What Can We Learn from Online Reviews? Examining the Reviews of Los Angeles Metro Rail Stations

Out-of-vehicle time is a well-known major burden of transit travel. Although transit stations’ characteristics likely affect people’s perceptions of out-of-vehicle time and decisions to use public transit, our understanding of how transit users evaluate stations is limited. This study uses reviews of Los Angeles Metro Rail stations from Yelp.com to conduct descriptive analyses of stations’ numeric ratings and to identify the factors users consider important based on content analyses. It also explores spatial and temporal variations in the ratings and factors frequently considered by users, demonstrating how social media content can be used to inform transportation planning.