Remember the 90s? You know when transit was the future? The future is here. You'd think a massive 10% y-o-y change in ridership would be headline news right? Not when it is a decline. Here is the Los Angeles data:Bus Total Calendar Month Boardings 2007 30,582,796 2006 33,860,858
This is headline news. Haven't you heard the headlines? That's because the implosion of the decades long LAMTA policy of transit bias is imploding. These lies cannot survive a recession.
I've been very patient. I've long seen the current transit crisis. All the new projects are in trouble. All the recent projects are not growing as planned. All the old lines are in desperate need of deferred attention.
My only surprise is that not everyone saw this coming or that most did not understand that transits' minor revival was a dead cat bounce.
12 comments:
I should point out that there were 20 workdays in 2007 and 21 in 2006 which accounts for about 1/3 of the decline. However, there does appear to be a real 7.5% decline in bus use in LA. (about 92k daily riders for the directly operated buses).
I wish ridership in DC was down 10%, I'd actually be able to find a seat on the Metro. Actually, I think it's have to be down more like 50% for me to find a seat. As it is, it's more people every day. Raising rates will decrease ridership, but probably not by enough.
Even so, it beats driving. Glacially slow traffic on virtually every road, and parking at $15/day (and that's the monthly discount rate) . . . no thanks.
I want that freakin' tramway back - not that silly Bunker Hill one that broke ( and the accident report is really interesting - check your local NTSB site ) but the one that I've seen on a Columbo episode with Roddy McDOWELL that went from the bottom of Eaton Canyon to the top of the San Gabriel mountains - do correct me if I'm wrong about this, Rob Dawg - relative to you I was a Johnny come lately re LA - but I love it a lot.
I wish the grandees would stop screwing it up. I know.. lets vote the buggers out. :-)
-K
Transit ridership is down here, too. They ended a lot of bus routes and put that money into "light" rail. They made the commute more difficult for poor working people, but created a system that looks pretty on the cover of their annual report.
Have you ever tried to ride the bus in LA? The buses are gridlocked too. I once took the bus to UCLA, a terrible multimodal experience that took 12 hours. Never again.
Here is a site for the old trams and electric trains of LA.
LA public transit sucks more than Marin's (tram/train-less too) so it's quite obvious why nobody wants to use it.
I think Cali should follow the Japanese transit model - just not their fishnet YouPr0n.
From the cann't win for losing dept:
New report from Worcester (Central Mass city) tonight on the fact that some think fuel prices are so high, that they MAY take public transit.
Problem is fuel costs for their transit company have gone up 85% in past 18 months, so they need to scale back service in a major way to hit operating expenses.
I think this could be changed by getting rid of buses and trams and subways.
Instead, used stretched Escalades. Nobody wants to say "I rode the bus" but they can say " I took my Escalade to work today" :<) :<) :<)
While attending College in Worcester I never took the bus. Total waste of time. Besides I was a bit strapped for funds after tuition. 2007 expenses: $45,278. Ouch.
My spouse takes a private express bus in everyday, which is only 1 mile from our house. It's $0.25 more than the public bus for a total of $2.75, which his company pays for. Oh, and it isn't really a bus, its a really nice, pretty new coach, with high backs. He gets downtown faster than in his car.
I have to drive because I work near downtown, but there are no direct routes to where I work. Sigh... Oh, well, FREEDOM!
http://www.progressiverailroading.com/freightnews/article.asp?id=11605
You do know that Amtrak counts State subsidies as ticket revenue? Also despite the increase in passengers and increase in fares expenses far outstripped those increases. They are spending more and more to attract each additional passenger.
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