David Verbicha,b a YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR Averag Madhav G. Badami headways a 8-9 a.m. and Ahmed M. El-Geneidy 9-10 p.m. aSchool of Urban Planning, McGill University Transportation Research at McGill Toward a rapid assessment of public transit from multiple perspectives in North American cities bStantec Consulting Services, Inc.
INTRODUCTION CITIES AND AGENCIES AFFORDABILITY INDEX AFFORDABILITY TRADE-OFFS CONCLUSIONS
Public transit agencies must provide service that enables Affordability a. b. Transit agencies range widely in the service they offer Heavy rail Monthly Hourly Less affordable, More affordable, Less affordable, More affordable, unlimited minimum wage index better quality better quality more usage more usage riders to reach destinations easily, safely, quickly, and fare Light rail/streetcar Hours to earn affordably, while being financially sustainable monthly fare Bus Affordability does not predict service quality—expensive agencies do not necessarily offer greater service quality and vice-versa Do agencies that are more expensive provide better Seattle Montreal C T A M H H A Population 3.7M Population 3.1M STM quality of service to their riders? Or, do some agencies King County Metro Toronto S F SFMTA .00 10. .33 1.00 More Ridership 417M affordable, Ridership 101M Population 5.5M Less affordable, More affordable, Less affordable, less M STM . 0 10.3 . 0. 3 provide good service that is affordable? TTC lesser quality lesser quality less usage usage Our methodology provides a simple and replicable framework for Ridership 535M L A LACMTA .00 .00 .33 0. Average Average Passenger km evaluating service quality and affordability Boston S K accessibility C M to 1.00 headway