ABSTRACT
The future of public transit is one of the most exciting topics surrounding AVs because of what is at stake: on the one hand there is the potential to re-imagine what public transit could be using this technology; on the other, the potential for the loss of public transit completely. Public transit is essential in order to provide mobility for all of the population, servicing those who may not otherwise have the ability or financial means to get around; it also has the benefits of reducing congestion and greenhouse gas emissions as well as promoting economic development. But public transit is too often associated with slow and inconvenient modes of transport1 that do not take the rider to where they want to go but instead require the rider to move to where these services are deployed in the urban fabric (the ‘last mile’ problem). This is shown by the fact that 91.4% of trips in the US are taken by private car and only 3.7% by transit.2 (Transit performs slightly better with commuters, where 5.1% of people take transit.3,4)
However, there is great latent potential for transit ridership. Where transit is well set up and convenient, it is readily adopted. This can be seen in New York City, where 55%
of people commute by transit5 and in Copenhagen, where 28% use transit. In Zurich, 25% of the population are committed transit users and in Toronto and Montreal, 23.3% and 22.2% of commuters respectively make work journeys this way.6 These cities cover a broad range of climates and urban patterns and all show high transit ridership when the service is of high value to its users.
