Community Results: Trip Purpose
In this section, we analyze why people come to Chinatown by examining their trip purposes from the survey responses. The first part highlights the top reasons for visiting Chinatown, while the second part (following the gallery) provides a deeper look at the top three trip purposes from the intercept survey.
Understanding the Trips
Chinatown is a vibrant and dense neighborhood offering services, businesses, and community activities for both locals and visitors. Our transit dependency analysis shows that the majority of visitors are adults and older adults, an important factor in understanding the kinds of trips people make to Chinatown.
The primary trip purposes identified in the surveys are: retail shopping, work and work-related activities, and school.
Figure 1 highlights the top trip purposes of the local Chinatown community.
Figure 2 highlights the top trip purposes of visitors from the intercept survey (note: some respondents may have considered retail shopping and grocery shopping as the same).
Next to the text is an interactive map. You can click or tap on each ZIP code area to learn more about the trip purposes reported from that location. The number shown under each ZIP code represents the number of survey responses from that area.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3: The blue represents the percentage of people who are reliant on public transit to achieve their trip purpose while the orange shows those who are NOT reliant on public transit to achieve their trip purpose.
Diving Deeper on Popular Trips
Retail Shopping
Retail shopping emerges as one of the top trip purposes, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. This reflects Chinatown’s rich mix of shops, markets, and specialty stores that attract both locals and visitors with affordable prices and high value.
Another factor may be survey wording. Grocery shopping was listed under “errands” rather than as its own category. Some respondents may have selected “retail shopping” to represent grocery trips since the categories seemed similar.
The retail trip purpose interactive map shows retail shopping trips by ZIP code.
Work
Next to the text is an interactive map displaying only responses where participants selected work as their trip purpose.
Chinatown is home to a dense network of small businesses and commercial storefronts, with merchants and employees working on nearly every block. It is therefore not surprising that many workers commute into Chinatown from outside the neighborhood for work or work-related reasons.
In addition to retail and service jobs, Chinatown hosts numerous offices and organizations. These include local nonprofits such as the Chinatown Community Development Center, as well as professional services in fields like law, banking, and accounting. Many of these businesses serve the Chinese community directly by offering services in Cantonese, which is especially important for residents who are not proficient in English.
School
The third most common trip purpose to Chinatown is school. The neighborhood hosts more educational institutions than many might expect, ranging from preschools and elementary schools—such as Gordon J. Lau Elementary, to dedicated Chinese language schools like Nam Kue, and even college-level education at the City College Chinatown/North Beach Campus. Given these educational options, it is not surprising that school is among the top reasons people travel to Chinatown.
As with the other categories, the interactive map next to the text highlights school-related trips by ZIP code.
Finally, the chart below shows the top five trip purposes for each bus line, along with the most popular times these services are used. This visualization helps illustrate not only which transit routes carry the greatest demand for school, work, and shopping trips, but also when community members rely on them most.
Lastly, below we have a chart that shows the top 5 trip purposes for each bus line and the most popular times these services are typically visited based on the survey.
