No way, subway

MTA trips down as service declines, Uber rises

NEW YORKERS are finding other ways to get to work, as MTA ridership continued to fall from its 2016 high point — even as the city added tens of thousands of new jobs, officials say.

Frustrated over routine delays, and fed up over frequent transit breakdowns, more of New York’s commuters are saying “Enough,” ditching their MetroCards for ridesharing services, like Uber or Lyft, and for CitiBikes.

At its peak last year, subway ridership cracked 6 million trips a day.

But after a series of subway setbacks, including several derailments and a “Summer of Hell” station and track repair campaign, ridership has been on a steady decline.

According to Metropolitan Transportation Authority data, there were nearly 5.6 million trips taken a day on average in the past 12-month period ending in September. That’s 80,000 fewer trips than an average weekday from the same 12-month period in the prior year.

There were 58,000 fewer average two-day weekend subway trips, which now total about 5.7 million rides.

In addition, the number of people relying on buses to get them around the traffic-choked city is dropping. Daily ridership fell below 2 million passengers this year — to 238,345 fewer trips a day from the 2.1 million trips in 2013.

“At roughly 5.7 million rides a day, New York City subway ridership is still near historic highs — and we are stabilizing the system through (a) Subway Action Plan so riders have the reliability they deserve,” said MTA spokesman Jon Weinstein.

“We’re also intensely interested in drawing riders back to buses, which we believe starts with tackling the scourge of congestion on New York City’s streets.”

Riders said they just can’t wait for the transit system to catch up to their needs.

“Personally, I’ve been using Ubers a lot more than I have the subway,” said Jamie Dolye, 23, a Midtown restaurant worker who lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn. “I don’t know if it’s because I have a betterpaying job than before or just the convenience, really. Subways don’t run as much at nighttime, and the fact is that if you’re going to certain areas, it’s a lot easier just to type in your phone instead of walking 10 minutes to a subway stop.”

The criticism comes as the city saw a 1.1% boost in employment, or 48,900, jobs.

“People are choosing to bail when they can,” transportation economist Charles Komanoff said. But with new jobs in New York, he added, “2017 should have been a subway boom year.”