Influences on public transport utilization: The case of Auckland

Abstract

Regression analysis is applied to cross-sectional data for 318 census area units served by the public transportation system in Auckland, New Zealand. The goal is to ascertain the determinants of public transport patronage for the purpose of commuting to work in the region. The analysis addresses both the modifiable areal units problem and spatial autocorrelation. Elasticity estimates are derived for a number of hypothesized drivers of patronage. The paper shows that adjusting for spatial autocorrelation improves the fit of the regression model to the data, a finding that should be of interest to public transportation planners and analysts working with cross-sectional data of a geographic nature.