Improving public transport ridership through a better understanding of transport accessibility, transit service quality and users' perceptions

改善过境客流量是交通当局和政策制定者的根本目标。事实上，一个有吸引力的交通系统对于任何城市的可持续性、公平性和宜居性都是必不可少的。日益增长的过境市场份额增加了过境机构的收入，从而提高了向公众提供的服务质量。这一直被视为用户和机构的双赢局面。然而，最近的统计数据显示，在加拿大和美国的许多城市，乘客量趋于平稳和下降的趋势。*传统上，对影响公共交通乘客量的因素进行建模主要集中于分析除社会经济和土地利用因素外的公共交通服务水平因素。然而，不断涌现的新技术和交通替代方案对旅行者的偏好、态度和看法产生了影响。因此，现在比以往任何时候都更重要的是全面和清楚地了解乘车的决定因素。为了实现这一目标，拟议的研究计划包括四个相互关联的主要项目，这些项目为建立公交乘客和几个影响因素之间的功能关系提供了新的方法。第一个项目评估了加拿大不同城市的用户满意度、对新交通技术的偏好、社会污名、服务可靠性和公共交通使用之间的关系。第二个项目涉及衡量不同的公交服务改善战略对萨斯卡通不同用户群体的公交系统性能和满意度的影响。第三个项目评估交通服务中断对用户出行行为和交通路线选择的长期和短期影响。第四个项目的重点是通过汽车、过境和主动交通方式模拟当地和区域的可达性，以获得各种机会，同时了解它们与过境乘客的联系。*拟议的研究计划对交通运输领域的各个方面都做出了长期贡献。报告阐明了收集和融合各种形式数据的创新办法，同时制定了更充分的方法，从不同角度、不同规模量化运输投资的影响。它还提供了对几个问题的经验性理解，这些问题对于帮助预测需求和扩大交通市场份额具有重要意义，有利于加拿大及其他地区的交通机构、工程师和规划者。更重要的是，它将帮助培训新一代运输专业人员和决策者，他们将把人们的看法和行为纳入过境规划进程，从而制定更有效的政策。短期影响包括为地方当局提供现成的工具和研究，帮助他们更好地指导投资。

Improving transit ridership is a fundamental goal for transport authorities and policymakers. In fact, an attractive transit system is essential for sustainability, equity, and the livability of any city. A growing transit market share increases transit agencies' revenues and, thereby, the quality of service provided to the public. This has been seen as a win-win situation for both users and agencies. Nevertheless, recent statistics have shown levelling-off and declining trends in ridership in many Canadian and US cities.*** Traditionally, modelling the factors affecting transit ridership has been mainly focused on analyzing transit level of service factors in addition to socioeconomic and land use factors. Emerging new technologies and transport alternatives, however, show an impact on travellers' preferences, attitudes and perceptions. Therefore, it is now more important than ever to provide a comprehensive and clear understanding of the determinants of ridership. To meet this goal, the proposed research program includes four major interconnected projects that provide novel approaches to establishing functional relationships between transit ridership and several influential factors. The first project estimates the relationship between users' level of satisfaction, preferences towards the new transport technologies, social stigmas, service reliability, and the use of public transit across different cities in Canada. The second project involves measuring the impact of different transit service improvement strategies on transit system performance and the satisfaction of different groups of users in Saskatoon. The third project assesses the effects of transit service disruptions on users' travel behaviours and transit route choices in the long and short term. The fourth project focuses on modelling local and regional accessibility with car, transit, and active transport modes to various opportunities while understanding their association with transit ridership. *** The proposed research program offers a long-term contribution to the transportation field in all its aspects. It articulates innovative approaches for collecting and fusing various forms of data while generating more adequate methodologies to quantify the impact of transport investments from different perspectives at different scales. It also provides an empirical understanding of several issues that are of great significance in helping predict demand and growing the transit market share, benefiting transit agencies, engineers, and planners in Canada, and beyond. More importantly, it will assist in training a new generation of transportation professionals and decision-makers, who will incorporate and integrate people's perceptions and behaviours into the transit planning process and, thereby, develop policies that are more effective. The short-term impacts involve providing off-the-shelf tools and studies for the local authorities, helping them better direct their investments.