The Relationship between Transit Ridership and Urban Decentralisation: Insights from Atlanta

Abstract

Conventional wisdom suggests that the increasing decentralisation of population and employment in US metropolitan areas is to blame for declining public transit mode shares and deteriorating system productivity. Proponents of this view assert that transit performs best when it connects suburbs to central business districts in more centralised urban environments. Our time-series analysis of transit patronage in Atlanta suggests that the previously reported secular decline in transit patronage is attributable to employment decentralisation outside the MARTA service area but that this can be reduced if the transit system makes decentralising employment reachable.