This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: What makes someone decide to take—or skip—the bus on a cold, rainy, hot or smoky day? New research led by the University of Colorado Denver finds that Denver-area bus riders change their commuting patterns when faced with cold weather or rain, but not as much with wildfire smoke or ozone warnings.
But weather alone doesn't tell the whole story. Whether riders had to pay a fare, what time of day they traveled and whether the bus stop is protected against the elements also play a role. Published in Environmental Research, the article, "Weathering the ride: Associations of heat, smoke, precipitation, and ozone with bus ridership in Colorado," analyzed hourly bus ridership across the Denver metropolitan area from June 2022 through September 2023.
Researchers examined nearly 44.3 million rider experiences from 7,283 Regional Transportation District (RTD) bus stops alongside data on heat and cold stress, rain, wildfire smoke and ozone provided by NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science satellites. RTD's Zero Fare for Better Air program gave researchers another question to explore: Does weather still have the same influence when riders don't have to pay? The program offered free transit during August 2022 and July and August 2023.
During those periods, the researchers generally found less evidence that adverse weather discouraged bus use. Hot conditions were even associated with a short-term increase in ridership when fares were free. Because the program operated only during summer, the study cannot directly compare the effects of free fares with the large declines seen during winter cold.
For Elizabeth Dzwonczyk, Ph.D., who became involved in the project as a CU Denver doctoral student, examining these factors together was critical because that's how riders actually experience transportation. "The true lived human experience is that you have to deal with taking the bus on a bad air pollution day, or when it's hot or cold. Your life responsibilities still exist," Dzwonczyk said.
"For that reason, it is really helpful that we were able to combine all of these elements and perspectives." Instead of looking only at air temperature, Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) data provided a more complete measure of how hot or cold conditions felt to people by accounting for temperature, humidity, wind and sunlight. Cold stood out as the weather condition with the strongest and most consistent connection to lower ridership. The decline began within hours and continued throughout the day.
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