The overall numbers are below. As you can see, ridership has decreased in the past two years by about 3.7 percent and we’re not yet seeing a bump because of high gas prices.
Reasons? There is no definitive answer — it’s likely a combination of factors, including high local unemployment (12.3 percent in L.A. County in February), a fare increase in July 2010 that impacted about 48 percent of Metro riders, fluctuating gas prices in the past two years and bus service changes.
What do you think? Please leave a comment.
Systemwide Ridership Estimates
| Mar. 2011 | Mar. 2010 | Mar. 2009 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Weekday Boardings | 1,463,151 | 1,488,683 | 1,519,799 |
| Average Saturday Boardings | 957,481 | 960,510 | 992,077 |
| Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings | 609,715 | 749,684 | 725,199 |
| Total Calendar Month Boardings | 39,921,249 | 41,080,479 | 41,029,873 |
Graphs showing ridership for Metro’s bus system and the individual rail lines are posted after the jump.
Do you know a study just came out that states it can cost up to 75 cents a mile to drive your car with the current gas prices?
How many miles do you drive to work?
If you calculate the cost difference, you may want to reconsider taking public transportation. $1.50 is a deal.
I agree that service should improve, but with the current economic climate, that probably isn’t able to happen for a while.
It’s time to start writing letters to your representitives in government. More money needs to be directed toward public transportation.
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Hi Will;
If you have a link to that study, please post it in a comment or email us at sourcemetro@gmail.com. Thanks,
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
I think everyone is looking at this wrong. Daily and Saturday ridership is only off by 2% but what is really telling is that Sunday and holiday figures are off by 20%. I don’t think unemployment can be an indicator of that data point, so what is it? Using Occam’s razor one would think economy and gas prices are the leading indicators, but with Sunday’s numbers that does not seem to be the case. Metro may want to look into that data to see the drop off.
Steve:
I believe Will is quoting the recent AAA study.
http://news.aaa-calif.com/pr/aaa/owning-operating-typical-vehicle-200175.aspx
@Will
@Will
My car averages 34 mpg in the city. Even at current $4/gal gas, that equates to 8.5 mi per buck. Even if gas prices went up to $6/gal, I’d still get 5.6 mi per buck. Most rail or BRT stations nearest are within that 5.6-8.5 mi distance, so it’s cheaper for most to drive to the train station than take the bus which can take forever to arrive.
The bus fare of flat rate $1.50 doesn’t justify it for short rides within 10 mi. Furthermore, the bus is unreliable. When comparing the unknown waiting time for the bus which is a hit or miss luck-of-the-draw between only a few seconds to as much as half an hour for only a less than 10 mi ride, most people will just hop onto their car and go.
As for the Blue Line, I would look at the frequent disruptions in service over the past year or so, due to construction and tie-in activities related to the Expo Line project. On many weekends, the Blue Line has been completely shut down north of Washington station, replaced with a “bus bridge” shuttle.
“the dude abides”, I think this could explain the lower Sunday ridership.
These activities, while necessary, have made it very difficult to ride the Blue Line in the evenings and weekends. The bus bridge is very slow and unreliable, I have found.
The good news is: the Expo Line is almost done, and therefore, so are the service disruptions.
What are the latest figures for the percentage of LA area trips taken by transit as opposed to cars? Between skyrocketing gas prices and the poor economy, I would assume that transit’s share of all trips has been dramatically rising after a long period when the percentage of trips taken by transit has been either declining or only slowly rising.