Transit’s recovery falters as ridership in August was just 49.97 percent of August, 2019 numbers, according to data released yesterday by the Federal Transit Administration. This is only slightly above July’s 49.13 percent of July 2019.
I’ll post Amtrak and driving data when they become available.
August data are not yet available for Amtrak or driving, but both were well above transit levels in July. August flying fell slightly from July, probably because of worries about a new wave of COVID and associated health mandates. These factors may have also depressed transit ridership for the month.
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Among urban areas, Detroit was down 76 percent; Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Washington were down by more than 60 percent; while Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Phoenix were down by 50 to 60 percent. Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, and San Diego were down by 40 to 50 percent, while Los Angeles, Miami, and Tampa were down by 35 to 40 percent. Doing best of all was Kansas City, which was down only 26 percent, mainly because the local transit agency has been offering free fares since November, 2020.
Transit agencies can’t blame low transit ridership on a lack of funding or reduced service. Nationwide transit service (measured in vehicle-revenue miles) in August 2021 was more than 82 percent of 2019, and most of the shortfall was for minor forms of travel such as monorails and streetcars. Both conventional bus service and rail service (including heavy, light, commuter, hybrid, and streetcars) ran at more than 88 percent of 2019 levels.
As usual, I’ve posted an enhanced spreadsheet with annual ridership and vehicle-revenue mile totals for 2002 through 2021 (to date) by transit agency and urban area. The raw transit data are in cells A1 through IJK2231. I’ve added annual totals in columns IL through JF, mode totals in rows 2240 through 2260, agency totals in rows 2270 through 3269 and totals for the 203 largest urban areas in rows 3275 through 3678. Columns JH and JI compare August, 2021 with August of 2019 and 2020; columns JJ and JK compare the year 2021 to date with January through August 2019 and 2020. All of these enhancements are on both the UPT (unlinked passenger trips) and VRM (vehicle-revenue miles) worksheets.
Advocates pine for a U.S. transportation system as it existed in about 1920s or 1930s, when trains were the dominant mode of intercity transportation, and want to use the taxing and regulatory powers(rather than logic of convenience) of government to return us to those blessed days. What they fail to realize was train utilization was a very limited affair, back then was a profitable enterpise in lieu of lack of competition of anything else.
Airlines, railroads, and rail transit systems are all very labor intensive, which makes them vulnerable to a loss of fares and, where subsidized, tax revenues during a recession. By contrast, airlines and roads receive subsidies but account for small minority of it’s operating expenses and declines in travel numbers can be netted out without catastrophic financial consequence, one can liquedate fewer flights.
Highway operations/maintenance are not as labor intensive, because it’s just a slab of concrete/asphalt. Maintenance, can be deferred for a time without slowing down traffic, because ridership declines place less wear and tear. Maintenance of infrastructure is proportional to use, maintenance of a highway system funded from user fees can fluctuate with user fees without any degradation; the less you use it, the less it occurs damage, plus improvements in material science lets us build roads with sturdier materials. Rail by comparison needs HUGE inputs of capital and labor to keep in a sturdy work ready condition, whether you use it or not.
Local agencies have been offering “Free Fares” Nationally, more than 20% of public school teachers with school-age children enroll them in private schools, Twice national average. In any case, the public employees’ willingness to pay full price or a sizeable chunk of their salary; for a competing product or service and forgo their employer’s product or service at a reduced price (or no cost) makes a strong statement about the low quality of said service. The question isn’t “Should public transit be free” Real question is “Why are they trying to give it away for free? If they cant even operate a system people are willing to pay for with modest fee that’s supposedly more economical than automobiles.
Whenever transportation infrastructure is financed thru a myriad of various financial methods there’s the invitation for graft, waste, fraud and just plain fiscal incompetence. Also when projects derived from a multitude of financial sources, you run the risk of the source depleting or funding shortages along one of those revenue streams regardless; if it’s no longer valid or substantial. When transportation infrastructure is paid for out of user fees or at least majority user fees, there’s an incentive to keep it simple and functioning. When transportation funding is paid for out of tax money derived from some sort of scheme concocted by politicians; cost controls go out the window because more ambitious schemes are already being dream’t up to finance more ambitious plans; and there’s no guarantee you’ll get enough funds.