Ways of increasing transit ridership-lessons learned from successful transit agencies

• Ridership Growth: Analyzes strategies from successful U.S. transit agencies to boost ridership. • Internal and External Factors: Examines multiple factors as contributors to ridership growth. • Practical Applications: Provides actionable recommendations for agencies facing declining ridership. • Qualitative Approach: Utilizes in-depth interviews with transit planners and stakeholders for insights. For promoting equitable communities and environmental sustainability, special attention has been given to expanding and improving public transit services to attract new riders. Different internal and external factors are associated with the transit demand analysis. This project aims to understand the ways of increasing transit ridership from the case studies of successful regions that have experienced growth in transit ridership in the pre-pandemic era (ridership growth nine years before the pandemic, 2010 to 2019). In this regard, twelve successful regions/ transit operators in terms of growth in transit ridership have been identified based on the National Transit Database (NTD). Then, the authors conducted interviews with the selected successful transit planners and other key personnel to find key internal and external factors associated with their success. The agencies attribute their ridership growth to rapid growth of population, land use changes, service expansion and improvements, incentives to students and vulnerable communities, restrictive parking, community outreach, and so on. This research should help policymakers and other transit agencies with decreasing ridership to boost their ridership following the strategies of successful agencies.