An examination of the relationship between urban decentralisation and transit decentralisation in a small-sized US metropolitan area

Abstract

Many scholars point to urban decentralisation as a key contributor to transit’s decline in the USA during the 20th century. This paper examines the link between decentralisation and transit by testing the scholarly argument that transit should decentralise. Using a case study of a smaller US metropolitan area whose transit service was restructured from a centralised to a decentralised model, the authors found that in this context the change involved making tradeoffs between improving service for some parts of the community and degrading it for others. While ridership increased in previously unserved suburban markets, the net result was not an overall ridership increase because of its decline in inner-city neighbourhoods. The authors argue that these results, which were unanticipated based on a review of the scholarly literature, suggest the need for more sensitivity to the importance of local context for scholars working in this domain.