Some bloggers and media are reporting that only a small fraction of Metro employees ride public transit to work.

This claim is taken out of context and overlooks the fact that about 90 percent of Metro employees spend their days or nights either driving buses and trains that transport hundreds of thousands of people to and from work or maintaining the vehicles and supporting Metro’s 24/7 operation in other ways.

There are about 8,000 people involved in this effort. Many report to work before 6 a.m. while others work a graveyard shift, some come from outlying counties, and the staff is assigned to 20 different facilities located mostly in industrial areas spread throughout Los Angeles County. Public transportation is not a practical option for these workers.

On the other hand, there are about 1,300 managers, planners, engineers and other Metro employees who work at Metro’s downtown Los Angeles headquarters and 764 of them – more than 50 percent — do use public transportation including Metro, Metrolink and the municipal bus operators.

Metro CEO Art Leahy, a former bus operator, commutes to work via public transit as do many of the senior staff, who are required by the CEO to ride buses and trains as often as possible. Other Metro employees participate in vanpools and carpools. Some bike to work, others walk. Moreover, during non-work hours, many Metro employees and their families ride Metro buses and trains, a practice Metro encourages.