@article{ref1,
title="An analysis of air mass effects on rail ridership in three US cities",
journal="Journal of transport geography",
year="2009",
author="Kalkstein, Adam J. and Kuby, Michael and Gerrity, Daniel and Clancy, James J.",
volume="17",
number="3",
pages="198-207",
abstract="This paper examines whether daily weather affects ridership in urban transportation systems. When examining human-weather relationships, it is often advantageous to examine air masses, which take into account the entire parcel of air over a region. Spatial synoptic classification characterizes air masses based upon numerous meteorological variables at a given location. Thus, rather than examining temperature or precipitation individually, here we compare daily ridership to synoptic air mass classifications for three urban rail systems: Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), and the Hudson-Bergen light-rail line in northern New Jersey. Air masses are found to have a significant impact on daily rail ridership, with usage typically increasing on dry, comfortable days and decreasing on moist, cool ones, particularly on weekends. Although the comfort of a particular air mass changes throughout the year, seasonality is not a significant factor with respect to the air mass-ridership relationship. The results of this study can benefit rail system managers who must predict daily ridership or in the development of cost-benefit analyses for station improvements.<p />",
language="",
issn="0966-6923",
doi="10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2008.07.003",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2008.07.003"
}