Below is the news release from the American Public Transportation Assn. — the Los Angeles area saw big gains in light rail and commuter rail ridership. That mirrors the gains in Metro’s rail ridership in April, although overall Metro ridership in April 2012 is down from April 2011 and April 2010 (complete ridership numbers here).
The APTA news release:
Public transportation ridership surged in the first quarter of 2012, as Americans took nearly 2.7 billion trips, an increase of 5.0% over the first quarter of last year, according to a report released today by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). This was the fifth consecutive quarter of U.S. public transit ridership increase, as 125.7 million more trips were taken than the first quarter of 2011.
All public transit modes saw increases and several saw significantly high increases. Light rail use increased by 6.7 percent and heavy rail use increased by 5.5 percent. Some public transit systems throughout all the areas of the United States reported record ridership for the first quarter. (i.e. Ann Arbor, MI; Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; Fort Myers, FL; Indianapolis, IN; Ithaca, NY; New York, NY; Oakland, CA; Olympia, WA; San Diego, CA; and Tampa, FL).
“High gas prices were part of the reason for this large first quarter ridership increase,” said APTA President and CEO Michael Melaniphy. “More and more people are choosing to save money by taking public transportation when gas prices are high.
“As we look for positive signs that the economy is recovering, it’s great to see that we are having record ridership at public transit systems throughout the country. In some regions of our nation, the local economy is rebounding and people are commuting to their new jobs by using public transportation,” said APTA President and CEO Michael Melaniphy, noting that nearly 60 percent of trips taken on public transit are for work commutes.
Pointing out that there are multiple reasons for the high ridership increases in the first quarter, Melaniphy said, “There are a number of reasons why more Americans are using public transportation. For example, public transportation systems are delivering better, reliable service and the use of real time technology, which many systems use, makes it easy for riders to know when the next bus or train will arrive.
“As Congress is negotiating a federal surface transportation bill that is now more than 2 1/2 years overdue, our federal representatives need to act before the June 30 deadline to ensure that public transportation systems will be able to meet the growing demand,” said Melaniphy. “It’s obvious from the surge in public transit ridership in the first quarter that Americans need and want public transportation.”
To see the complete APTA 2011 ridership report, go to: http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2012-q1-ridership-APTA.pdf
2012 First Quarter Ridership Breakdown
Nationally, light rail (modern streetcars, trolleys, and heritage trolleys) ridership increased 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2012. Twenty-five of twenty-seven light rail systems reported ridership increases. The ten light rail systems with the highest rates of growth were located in the following cities: Memphis, TN (45.7%); Salt Lake City, UT (34.1%); Seattle, WA – King County DOT (19.4%); Boston, MA (12.6%); Cleveland, OH (10.7%); Houston, TX (10.3%); Seattle, WA – Sound Transit (10.3%); Los Angeles, CA (9.9%); Sacramento, CA (8.5%); and St. Louis, MO (8.2%).
Fourteen out of fifteen heavy rail heavy rail (subways and elevated trains) systems reported ridership increases. Overall, heavy rail ridership increased by 5.5 percent nationwide. The ten heavy rail systems with the highest first quarter increases in ridership were in the following cities: Cleveland, OH (12.2%); San Francisco, CA (9.7%); Chicago, IL (8.9%); Baltimore, MD (7.8%); Boston, MA (6.4%); Jersey City, NJ (6.1%); New York, NY – MTA New York City Transit (5.6%); Lindenwold, NJ (4.7%); New York, NY – MTA Staten Island Railway (4.5%); and Miami, FL (4.2%).
Nationally, commuter rail ridership increased by 3.9 percent in the first three months of 2012 with twenty-two of twenty-seven commuter rail systems reporting ridership increases. Five commuter rail systems in the following cities saw double digit increases in the first quarter: Anchorage, AK (43.8%); Oceanside, CA (19.2%); San Carlos, CA (15.0%); Portland, OR (11.1%); and Seattle, WA (10.8%). The five commuter rail systems that reported the next highest increases were located in: New Haven, CT (9.7%); Stockton, CA (9.4%); Los Angeles, CA (8.9%); Salt Lake City, UT (8.5%); and Nashville, TN (8.4%).
Large bus systems reported an increase of 4.6 percent nationally. Bus systems in the following cities showed the top ten increases: Saint Louis, MO (15.6%); Dallas, TX (11.9%); Arlington Heights, IL (11.1%); Boston, MA (10.6%); Oakland, CA (10.5%); Ft. Lauderdale, FL (8.7%); Newark, NJ (8.0%); San Antonio, TX (8.0%); Washington, DC (7.9%). and Cleveland, OH (7.8%).
Bus systems in urbanized areas with populations of two million or more grew at 4.5 percent. Growing at an even higher rate of 5.1 percent were bus systems in urbanized areas with populations of 500,000 to just under two million.
Demand response (paratransit) ridership increased by 7.0 percent and trolleybus ridership increased by 3.8 percent.
Rail ridership is up for Metro in 2012, but overall transit ridership is down. It seems that the increased rail ridership is coming at the expense of decreased bus ridership This has been going on for a long time. Adding rail lines has yet to increase the amount of transit users enough to make up for the offsetting cuts in bus service.
Dennis,
Transit ridership is up for longer trips, but people still seek alternatives than public transit for shorter trips. That’s why overall transit ridership is down. Just look at all the bus lines today. They’re so filled with people but it’s rare for people to make short, quick, on-and-off trips. Pretty obvious, why pay $1.50 for 1 mi of transit if they’re going to get a better deal to travel longer distances?
It just doesn’t make sense to pay $3.00 for a roundtrip bus fare to go to a local Ralphs 3 miles away and come back just to buy a gallon of milk or whatever you can carry with your two hands.
People will still end up driving to get to the nearest Ralphs or Costco and stock up on groceries in bulk by stashing them into the truck of their cars. And I don’t see neighborhood grocery stores being built near affordable high rise condos anytime soon either.
Metro has been schlepping some of its bus service to the local muni operators for some time now. It would be interesting to see if the loss in bus ridership in Metro has lead to an increase in ridership in the other bus operators in the region. Does anyone have any statistics on the daily ridership of the muni operators that happen to operate within or right next Metro’s service area?
@Frank M
You mean like the Ralphs at Hollywood/Western?
Those figures do not include the Expo Line yet, do they?
One thing to note, Los Angeles now has the second highest ridership for a LRT system, passing San Francisco.
Actually looking at APTA data it shows that bus ridership actually increased by 2%, from 88 million in 2011 to 90 million daily passenger trips in 2012, in the quarter observed.
If you have the interest, APTA website has yearly ridership numbers from many (but not all) transit agencies across the U.S. That should allow you to go back and see trends in some muni operators around L.A. County.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
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Metro made such a report available quite recently (though it evaluates a longer timeframe):
http://thesource.metro.net/2012/05/18/metro-report-offers-initial-look-at-impacts-of-bus-service-changes/
It’s pretty clear that when Muni operators are factored in, there have – in fact – been significant increases in both bus and rail ridership throughout the county over the past decade and more.
People take short trips on transit with higher costs than Los Angeles all over the world. Is there any real evidence that loss of short trips because of fixed ticket prices has had any significant effect on ridership?
[TYPO REPORT: "Fourteen out of fifteen heavy rail heavy rail" ...Not sure if this is an APTA error, but thought I'd mention it.]