The Night Bus: Leveraging Big Data and Targeted Engagement for Equitable Late-Night Transit Planning
Channel: APA National Capital Area Chapter
Date: 2021-11-18

This study was guided by the fact that late-night/early-morning transit provides a vital link to economic mobility, and late-shift workers have a critical need for public transit service for many reasons. Additionally, many late-night and early-morning travelers are essential workers, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the need to provide safe and reliable transit choices for these populations. As a part of the study, Metro was able to leverage its internal resources to poll existing users of the system to identify relevant participants for the targeted focus groups. This proposed conference session will include a focus on the study’s engagement efforts to the late-night and early morning transit-riding population (much of which includes members of historically underrepresented populations and neighborhoods), which aimed to gain information on lived experiences, needs, and desires to bolster and compliment the study’s technical analysis.