Mass transit use at 50-year high

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of Americans hopping buses and grabbing subway straps has climbed to the highest level in half a century as soaring gasoline costs push more commuters to take mass transit.

U.S. mass transit ridership began to surge when gasoline hit the $3 a gallon level in 2005 and has continued to rise steadily ever since as pump prices top record after record, according to a report released on Monday by the American Public Transit Association.

“As people are struggling with the increase in fuel prices, they have to make adjustments, and one of the ways they are doing that is driving less and taking public transportation more,” said William Millar, the president of the APTA.

Mass transit use increased by more than 2 percent in 2007 to the highest level in 50 years, with Americans taking more than 10 billion trips on public transport while the number of vehicle miles traveled was flat in the first 10 months of the year.

Even when gasoline prices dipped last year and some people returned to driving, others appear to have switched to public transport permanently, according to Millar.

“We started seeing gas prices consistently go above $3 a gallon (in 2005) and we noticed that overall transit ridership was going up,” Millar said.

“When gas prices moderated, some of those people said, 'Hey, this works pretty good for me, I’ll stick with it.”’

The largest area of mass transit growth was in light rail use, which includes street cars and trolleys, with a 6 percent increase during 2007. Commuter rails were second with an increase of 5.5 percent in ridership and subway ridership had an increase of 3.1 percent.

Cities with less than 100,000 people also saw a large increase – 6.4 percent – in public transportation use.

With many analysts predicting $4 gasoline this summer, mass transit use is likely to become even more popular.

"If past experience is any indication, as the price of fuel goes up a

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if we had the extra time we would have rode with carl on an all weekend metra pass.with gas going higher its going to cost everyone eventually.

stay safe

joe

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One question, before we get too wildly excited: is the increase in ridership keeping up with the increase of population in general? Even considering the areas where transit is an option?

Having said that, I think this is great news–the last time people used public transit this much was before most of the Interstate highway systems were constructed, and before passenger jet aircraft. So why does the government insist on shortchanging rail and transit systems?

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Perhaps more importantly, is the increase in ridership keeping up with the increase in population of the suburbs surrounding large cities?

Vancouver, Canada, has followed the lead of Hong Kong, with tens of thousands of people moving back to the city core and living in high rise condo towers. San Diego is seeing this as well. I guess Detroit is out of the question, but perhaps this will happen in many of America’s larger cities.

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c shave is right APT said ridership is up twice the rate of population growth but how do the figures compare in each transit’s route service area?

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I think this is going to happen worldwide. With the cost of gas and other essentials rising, there will be a drift back to the cities, and increase in public transport ridership. We are seeing this in the United Kingdom, but this is due to being a relatively small overcrowded island.

Dennis

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News item on a DC area TV station talking about how the cost of gas may cause major hardships for commuters. I don’t recall that “mass transit” even came up in the report.

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I suspect it might be more than just the price of gas. Parking fees in many major cities have been going up and traffic congestion has also increased in them. Also, some areas started major mass transit improvements some years ago and they are now finished. Its probably a combination of all of these with the high gas prices possibly the “last straw” for many of those new users of mass transit.

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Makes sense, as gasoline rises this summer and beyond it will force some to use mass transit. Granted mass transit also takes non rail components into consideration. At any rate fuel costs are not coming down anytime soon.

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I do, after all, take this to work…

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=164494

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Here in Sacramento, CA, ridership on the Regional Transit light system system has really gone up lately, and RT is now looking at the idea of accelerating three light rail projects: one to extend the line to the South and North Natomas areas of Sacramento just north of the American River, one to extend another line all the way to downtown Elk Grove, CA and one to double-track the line all the way to Folsom, CA.

And the idea of a trolley system to connect downtown Sacramento, CA with West Sacramento, CA with a line across the Tower Bridge is being seriously looked at, too.