Pandemic Transit: A National Look at the Shock, Adaptation, and Prospects for Recovery

Speroni, Samuel; Taylor, Brian D.; Hwang, Yu Hong

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-00148-2_17

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The first wave of the survey covered a wide array of topics, including service planning, operations, labor, public health, equity, performance measurements and crowding data, and communications (See Speroni et al (2023) for more on the nonfinance findings from this first wave). In the second wave, the questionnaire asked about ways the pandemic affected agency finances, fare revenues and policies, and longer-term planning, as well as changes to transit service and operations made because of the pandemic's budgetary effects or with implications for agency budgets.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the onset of the pandemic, transit ridership collapsed across the U.S. (and, indeed, around much of the globe) because of stay-at-home orders and fear of virus transmission while riding transit. Transit agencies quickly adopted various health-related measures, such as regular, intensive vehicle cleaning; improved ventilation and air filtration; masking requirements; blocking off some seats to allow for distancing; eliminating fares, fare enforcement, and/or cash transactions for ticket sales; enforcing social distancing through vehicle capacity restrictions and rear-door only boarding and alighting (to minimize contact with vehicle operators); and physical barriers between operators and passengers ( Speroni et al, 2023 ). Many of these measures were later relaxed with increased understanding of the virus and how it spreads, but the capital and operating costs of maintaining some pandemic-related improvements and services have persisted on many systems.…”

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Transit’s Financial Prognosis: Findings from a Survey of U.S. Transit Systems during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Siddiq

Wasserman²,

Taylor

et al. 2023

Public Works Management & Policy

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The COVID-19 pandemic occasioned significant financial distress and uncertainty for many U.S. transit operators. In the face of this crisis, the federal government provided substantial supplemental operating support. To understand how this fiscal turmoil and relief have affected U.S. transit systems, we conducted two nationwide surveys of transit agency staff in 2020 and 2021-2022. While pandemic-induced financial shortfalls affected service in 2020, with capital projects delayed too, these effects became much more muted by 2021/2022. Most systems reported moderate to substantial increases in federal funding during the pandemic, more so than other funding categories. However, nearly half foresee financial shortfalls once federal relief funding expires. Agencies with higher pre-pandemic ridership and farebox recovery are particularly affected by fare revenue losses and more likely to anticipate shortfalls. In the near term, difficulty hiring and retaining front-line workers was a pressing concern, while very few had plans to maintain pandemic fare suspensions.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transit’s Financial Prognosis: Findings from a Survey of U.S. Transit Systems during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Siddiq

Wasserman²,

Taylor

et al. 2023

Public Works Management & Policy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These various levels of public health governance in the U.S. frequently offered conflicting guidance to the traveling public and to public transit systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, a survey of public transit operators, conducted as part of this larger research effort, found that U.S. public transit agencies collectively relied on all levels of government for public health guidance: counties (59%), states (49%), the federal government (38%), and local governments (28%) (Speroni et al 2023 ).…”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three’s a crowd? Examining evolving public transit crowding standards amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

Dai

Taylor²

2022

Public Transp

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The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically affected public transit systems around the globe. Because transit systems typically move many people closely together on buses and trains, public health guidance demanded that riders should keep a distance of about two meters to others changed the definition of “crowding” on transit in 2020. Accordingly, this research examines how U.S. public transit agencies responded to public health guidance that directly conflicted with their business model. To do this, we examined published crowding standards before the COVID-19 pandemic for a representative sample of 200 transit systems, including whether they started or changed their published standards during the pandemic, as well as the reasons whether agencies publicize such standards at all. We present both descriptive statistics and regression model results to shed light on the factors associated with agency crowding standards. We find that 56% of the agencies surveyed published crowding standards before the pandemic, while only 46% published COVID-19-specific crowding standards. Regression analyses suggest that larger agencies were more likely to publish crowding standards before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, likely because they are more apt to experience crowding. Pandemic-specific crowding standards, by contrast, were associated with a more complex set of factors. We conclude that the relative lack of pandemic standards reflects the uncertainty and fluidity of the public health crisis, inconsistent and at times conflicting with the guidance from public health officials, and, in the U.S., a lack national or transit industry consensus on appropriate crowding standards during the first year of the pandemic.

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The need for an interdisciplinary approach to remote work and urban policy

Caros,

Zhao

2024

Nat Cities

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Pandemic Transit: A National Look at the Shock, Adaptation, and Prospects for Recovery

Cited by 4 publications

References 3 publications

Transit’s Financial Prognosis: Findings from a Survey of U.S. Transit Systems during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Transit’s Financial Prognosis: Findings from a Survey of U.S. Transit Systems during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Three’s a crowd? Examining evolving public transit crowding standards amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

The need for an interdisciplinary approach to remote work and urban policy

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