Risk, Routes, and Media Reports: The Impacts of Perceptions of Crime on Bus Ridership in Minneapolis and Saint Paul

Authors

Christina Spicher, Macalester CollegeFollow

Document Type

Honors Project - Open Access

Abstract

By collecting data on media reports about crimes on or near public transit, I study how changes in perceptions of crime affect bus ridership at the route level in Minneapolis and Saint Paul between 2015-2019. Treating the publication dates of these media reports as events, I perform panel event studies. Based on these models, I find no statistically significant evidence that media reporting about crimes on or near bus routes impacts ridership. With that said, my work points out important gaps in the literature where researchers and policymakers still have the opportunity to more deeply understand a key determinant of public transit ridership.

Recommended Citation

Spicher, Christina, "Risk, Routes, and Media Reports: The Impacts of Perceptions of Crime on Bus Ridership in Minneapolis and Saint Paul" (2025). Economics Honors Projects. 131.
https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/economics_honors_projects/131