Survey Results: Transit Dependency
In this analysis, we will discuss the transit dependency of the respondents who took the intercept and community surveys. The first section will detail the common questions between the surveys, the second section details the community survey, and the third section will detail the intercept survey.
Understanding the Surveys
Before discussing transit dependency, it is important to understand the demographics of the survey respondents to help figure out and learn what the needs are for the actual commuters, and know who they are. Between the CTA and PYRIA surveys (community surveys), we have learned that most respondents are 65 years old or older, meaning that many of the local community members in Chinatown (as identified in our surveys) are elderly. The intercept survey has a more even split, where 40% of respondents are elderly, 52.6% are aged 19-64, and youth make up the rest. In both surveys.
Both the community and intercept surveys reveal how transit-dependent people are in coming to Chinatown. Figure 3 in the community surveys reveals that of 226 respondents, 221 agree that public transit or walking is their only option to travel to Chinatown. Similarly, Figure 6 in the intercept surveys shows a similar story where out of 2006 responses, 1831 agree that public transportation or walking are their only options for traveling to Chinatown. Our results here show that public transit is essential for people to come to and presumably out of Chinatown; without it, many people will have to resort to walking or have no access to Chinatown. This highlights the importance of maintaining public transit not only for the local Chinatown community but also for San Francisco’s residents. To summarize, many commuters to Chinatown are reliant on public transit to make the journey and without it many would lose access to Chinatown as a destination due to a variety of factors that can affect an individual.
Community Surveys (CTA & PYRIA)
The community surveys have a mostly elderly presence shown in Figure 1, where 236 of 263 respondents are elderly, representing 89.7% of our entire sample. Knowing that the local community is primarily elderly, understanding their options for movement is important to help provide the proper services to this community; Figure 2: Mode of Travel to Chinatown shows modes of travel to Chinatown by the respondents, where a majority of respondents say they either walk or take public transit to Chinatown, and a small minority can travel by car or alternative transportation services. Based on our demographic composition from the community surveys, we can conclude that most of the elderly respondents are reliant upon walking or public transit to get to Chinatown. This highlights how, for the local Chinatown community, public transportation is an essential service needed by the residents in order to go in and out of Chinatown; without it, many will have to resort to walking, which is far from ideal for the elderly. This statement is further supported by Figure 3: Public Transit or Walking is my Only Option Traveling to Chinatown, where 221 out of 226 responses agreed that public transit or walking is their only option to get to Chinatown.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Intercept Survey
The intercept survey has a more diverse population group compared to the community survey. Figure 4 shows our sample having 145 Youth, 1046 Adults, and 795 Elders; the majority is between adults and elderly but still has the presence of youth. This group represents the general Chinatown commuter demographic, whether they are from San Francisco or not. Looking at Figure 5. we can see that for our group 1831 out of 2006 respondents are reliant on public transit or walking to get to Chinatown, highlighting transit dependency but now on a more general citywide scale.
Figure 6 looks deeper into dependency by age group to see who in our sample is most dependent. Youth are at 69.2%, Adults are 90%, and the Elderly are 97%. Based on our age groups, youth are the least dependent on public transit, this may be due to youth having their parents being able to drive them to other destinations which can be one possible reason for now they have a lower reliance percentage compared to other groups. Adults sitting at 90% can potentially be explained by several reasons which is detailed in the trip purposes analysis, including commuting to Chinatown for work or retail shopping. Chinatown itself is not a convenient destination to arrive to by car as many commuters will have to drive through the San Francisco downtown streets, which tend to be packed with heavy traffic. Additionally, Chinatown has limited parking spaces, street parking tends to be scarce and a parking garage at a fixed hourly fee that is more costly than taking public transit. Lastly elderly sitting at 97% is very much like the community survey; this can potentially be explained by the fact many elderly do not own their own vehicles or cannot drive themselves, hence public transit is their only option. In essence, Figure 6 has shown us that the regular Chinatown commuter is heavily dependent on public transit and needs it to get to Chinatown, without it, Chinatown will lose many visitors, and many commuters will lose access to Chinatown.
Lastly, Figure 7 contrasts transit dependency on whether or not an individual is a San Francisco resident. Not surprisingly, San Francisco residents are more transit dependent than non-residents at 92.1% compared to 73.8% for non-residents. For Non-residents who are transit dependent, most likely utilize other transit agencies such as BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and Caltrain to commute to Chinatown via transfers.
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
In summary, this analysis focuses on the transit dependency of the locals and visitors to Chinatown. Chinatown is visited by a community of youth, adults, and elderly who require public transportation services to access Chinatown, rather than public transit being just another option. For many, public transportation is an essential service that needs to stay up for them to continue to access Chinatown and the many services it has to offer.