In september 1986, the tri-county metropolitan transportation district of oregon (tri-met) opened a light rail line through the northeast area of portland to downtown. At the same time, several bus routes were altered to provide feeder service to the light rail. A direct-mail campaign offering a free 2-week pass was sent to 15, 700 residents in the parkrose neighborhood of portland. The purpose of the packet was to increase ridership on the feeder bus routes by 10 to 20 percent. A mail-back survey to determine the effectiveness of the promotion was sent to persons who responded to the free-pass offer. Ridership counts were conducted before, during, and after the promotion to verify the promotion's actual impact. The study showed the following results: (a) the greatest response to the packet came from existing riders, with only 2.7 Percent of all packets mailed resulting in a response from a nonrider; (b) ridership counts show that the promotion did not significantly increase ridership on feeder routes to the light rail line; however, ridership on light rail may have increased as a result of the promotion because survey results show that 92 percent of those who obtained a 2-week pass used it to ride light rail; (c) there is a higher proportion of senior citizens in the parkrose area than in the rest of the transit district, so a campaign promoting shopping trips might have been more effective than one promoting commute trips to downtown portland; and (d) a method for tracking new riders over several months needs to be developed to establish the attrition rate of new riders captured by the promotion. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1209, Transit administration and planning research.
Abstract