About

Transit Insights displays changes in public transit ridership, service characteristics, and demographics for the 55 most populous U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and their transit agencies. TransitCenter partnered with Axis Maps to build the tool.

Transit data are from 2006 to 2018, collected from the National Transit Database (NTD). The highest-ridership transit agencies per MSA are displayed individually, and the rest are aggregated into “Other.” Agency data are assigned by headquarter location for MSA-level tabulations. Bus ridership includes “unlinked passenger trips” (UPTs) on local, express, commuter, and trolley buses. Rail ridership includes UPTs on light, heavy, commuter, hybrid, and streetcar rail, as well as on monorail and cable car. Paratransit ridership includes UPTs on transit agency-operated on-demand (or access-a-ride) services. Transit ridership and other indicators are reported for all modes, rail modes, and bus modes. All transit indicators are presented as percent change.

Average annual gas prices, available at the state-level from 2006 to 2018, are reported by the Energy Information Administration.

Demographic data are from the U.S. Census Bureau's 5-year American Community Survey estimates from 2010 to 2018. Jobs data are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics estimates from 2010 to 2017; jobs data do not include federal government jobs, due to incomplete reporting. Single-year values and change are presented for all demographic indicators. Demographic changes are presented as percentage point change, except for total population, median household income, and density (presented as percent change).  

Transit service shapefiles and frequency designations are from 2018. Interline exported the data from the TransitLand API. Transit service shapefiles for Memphis, Tennessee and Richmond, Virginia are unavailable. Note: low-frequency service is only visible by zooming in from the regional map view.

View the data dictionary for term definitions. “High confidence” check-marks show which indicators are consistently measured, are stable over time, and have low margins of error. All dollar figures are in 2018 inflation-adjusted dollars.

Download the ridership data by agency or export static images with the icons in the top right. Visit the project’s GitHub repository to learn more about the data collection, analysis, and production. Visit this repository to access scripts and documentation on exporting transit stop and route shapefiles.

How to use Transit Insights

Service provision, agency operations, demographics, and other factors influence local transit ridership. Transit Insights allows you to explore and share transit ridership trends nationally and by US transit agency or region. 

In the national map view, explore how transit ridership and related factors have changed at transit agencies or in MSAs over the past decade. Use the “Compare” function to view data for multiple agencies or MSAs at once. Sparklines on the left panel illustrate the 2006-2018 trend for each indicator in detail. The Parallel Coordinate Plot compares how each transit indicator has changed over the selected period of time.

Explore demographic trends and transit service by neighborhood in the regional view. Use the “Filter tracts” function to view demographic trends in neighborhoods within walking distance of high-frequency transit. 

Intro to Transit Insights Photo credits

• Slide 1: Kyle Oritz
• Slide 2: Elvert Barnes
• Slide 3: NACTO
• Slide 4: The Daily Bruin
• Slide 5: Pablo Maneiro
• Slide 7: Scott Shaw

Contact us

Learn more, download data, and export images of the tool with the functions in the top right. What do you think of Transit Insights? We accept questions, comments, and suggestions for improving the tool at ridership@transitcenter.org.