EFFECTS OF PUBLIC TRANSIT ON AUTOMOBILE OWNERSHIP AND USE IN HOUSEHOLDS OF THE USA

This study develops econometric models to predict the effect of access to and distance to public transit on automobile ownership and miles driven. Ordered logit model is used for automobile ownership and multiple regression model is used for vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Inverse square root of transit distance is used as a measure for transit accessibility. Important findings in the analysis are (i) the number of licensed drivers is the primary determinant of the number of automobiles owned, (ii) the presence of children is not a significant factor in automobile ownership and VMT, and (iii) the VMT of multi‐vehicle households is more sensitive to transit than one‐vehicle households. Transit simulations are performed by improving the distance to and access to public transit. The results showed that total VMT in National Ambient Air Quality Standard non‐attained metropolitan statistical area is reduced by 11% (approximately 60 billion miles) with 0.1 miles simulation.