Urban form and bus riderships in Spanish cities

Abstract

The effect of urban form on mobility is a question with important implications for transportation and land use research and planning. A number of studies have investigated the relationship between mobility and various indicators of urban form while controlling for socio-economic characteristics. A majority of these have been concerned with mobility by private vehicles, although more recently there are also examples of research that explores the relationship between urban form and the use of public transportation. The objective of this paper is to investigate the demand for public transportation in a selection of cities in Spain, from the perspective of urban form (density, metropolitan area, population ratios), and other variables describing the characteristics of public transport supply (density of network and of stops), urban socio-economic profile, and competing and complementary modes (metro, suburban train and auto ownership rates). The paper is based on aggregate bus usage data collected for a number of Spanish cities and metropolitan areas for the years 2003-2007, and the use of autocorrelation models to account for intra-class correlations for multi-year observations of metro areas/cities. The results of the analysis indicate that demand for public transport in Spain is related to the size and population density of the urban area, the supply of bus routes, and the existence of a metro rail alternative. The results also indicate the existence of substantial autocorrelation effects.