Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2018 Multi-Scalar Assessment of Built- Environment and Bus Networks Influence on Rapid-Transit Patronage: The Case of Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Network Luis Enrique Ramos Santiago Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND PUBLIC POLICY MULTI-SCALAR ASSESSMENT OF BUILT-ENVIRONMENT AND BUS NETWORKS INFLUENCE ON RAPID-TRANSIT PATRONAGE - THE CASE OF LOS ANGELES METROPOLITAN TRANSIT NETWORK - By LUIS ENRIQUE RAMOS SANTIAGO A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Luis Enrique Ramos Santiago defended this dissertation on June 19, 2018. The members of the supervisory committee were: Jeffrey Brown Professor Directing Dissertation Mark Horner University Representative Michael Duncan Committee Member John Felkner Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii I dedicate this doctoral dissertation to a group of special people who have supported me in a variety of ways throughout my doctoral studies. To my mother, Carmen Luz Santiago de Ramos, for her unrelenting love and support of my personal, professional, and intellectual pursuits. To my wife, Yasha N. Rodríguez Meléndez, for her continuous encouragement, patience, and work ethic. You have been and exemplary model to our daughter and myself as we make progress towards better life conditions from fast changing and uncertain economic circumstances at our homeland. To my parents-in-law, Don Angel Rodríguez and Doña Carmen Meléndez, for their continuous and unwavering support to my family and myself during the years of doctoral studies as well as preceding ones when our well-being and that of many other young Puerto Rican families was (and still is) challenged by exceptional economic and environmental circumstances, and where grandparents emerged as stable foundations from which a new generation of Puerto Ricans begin to rebuild a centuries-old noble, resilient, and unique nation. To my daughter, Mariela Alexandra Ramos Rodríguez. Your happiness, courage, hard work, musicality, intelligence, and exceptional adaptation skills to new landscapes, people, language, and cultures has been an inspiration to me. You have brought joy to this family since the day you were born. - In memory of my father, Dr. Luis Ramos González (R.I.P.) - iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to recognize and celebrate the help of several individuals who have been instrumental for achieving completion and approval of this doctoral dissertation. First of all, my dissertation director Dr. Jeffrey Brown. His patient and wise counseling, shared knowledge, and overall guidance since my first year in the doctoral program and during my doctoral dissertation investigation was exceptional and I feel very fortunate to have had him as my supervisor during all these years at FSU-DURP. I really appreciate the opportunity to collaborate and co-publish with him and with other researchers as these experiences served as foundation for this dissertation work and for future academic endeavors. Equally important was the support of an excellent dissertation committee composed of experts in fields pertinent to my investigation and their support throughout the research process. They are Dr. Michael Duncan, Dr. John Felkner, and Dr. Mark Horner. Their direct counseling, research, and nuanced knowledge of transportation/land-use interactions, spatial analysis, transit planning, and statistical/GIS methods was instrumental in completion and results of my investigative efforts. I also want to acknowledge and recognize the financial support of Florida State University- Graduate School Dissertation Grants program without which I would not had been able to collect and process the necessary data for this investigation. Likewise I am very appreciative of FSU’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) through which I served two years as research mentor to Alannah Harrington (FSU 2nd year-School of Engineering) and Dominique Turnbull (FSU 3rd year-International Studies and Planning). These two undergraduate students assisted in the collection and organization of data and calculation of some general descriptive statistics, tables, and charts in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. I am also very grateful and acknowledge the contributions of then graduate student Karissa Moffett (FSU M.Sc. ‘17-Geography; currently transportation planner at Jacksonville, Florida) who assisted in the early stages of bus schedules data collection, standardization, and file organization; Orlando N. Santaella Cruz (M.Sc. Geospatial Science and Technology, Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico) who assisted in bus and rail historic GTFS files and agency data collection, GIS protocols, custom GIS model-builder development, and development of a new integrated bus network geodatabase for a sub-set of multi-agency bus routes in Los Angeles regional transit system; and Luis R. Ortiz Sanchez (M.A. Geography, State University of New York at Binghamton; currently Planner II/Data Analyst at Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority, Columbia, South Carolina) who assisted in data collection and organization from the National Transit Database (FTA-NTD), in addition to gathering bus route schedule and vehicle data from agencies that did not have or provide GTFS files. The support of ‘Walk Score® Professional’ data services (www.walkscore.com) who contributed at no cost to this investigation more than 5400 Walk Score rankings and associated measurement sub-components for both bus-stop and rapid-transit station portal locations was indispensable for completion and evaluation of key issues in this investigation and I am very grateful and indebted to them (data provided by Redfin Real Estate; https://www.redfin.com). iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii Abstract ............................................................................................................................................x 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................1 2. CASE STUDY SELECTION AND DESCRIPTION ...............................................................12 3. AN ASSESSMENT OF THE INFLUENCE OF BUS NETWORKS ON RAPID-TRANSIT STATION-LEVEL BOARDINGS ................................................................................................31 4. AN ASSESSMENT OF THE INFLUENCE OF BUILT-ENVIRONMENT ATTRIBUTES AROUND BUS-STOPS ON RAPID-TRANSIT STATION BOARDINGS ……………………71 5. CONCLUSIONS .....................................................................................................................126 APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................129 A. DETAILED SURVEY DESCRIPTION AND DATABASE PREPARATION FOR ACCESS MODE POPULATION PROPORTION ESTIMATION ............................................................129 B. FIGURE 1.1 AND FIGURE 1.2 SOURCES ..........................................................................131 C. DISTRIBUTION OF EUCLIDEAN WALKING DISTANCES (WEIGHTED FREQUENCIES VS. MILES) FOR VARIOUS TRIP SEGMENTS ..........................................133 D. MODEL 1A, 1B, AND 1C PREDICTED VS. OBSERVED OUTCOME PLOTS ...............134 References ....................................................................................................................................135 Biographical Sketch .....................................................................................................................149 v LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Estimated System-wide Distribution of Access Mode - LA Metro Rapid-Transit Services .....................................................................................................................19 Table 2.2 LA Metro Average Weekday Access Mode Count and Bus Access Share Estimates By Rapid-Transit Line (2011-2012)..........................................................................20 Table 2.3 LA Metro Station Annual Average Weekday Boardings1, Bus Access Mode Share and Count Estimates, and Confidence Intervals (2011). ...........................................23 Table 3.1 International Review of Rapid-Transit Station-Level Ridership Determinants (partial table): Research Methods and Demographic / Socioeconomic Factors 1996-2013 .............49 Table 3.2 International Review of Rapid-Transit Station-Level Ridership Determinants (partial table): Research Methods and Demographic / Socioeconomic Factors 2014-2017 .............50 Table 3.3 International Review of Rapid-Transit Station-Level Ridership Determinants (partial table): Land-Use / Urban-Design Factors 1996-2013 ..........................................................51 Table 3.4 International Review of Rapid-Transit Station-Level Ridership Determinants (partial table): Land-Use / Urban-Design Factors 2014-2017