Falling transit ridership an ‘emergency’ for cities
WASHINGTON — Transit ridership fell in 31 of 35 major metropolitan areas in the United States last year, including each of the seven cities that serve the majority of riders, with losses stemming from buses, but punctuated by reliability issues on systems like the Washington area’s Metro system, according to an annual overview of public transit usage.
The analysis by the New Yorkbased TransitCenter advocacy group, using data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Transit Database, raises alarm about the state of “legacy” public transit systems in the Northeast and Midwest and rising vehicle ownership and car-based commuting in cities.
Researchers concluded that factors such as lower fuel costs, increased teleworking, higher car ownership and the rise of alternatives such as Uber and Lyft are pulling people off trains and buses at record levels.
The data also showed 2017 was the lowest year of overall transit ridership since 2005, according to TransitCenter, and bus ridership alone fell 5 percent.
“I think it needs to be considered an emergency,” said Jarrett Walker, a transit planner who served as a consultant on a topdown bus network redesign to curb cratering ridership in Houston.
“When we don’t share space efficiently we get in each other’s way. And that is a problem for the livelihood, the viability, the livability and the economy of a city . ... It means more traffic, more congestion.”
Exceptions to the trend, Seattle, Phoenix and Houston, either expanded transit coverage and boosted service or underwent ambitious network overhauls, as in Houston’s case. New Orleans ridership stayed flat.
In 2015, the Houston bus system was transformed overnight from a traditional hub-and-spoke design focused on downtown to a grid that apportioned equal service to other parts of the city.
In the aftermath of the redesign, the system saw significant weekend ridership gains and quelled a trend of dramatic losses that included losing a fifth of its ridership over a little more than a decade.
That was not the case for the majority of U.S. cities.
Between 2016 and 2017, ridership fell in each of the seven largest transit markets: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia.
Transit researchers said it is crucial for cities and transit agencies to slow the losses even amid declining revenue, as alternatives threaten to lure people back into cars, particularly as shared rides become cheaper with the arrival of autonomous vehicles.
The problem: The declines mean a decrease in farebox recovery, which can often lead to fare increases and reduced service.
“The thing that’s perhaps a little bit more scary about this downturn (is) the prospect of technology will continue to nibble away (riders),” said Steven Polzin, program director for mobility policy research at the University of South Florida’s Center for Urban Transportation Research.
Polzin described what he called a “tough political sell” for agencies faced with decreasing ridership.
“Ridership declines, and then fare revenue declines, and then you have to cut service which means ridership declines more,” he said.
“So folks get nervous about the cyclical nature of the decline because of lost fare revenue. But they also undermine kind of the public will to invest additional subsidy dollars and service as well.”
Seattle is viewed as the model for how transit agencies can recoup ridership in an era of population growth, an improving economy and rapid technological change — in part because of the popularity of buses.
The city’s bus ridership has steadily grown from 92 million to 119 million trips over 16 years, the TransitCenter analysis shows. Light-rail ridership has ballooned amid expansions, to 32 million trips last year.