Abstract
Transportation systems are central to all cities, and city planners and policy makers take special interest in assuring these systems are efficient, functional, sustainable, and, increasingly, that they have a positive impact on human health. In addition, vehicular emissions are increasingly costly to cities due to congestion and its impact on public health. This study aims to show the associations between the media and environmental variables and associated transit ridership. By tracking media influence, we illustrated how media coverage and attention to an issue over time may impact public opinion and ridership outcomes, especially at the local level where the issues are most salient. The relationship between air quality and transit ridership shown can be generally explained through a combination of infrastructure and human behavior. The media key terms examined in this analysis show that ridership is associated with favorable weather conditions and air quality, suggesting that ridership volume may be influenced by an overall sense of comfort and safety. Based on this analysis, we illustrated the role of media attention in both increased and decreased transit ridership and how such effects are compounded by air quality conditions (e.g., green, yellow, orange, and red air quality days).
Highlights
We explore the association between meteorological conditions and media attention
To explore the relationship between meteorological events, media influence, and public transit ridership, we traced the relationship between media across a range of meteorological and air quality related terms on Utah Transit Authority (UTA) ridership and the compounding influence of local AQ levels
We illustrated the role of media attention in both increased and decreased UTA ridership and how such effects are compounded by air quality conditions
Summary
Transportation systems are central to all cities because of the various functions they provide. Public transit in particular encourages economic activity by enabling the mobility of consumers and lower income workers. Public ridership can reduce environmental externalities such as congestion and pollution by offsetting personal vehicle usage. Vehicular emissions are increasingly costly to cities due to congestion and a range of health-related impacts. Public transportation is critical for the long-term viability of any large urban area, and policy makers take special interest in assuring these systems are efficient, functional, sustainable, and, increasingly, that they have a positive impact on human health. A range of work has emerged on policy determinants and incentives to encourage public ridership
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