Influence of weather conditions on transit ridership: A statistical study using data from Smartcards

• It was found that automatically collected data are a valuable source of information to analyze travellers’ behaviour.
• Data from bus companies in Gipuzkoa, collected over two years confirm previous results by surveys.
• Rain and wind cause a decrease in the number of intercity bus trips with leisure purposes.
• The number of riders rises proportionally with temperature.
• The influence of weather is softer for regular users who pay with smart card than for sporadic ones.

This paper analyses the influence of meteorological conditions on the number of public bus trips made for leisure, shopping and personal business in Gipuzkoa, Spain. The ridership transit data employed were obtained from the data generated by a CAD/AVL system (Computer-aided dispatch/Automatic Vehicle Location) that simultaneously manages the data coming from all o the bus operators in the region. So, the study analyses the trips actually made by the entire population without resorting to sample data or aggregate behavioural studies, confirming as an added value of smart technologies their potentialities as a source of information. To determine the reasons for travelling, only journeys made on Saturdays and Sundays were studied for all weekends in 2010 and 2011. Multiple linear regression results showed that wind and rain could result in a decrease in the number of trips, while a temperature rise caused an increase in the number of trips, in agreement with the results of previous survey-based studies. Finally, both regular and occasional travellers were found to share this behavioural pattern.