We have seen evidence of people who drive the majority of their trip to a transit parking facility and complete the final 2-10 miles on rail rapid transit to reach the CBD call their trip auto. However, we have seen some people check “subway” when their trip starts 10 to 40 miles from the rapid transit system, either the NYC subway or the PATH rapid transit system, both in NY Metro area.   These subway riders are mostly driving the majority of the trip in auto, but still call  the trip transit based on the last part of the trip.    The best way to determine this is to survey the transit riders at the fringe or station parking (including asking trip purpose).  Thus for any remote parking with transit shuttle, experience in the NY area is mixed.  Probably the majority of fringe transit users are correctly identified in the census as an auto trip if the auto portion of the trip is longer than the transit part of the trip.  However a significant minority will check transit on the census form with the final transit mode selected.   This amount varies a lot but seems to be higher for fixed guideway services like subway and commuter rail.  

Tom Marchwinski-  Metro North Planning  (with NJ Transit experience as well).   

From: ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Weinberger Penelope
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 4:00 PM
To: ctpp-news@chrispy.net
Subject: Re: [CTPP] Park-Ride vs. Parking Shuttle Commutes

Actually the question instructs you to mark the mode used for the greatest distance.  So if the drive to park and ride is shorter, the trip should be reported as transit.

From: ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Steve Wilson
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 3:55 PM
To: 'ctpp-news@chrispy.net' <ctpp-news@chrispy.net>
Subject: [CTPP] Park-Ride vs. Parking Shuttle Commutes

What are peoples’ thoughts and experiences with the definition of auto-access transit trips measured by ACS.

The ACS question asks “if this person usually used more than one method of transportation during the trip, mark (X) the box of the one most often.”

Are there notable experiences with people referring to a fringe parking plus remote shuttle commute as “transit” instead of auto?