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Utah's Foremost Platform for Undergraduate Research Presentation
2022 Abstracts

Public Transportation Use During the Pandemic

Presenter: Khaled Shaaban
Authors: Khaled Shaaban, Luke Maeser
Faculty Advisor: Khaled Shaaban
Institution: Utah Valley University

During the pandemic, there were restrictions on travel, gatherings, and guidelines to work from home when possible in Utah. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of these restrictions on public transportation usage in the state. Data were obtained from the Utah Transit Authority. Five different categories were investigated including system-wide, commuter rail, light rail, regular bus, and paratransit. The analysis indicated that these restrictions resulted in a major drop in the usage of public transportation with a steep drop in usage during March 2020. The highest drop in usage was in commuter rail followed by light rail and paratransit. The lowest drop in was in the bus system usage.