The Value of Transit

This research, conducted in the Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle areas, quantifies the many benefits that arise from the role of public transit in large metropolitan areas amidst the 'fiscal cliff' that US transit agencies faced emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic. Through an agent-based simulation model and economic estimation of counterfactual scenarios, we identified the multiple societal benefits including providing access to jobs and public resources such as healthcare, education, and entertainment, enabling mobility of care trips, easing traffic congestion, making car ownership uneccesary for a significant proportion of people, and enabling transportation equity and justice. This broad value improves the quality of life and economic competitiveness of each region we studied, while contributing to public health by reducing carbon and particulate matter emissions.