Trip characteristics

Travelers making regular trips each day, particularly for work or school, are more likely to take transit. Repetitive trips can be planned in advance to coordinate with transit schedules; some transit services offer discounts for regular riding; transit service is usually better during the rush hours, when these trips tend to occur; and there is more competition for the use of family cars when work trips are made. Mass transportation is less likely to be used for shopping and recreational trips because of the difficulty of carrying packages, the requirement to pay separate fares for each person in the group, and long waiting times and walking distances. Thus, transit use is much lower at midday, on evenings, and on weekends than it is during peak weekday periods.

Traveler and household characteristics

Among the most influential factors determining travel-mode choice are the characteristics of the travelers themselves and their households. These factors cannot be directly affected by public transportation policy, while service characteristics and even land-use patterns are subject to some control.

The availability of automobiles has a powerful influence on the use of transit, because the quality of automobile service is commonly superior to that of transit. Auto availability is a household characteristic, reflecting the interaction between the number of cars in the household, the number of drivers, and the travel needs of those drivers. The use of mass transportation is quite low in households having a car for every driver, except where one or more travelers make regular trips to congested areas where good quality transit is available. It is much higher in households with fewer cars than drivers. These are often lower-income households, and so transit usage is often correlated with low income. To compete with the automobile, transit service must be very good, and, where it is, the relationship between income and transit use may be reversed—i.e., higher-income travelers may use transit more.

Gender is an important determinant of transit use, with women traveling by transit more than men. Men may get priority use of the household car for work trips because they may be the primary wage earner and because women have traditionally been more involved in child care and household management. These gender roles are changing rapidly. Men may be the dominant users of some high-quality downtown-oriented transit services if their spouses work in suburbs where transit services are limited.