Transit Information Center
Efficiency and Effectiveness of Small Urban Transit Systems in Low Population Density Service Areas
The agencies considered in this analysis are small agencies that typically operate fixed route and paratransit services. Selection was based on the number of peak vehicles (25 to 30 vehicles) and service area population density (less than 200 people per square mile). A second group of similar small agencies operating the same range of peak vehicles with a high service area population density (over 2,000 people per square miles) was selected to give an idea of the magnitude of the data.
The average cost efficiency of the low density group is slightly better than the high density group. This is probably due to higher labor costs in the high density group which accounts for over 50% of all expenses.
The rate of increase for the low density group over the 2004 to 2007 period was $9.0 per hour; however, the 2006 to 2007 increase alone was $3.3 per hour or one-third of the overall increase during the entire period.
This indicates an acceleration in the rate of increase of operating costs in the low density group. Since ridership does not increase by the same rate, agencies are forced to raise fares and/or increase assistance levels which is hard to accomplish in an era of tight state and local budgets. Fringe benefits and fuel costs were the main contributors to the accelerated pace of increase in operating costs.
The average cost per trip in the low density group is four times greater than in the high density group. The reason lies in the fact that in the low density group, more service hours are needed to meet the demand for transit since the service area population is much more spread out than in the high density group. The service areas of the low density group are greater than the high density group.
The overall increase for the entire period was $0.30 per trip. Therefore, just in the last year, the cost increase equaled two thirds of the total increase.
Data sources: The Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) National Transit Database (www.ntdprogram.gov)
For both groups, ridership increased, however, while the low density group increased by 0.8 trips per hour, the high density group increased 3.6 trips per hour during the period. The average ridership increase in the low density group was 14.9%, while the average increase in the high density group was only 1.3%.