Why do Hispanic American use the BRT services more than others? – Underlying factors behind ethnicity
BACKGROUND
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has emerged as a promising form of transit with its benefits combining the efficiency and reliability of a rail transit with the flexibility and feasibility of a conventional bus system. El Paso, Texas started its BRT service since 2014. El Paso has over 80% of its residents of Hispanic origin offering unique opportunities to better understand BRT use within the context of ethnicity. This study analyzes the survey data captured from a larger research project, Active El Paso (AEP).

PURPOSE
To examine the characteristics of the current BRT users and explore ways to further promote BRT use, the AEP project conducted two rounds of surveys (n=320, in 2016; and n=2,240, in 2019). This study focuses on the impact of Hispanic ethnicity and other underlying factors influencing BRT use in El Paso.

METHODOLOGY
Logistic regression models were used to predict the odds of using BRT at least once a week. Controlling for other significant personal variables, we tested the significance of Hispanic ethnicity variable first (Model 1), and then added three variable blocks (Models 2-4), one block at a time, cumulatively to the previous model. Those variable blocks were selected to test the potential underlying factors behind ethnicity that may influence BRT use: (a) walkability to BRT, (b) residential self-selection, and (c) attitudes toward transit.

RESULTS
Among the 2,560 respondents, 14.6% of Hispanic respondents reported using BRT at least one day in a typical week (considered BRT users in this study), while only 9.4% of non-Hispanic respondents were BRT users. Model 1 showed that controlling for other personal factors, Hispanic ethnicity was still positively correlated with BRT use (OR=1.70, p=0.010). After further controlling for the distance to the closest BRT station and neighborhood walkability conditions (Model 2), Hispanic ethnicity maintained similar significance (OR=1.75, p=0.011). The network distance from home to the closest BRT stations was also a significant predictor in this model (OR=0.88, p<0.001). Next, we added the residential self-selection variables (i.e. factors considered when choosing the current residence) (Model 3), and found slightly decreased role of ethnicity (OR=1.63, p=0.035) confirming the presence of self-selection effect. In the final step (Model 4), we used factor analysis to generate three latent factors (attitudes, positive perception, and negative perception) reflecting people’s attitudes and perceptions towards public transit. When those factors were added, ethnicity became statistically insignificant (OR=1.67, p=0.058).

CONCLUSION
The results imply that rather than or in addition to ethnicity, self-selection factors, and attitudes and perceptions towards transit are critical to consider when making policy decisions to support BRT use. These findings are in line with previous studies reporting the significant roles of attitudinal factors [3]. Future work may consider interactions between ethnicity and other variables, more detailed and objectively measured environmental and transit use variables, and better isolation of self-selection factors. This study and its future work will help better understand the important variability in factors influencing BRT use across different population groups to guide the development of tailored BRT promotion strategies.

Presenter: Jiahe(Jane) Bian
Agency Affiliation: Texas A&M University

Presenter Biographical Statement: [biography]