With that data source, the researchers could track where and how often UTA's buses and trains run. It's the data source that supplies Google Maps with transit information to help users find the bus or train they need. The second is the General Transit Feed Specification system. 'We accounted for all of the 2016 passenger miles by scaling the farecard data, and we know which trips farecard holders make on buses, light rail and commuter rail.' 'Now we can truly quantify trips in both time and space,' Mendoza says. Approximately half of UTA's passengers use an electronic fare medium.

The first is the advance of tap-on tap-off farecards that provide anonymized data on where those riders who have electronic passes enter and exit public transit. But a couple of recent technological advances have enabled them to answer the question with a level of detail previously unparalleled. Mendoza and his colleagues are certainly not the first to ask how much pollution public transit can save. The study was conducted in cooperation with the Utah Transit Authority and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Air Quality. In a paper published in Environmental Research Communications, University of Utah researchers Daniel Mendoza, Martin Buchert and John Lin used tap-on tap-off rider data to quantify the emissions saved by buses and commuter rail lines, and also project how much additional emissions could be saved by upgrading the bus and rail fleet.

Utah transit authority schedule