Subsidies of public transit have more than doubled since the late 1980s, with a disproportionate share of funds going to rail services. These investments have important implications, including how they affect both the composition of transit users and their travel behavior. To investigate how transit users and use are changing, we use Latent Profile Analysis and data from the 2009 and 2017 National Household Travel Surveys to examine changes in transit users in the U.S. and in five major metropolitan areas. Nationwide, we find that the share of Transit Dependents grew by 17% to account for two-thirds of all transit users in 2017. These least advantaged riders were more likely over time to reside in very poor households and to be carless. There was a corresponding decline in Occasional Transit Users, for whom transit is part of a multi-modal travel profile. Higher-income, mostly car-owning Choice Transit Riders increased slightly over time but accounted for less than one in ten transit riders in 2017. Their growth was concentrated in a few large metropolitan areas where densities and land use are most transit-supportive. While increased rail transit service has shifted riders away from buses, transit’s role as a redistributive social service that provides mobility to disadvantaged travelers has grown over time. Efforts to draw more multi-modal and car-owning travelers onto transit have been less successful. As transit systems struggle to recover riders following the pandemic, transit’s waxing role of providing mobility for those without will likely become even more prominent.

自1980年代后期以来，公共交通的补贴增加了一倍以上，其中铁路服务的资金份额不成比例。这些投资具有重要意义，包括它们如何影响过境用户的构成和他们的出行行为。为了调查过境用户和使用方式的变化，我们使用了潜在特征分析和来自2009年和2017年全国家庭旅行调查的数据，以检查美国和五个主要大都市地区中过境用户的变化。在全国范围内，我们发现，过境家属的比例在2017年增长了17％，占所有过境用户的三分之二。随着时间的流逝，这些优势最弱的骑手更有可能居住在非常贫困的家庭中，并且无车出行。偶尔过境用户相应减少，其过境是多式联运个人资料的一部分。高收入，多数为汽车拥有的Choice Transit Rider随着时间的推移略有增加，但在2017年占不到十分之一的过境乘车者。他们的增长集中在少数大城市地区，密度和土地使用对交通的支持最大。随着越来越多的铁路运输服务使乘车人不再乘坐公交车，随着时间的流逝，公交作为重新分配社会服务的作用不断增强，它为处境不利的旅行者提供了出行便利。将更多的多式联运和拥有汽车的旅行者吸引到过境的努力不太成功。由于公交系统在大流行之后难以挽救车手，因此公交系统为那些没有这种情况的人提供机动性的重要作用将变得更加突出。