Work at home impact on transit

[NorthShore]

Seattle has the largest percentage of work from home employees in the country. The trend has impacted economic recovery in many cities, but perhaps most significantly transit.

Most strikingly, they found the remote work trend came mostly at the expense of public transit. Ridership on buses and trains declined more than twice as fast as car travel in response to remote work.

The new census figures show this for Seattle. As remote work more than quadrupled here since prepandemic, the share of workers who commute alone in cars has dropped about 21%. But those taking public transit plummeted 36%.

The researchers concluded that transit agencies “need to adapt” to have more noncommuting trips that are less peak-focused, mirroring the all-day flexibility of the new work environment. If remote work starts to increase again, it may call into question the planned expansion of expensive, fixed-guideway transit systems such as light rail.

Perhaps there is some hope.

“For cities, this will mean increasingly moving from a place of work to a place of leisure and consumption,” he writes. The key to that, he says, is “good public infrastructure, and improved services like education and police. To attract residents, shoppers, and diners, cities must provide appealing services and control crime.”

I, certainly, found this to be the case coming out of the pandemic in Chicago. The highest ridership seemed, initially, to be on weekends when people were coming downtown (either from the suburbs and outlying areas or our of town tourists.). However, these were also the safety challenges both on transit and downtown, which have evolved some things in perception (and some reality) such as who will come downtown and what audiences for arts organizations look like.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattl...its-effects/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-android

 

[railiner]

Most strikingly, they found the remote work trend came mostly at the expense of public transit. Ridership on buses and trains declined more than twice as fast as car travel in response to remote work

This surprises me. I believe the demographics of those riding transit include more of those in occupations that can’t work from home…

 

[Tlcooper44]

In general, US cities, and transit systems, seem to be suffering more from this than cities in other developed countries. In North America, we seem to think that cities are exclusively for commuting to and from, and not places one can actually have a desire to live in, or simply spend time in.

The cities that are recovering better than others work hard to be great third places.

If transit agencies and cities only serve commuters, than transit agencies and cities will die.

 

[Cal]

In general, US cities, and transit systems, seem to be suffering more from this than cities in other developed countries. In North America, we seem to think that cities are exclusively for commuting to and from, and not places one can actually have a desire to live in, or simply spend time in.

The cities that are recovering better than others work hard to be great third places.

If transit agencies and cities only serve commuters, than transit agencies and cities will die.

Love to see some urbanist talk! It's inherently connected to all forms of transit.

 

[NorthShore]

This surprises me. I believe the demographics of those riding transit include more of those in occupations that can’t work from home…

I suppose "it depends.". During the height of the pandemic, most of those who still rode and relied upon transit were the kinds of essential workers who were needed in specific places; often not car owners. However, a lot of downtown daily workers and others who no longer need to come to "the office" (or whatever the workplace) have not necessarily returned to riding as frequently, if at all. And, while a rush hour in, say, Chicago can still have standing room only (full) L cars again, perhaps there are less trains and passengers, with fewer crush loads. Certainly, this is the case on Metra. In some urban cores, where white collar and office workers never were taking transit, such may be less the case than in places where "everyone uses it", at least in some capacity: typically when going to work or a crowded urban core for leisure where it is difficult and expensive to park.

 

[MARC Rider]

My observations are that in some of the bigger Northeast cities, people are starting to come back downtown. I'm even seeing some rush hour traffic jams in Baltimore. I've also seen some conversions of downtown office building to apartments. On the other hand, the practical transit coverage of downtown Baltimore and where you can go by transit is very limited, except for bus lines that run through rough neighborhoods. People are definitely coming back to downtown Boston and New York, and my last run on the Green Line T showed it was pretty full, and that was mid-day. Even in Washington, I'm seeing more people on the Metro and the trains being run on shorter headways. But I guess ridership is not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

 

[Cal]

Metrolink has changed it's schedule to go from commuter based to regional based, but the morning and evening trains are usually pretty full with commuters. They don't run a lot of trains though, so it's all in perspective.

 

[NorthShore]

There's also the Mon/Fri work at home versus Tue-Thur at the office phenomenon.

I think transit agencies will need to shift from assuming there is a standard weekday, a Saturday, and a Sunday schedule and adjust service levels to more specific needs on different days of the week. If, for instance, Saturday is busy then more service is needed. If people are going out for entertainment evenings, there may be a need for more service between 6 and midnight. Better understanding what drives ridership traffic and where people are interested going from and to can help better serve where service is most needed, revenue can be generated, and what might promote more transit use.

 

[Willbridge]

There's also the Mon/Fri work at home versus Tue-Thur at the office phenomenon.

I think transit agencies will need to shift from assuming there is a standard weekday, a Saturday, and a Sunday schedule and adjust service levels to more specific needs on different days of the week. If, for instance, Saturday is busy then more service is needed. If people are going out for entertainment evenings, there may be a need for more service between 6 and midnight. Better understanding what drives ridership traffic and where people are interested going from and to can help better serve where service is most needed, revenue can be generated, and what might promote more transit use.

Ten or eleven years ago, RTD in Denver began running bus Rte 120X with a lighter schedule on Fridays.* It carried a lot of college students who were averse to Friday classes. Before that, LRT lines were put on a separate Friday schedule to keep service out till bars closed. That matched Saturday night. Some late Sunday night service was cut to pay for it, creating a problem on Sunday or Monday holiday nights.

These kinds of variations can be worthwhile but have to be done carefully. It's easier to cut or add trips on a line with close headways like Rte 120X or on a line with well-constructed clock headways as on our rail lines. If times shift by more than a couple of minutes from M-Th to F, there will be unhappy Friday workers.

* Note that with the post-pandemic drop in ridership, it has half the peak service now that it had before. Also, its coverage area is overlapped by the new N-Line.