United States in the Era of COVID-19: Transit Riders’ Travel Behavior in the COVID-19 Impact and Recovery Period

Parker, M
Li
Bouzaghrane, M
Obeid, H
Hayes, D
Frick, K
Rodriguez, D
Sengupta, R
Walker, J
Chatman, D
2021
COVID-19 has upended travel across the world, disrupting commute patterns, mode choices, and public transit systems. In the United States, changes to transit service and reductions in passenger volume due to COVID-19 are lasting longer than originally anticipated. In this paper we examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on individual travel behavior across the United States. We analyze mobility data from...

Transit Oriented Development: An Appraisal of Trends and Opportunities for Latin America

Rodriguez, Daniel
2021

In recent years, Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is increasingly accepted due to its great potential for leading cities towards more sustainable futures. This f ruitful coordination between a city’s investments in mass transit and its land development strategy has enabled better accessibility, increased walkability and mixed land use around transit areas. This technical note reviews TOD at several scales in order to comprehend the trends, opportunities and challenges for its development and implementation, with a focus on yielding lessons for Latin America. First, the document discusses...

Desarrollo Orientado al Transporte: Una Evaluación de Tendencias y Oportunidades para América Latina

Rodríguez, D
Duran-Ortiz, M
Hobbs, J
Rojas, F
Hudson, A
2021

En los últimos años, el Desarrollo Orientado al Transporte (DOT) ha incrementado su aceptación debido a su gran potencial para guiar ciudades hacia futuros más sostenibles. Esta fructífera coordinación entre las inversiones de una ciudad en transporte público y su estrategia de desarrollo del suelo ha permitido una mejor accesibilidad, una mayor capacidad de caminabilidad y un uso mixto del suelo alrededor de las áreas de transporte. Esta nota técnica revisa el DOT en varias escalas para comprender las tendencias, oportunidades y desafíos para su desarrollo e implementación, con un enfoque...

Accessibility, Mobility, and Transportation Innovations in Latin America and the Caribbean: Successes and Areas for Improvement

Rodriguez, Daniel
2022

High traffic congestion and travel times in the cities of Latin America and the Caribbean have significant impacts on air quality, population health, and well-being. To address these challenges, policy and infrastructure innovations have been proposed and implemented over recent decades. This chapter reviews the current state of mobility and accessibility in the region, with special attention to innovative practices and their impacts on accessibility, especially for low-income populations. Specifically, bus rapid transit and aerial tram infrastructure as well as policy innovations such as...

Urban Landscape and Street-design Factors Associated with Road-Traffic Mortality in Latin America between 2010 and 2016 (SALURBAL): An Ecological Study

Quistberg, D
Hessel, P
Rodriguez, DA
Sarmiento, OL
Bilal, U
Caiaffa, WT
Miranda, J
de Pina, M
Hernandez-Vazquez, A
Roux, AV Diez
2022
Road-traffic injuries are a key cause of death and disability in low-income and middle-income countries, but the effect of city characteristics on road-traffic mortality is unknown in these countries. The aim of this study was to determine associations between city-level built environment factors and road-traffic mortality in large Latin American cities. We selected cities from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Peru; cities included in the analysis had a population of at least 100 000 people. We extracted data for road-traffic deaths...

Associations of Urban Environment Features with Hypertension and Blood Pressure Across 230 Latin American Cities

Avila-Palencia, I
Rodriguez, D
Miranda, J
Moore, K
Gouveia, N
Moran, M
Caiaffa, W
Roux, AV Diez
2022
Features of the urban physical environment may be linked to the development of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for global burden of disease. We examined associations of urban physical environment features with hypertension and blood pressure measures in adults across 230 Latin American cities. In this cross-sectional study we used health, social, and built environment data from the SALud URBana en América Latina (SALURBAL) project. The individual-level outcomes were hypertension and levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The exposures were city and subcity built...

Bus Rapid Transit Impacts on Land Uses and Development Over Time in Bogotá and Quito

Rodriguez, Daniel
Vergel-Tovar, C.
2022

Despite the worldwide popularity of bus rapid transit (BRT), empirical evidence of its effects on land uses and development remains limited. This paper examines BRT’s impacts on land use and development in Bogotá and Quito, by using a parcel-level differencein-differences research design. We estimate a propensity score-weighted regression model of parcel development characteristics in treatment and control areas. In Bogotá, although parcels in close proximity to the BRT are subject to fewer changes in terms of development intensity (changes in built-up area) in relation to parcels in...

Effects of an Urban Cable Car Intervention on Physical Activity: The TrUST Natural Experiment in Bogotá, Colombia

Baldovino-Chiquillo, L
Sarmiento, OL
O’Donovan, G
Wilches-Mogollon, M
Aguilar, A
Florez-Pregonero, A
Martinez, M
Arellana, J
Guzman, L
Yamada, G
Rodriguez, D
Roux, AV Diez
2023

Cable cars are part of the transport system in several cities in Latin America, but no evaluations of their effects on physical activity are available. TransMiCable is the first cable car in Bogotá, Colombia, and the wider intervention includes renovated parks and playgrounds. We assessed the effects of TransMiCable and the wider intervention on physical activity. The Urban Transformations and Health natural experiment was a prospective quasi-experimental study conducted from Feb 1, 2018, to Dec 18, 2018 (baseline, pre-intervention) and from July 2, 2019, to March 15, 2020 (...

Marked Crosswalks, Station Area Built Environments, and Transit Ridership: Associations Between Changes in 877 US TOD Stations, 2010–2018

Li, M
Rodriguez, D
2024
Transit ridership across the US has experienced a decline over the past decade. Researchers, policy-makers and advocates have suggested that transportation and land use policies be modified to encourage transit-friendly environments. Despite the importance of studying the relationship between built environment and transit use, previous research on this topic exhibits several limitations in terms of scope, resolution and robustness of research design, due to availability of built environment and ridership data. Using a historical marked crosswalk dataset generated from Google Street View along...

Rail Transit Ridership Changes and COVID-19: Lessons from Station-Area Characteristics

Li, M
Rodriguez, DA
Pike, S
McNally, M
2024

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on public transit ridership in the United States, especially for rail transit. Land use, development density, and the pedestrian environment are strongly associated with station-level transit ridership. This study examines how these characteristics affect transit ridership pre- and post-COVID and how they differ across station types based on longitudinal data for 242 rail stations belonging to Bay Area Rapid Transit, San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, Sacramento Regional Transit, and LA Metro between 2019 and 2021. We found...