Michael and Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, School of Public Health in Austin, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Austin, TX 78701, USA.
Michael and Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, Department of Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health in Houston, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jan 8;18(2):463. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18020463.
Rising temperatures threaten the resilience of public transit systems. We determined whether bus stop shelters and tree canopy surrounding bus stops moderated the effect of warm season temperatures on ridership in Austin, Texas, and whether shelters and trees were equitably distributed. For bus stops (n = 2271) of Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, boardings per bus were measured 1 April-30 September 2019. Air temperature data originated from the Camp Mabry weather station. Tree canopy was calculated by classification of high-resolution aerial imagery from the National Agriculture Imagery Program. Data on race, ethnicity, poverty level, median age, and bus commuters within census tracts of bus stops originated from the 2014-2018 American Community Survey. Using multilevel negative binomial regression models, we found that shelters did not moderate the effect of high temperatures on ridership ( > 0.05). During high temperatures, each one-percent increase in tree canopy was associated with a lesser decrease (1.6%) in ridership compared to if there were no trees (1.7%) ( < 0.001). In general, shelters and trees were equitably distributed. Insignificant or modest effects of shelters and trees on ridership during high temperatures may be attributed to the transit dependency of riders. For climate change adaptation, we recommend tree planting at bus stops to protect from ridership losses and unhealthy exposure to extreme heat.
气温上升威胁着公共交通系统的弹性。我们确定了在德克萨斯州奥斯汀，公交车站的候车亭和周围的树冠是否能缓解温暖季节气温对乘车率的影响，以及候车亭和树木是否得到公平分配。对于首都都会区交通管理局（Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority）的 2271 个公交车站，在 2019 年 4 月 1 日至 9 月 30 日期间，测量了每个公交车站的登车人数。空气温度数据来源于 Camp Mabry 气象站。树冠是通过对国家农业影像计划（National Agriculture Imagery Program）的高分辨率航空影像进行分类计算得出的。公交车站所在的普查区的种族、民族、贫困水平、中位数年龄和公交车乘客的数据来源于 2014-2018 年美国社区调查（American Community Survey）。使用多层次负二项回归模型，我们发现候车亭并不能缓解高温对乘车率的影响（>0.05）。在高温期间，树冠每增加 1%，与没有树木时相比，乘车率的下降幅度较小（1.6%）（<0.001）。总体而言，候车亭和树木的分配是公平的。在高温期间，候车亭和树木对乘车率的影响较小或不显著，这可能归因于乘客对公共交通的依赖。为了适应气候变化，我们建议在公交车站种植树木，以防止乘车率下降和免受极端高温的不健康影响。
