America’s public transit systems carried 80.6 percent as many riders in May of 2025 as the same month before the pandemic, according to data released last week by the Federal Transit Administration. That’s about the same percentage as in April; though a stickler (like me) would point it that it was three ticks lower as May was 80.58 percent while April was 80.61 percent.
May highway data will be presented here soon.
Transit’s overall ridership is boosted by New York, where nearly half of all transit ridership takes place and where May ridership was 86.4 percent of May 2019. I probably don’t need to do a roll call of urban areas where transit was above average, but transit officials in Chicago (68%), Atlanta (59%), Phoenix (57%), Denver (59%), St. Louis (57%), and Pittsburgh (57%) must be particularly nervous. Memphis cut the budget of its transit agency, forcing the agency to reduce service to 66 percent of 2019 levels, with the result that ridership was only 37 percent of that prior to the pandemic. Other cities and regions are contemplating similar cuts. Continue reading
