Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit

[randomness]

From http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/business/10transit.html:

With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.

“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.

“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas."

Some cities with long-established public transit systems, like New York and Boston, have seen increases in ridership of 5 percent or more so far this year. But the biggest surges — of 10 to 15 percent or more over last year — are occurring in many metropolitan areas in the South and West where the driving culture is strongest and bus and rail lines are more limited.

[I]n Denver, for example, ridership was up 8 percent in the first three months of the year compared with last year, despite a fare increase in January and a slowing economy, which usually means fewer commuters. Several routes on the system have reached capacity, particularly at rush hour, for the first time.

Transit systems in metropolitan areas like Minneapolis, Seattle, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Francisco reported similar jumps. In cities like Houston, Nashville, Salt Lake City, and Charlotte, N.C., commuters in growing numbers are taking advantage of new bus and train lines built or expanded in the last few years. The American Public Transportation Association reports that localities with fewer than 100,000 people have also experienced large increases in bus ridership.

The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which operates a commuter rail system from Miami to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, posted a rise of more than 20 percent in rider numbers this March and April as monthly ridership climbed to 350,000.

“Nobody believed that people would actually give up their cars to ride public transportation,” said Joseph J. Giulietti, executive director of the authority. “But in the last year, and last several months in particular, we have seen exactly that.”

Comments

[quezz.livejournal.com]

So we're being forced to become Europe of twenty years ago. Yay!

[mangosteen]

One of the more interesting things to fall out of this is that whole bunches of people who typically wouldn't use public transit because "those people use it" are finally getting hit hard enough in their wallets that they're forced to put aside their prejudices.

[nathanjw]

A 10% surge on mass transit is only about 0.5% of a change in the number of people driving, though. An interesting trend, but it's got a long, long way to go.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure, deflate my gloat!

[redbird]

Newsday ran an interview with the then-new president of the Long Island Railroad a few months back. One of the things discussed was the increase in ridership, and she noted that she didn't think the railroad could take all the credit, but that it had a lot to do with rising gas prices. [The general idea was that if you get more riders because you do better at being on time, or provide cleaner trains, or a schedule that better matches what people want, you can claim credit. Changes in gas prices or employment rates, no. It's sometimes fuzzy, of course: how much credit do you get for providing better park-and-ride facilities at the same time that gas prices go up?]

[rosminah.livejournal.com]

I would give a lot credit to the trend of Americans using large SUVs for their primary vehicle as the motivator. There are so many priuses now on the road in addition to other hybrid vehicles that aren't so visible, not only are the big vehicle drivers paying a lot for gas, but they know they are paying so much more than others and maybe that's a little embarrassing.
I recall that the Hummer's main advertising message was to be aggressive and dominant on the road. If they and other SUVs did attract that type of commuting consumer, I wouldn't be surprised if they were more sensitive to a little prideful humiliation.

[st-rev.livejournal.com]

“Nobody believed that people would actually give up their cars to ride public transportation...”

Nobody except anyone with two days' education in basic economics, anyway.

[agrimony.livejournal.com]

I would happily utilize more public transportation... if it existed in any plausible, usable manner where I live. :/ The route to New Haven runs reliably twice a day. Miss either one and you're not getting there, period.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yah, there's something absurd about the fact that a place as densely-populated as Connecticut only has useful public transit branching off a single line.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

My annual mileage is usually in the 4000-6000 mile range, even when I have driven to and from work on a regular basis (which I often did because I kept wanting to eke out a bit more sleep every morning). I finally got off my lazy ass and started taking the T to work every day when my office moved to the middle of Central Square. The rising price of fuel definitely made that shift even easier to get used to. If we buy a house, we are determined to stay within range of the T and/or at least one decent bus line. But with all that, I am a bit embarrassed to admit that it had to reach $3+/gallon to really make me get serious about driving less. That was the price point at which my desire for personal freedom at all times got bitchslapped by my desire to save money and be more environmentally responsible (I am a child of the suburbs, so "car = freedom" is strongly etched into my psyche).

Wouldn't it be nice if the cost of fuel actually got the Green Line extension built in, oh, the next 5 years or so?