The Greater Washington Partnership’s recent report on changes in bus ridership uses numbers to illustrate how much our society’s view on transportation and mobility has changed, in just seven short years. To put it in perspective just how fast our modes of transportation has changed, consider this: Uber was founded in 2009 while Lyft wasn’t launched until 2012!
These cultural transportation shifts have altered bus ridership in the Mid-Atlantic this way:
Baltimore, Maryland – Down 23.52%
Washington, D.C. – Down 7.68%
Richmond, Virginia – Down 24.66%
But the Mid-Atlantic is alone in mass transit ridership decreases. Even in New York City, subway ridership is well below its 1946 peak. Annual per capita transit trips in the U.S. plummeted from 115.8 in 1950 to 36.1 in 1970, where they have roughly remained since, even as population has grown. Additionally, the 20 largest bus systems in U.S. have seen a decrease in ridership of 11.85 percent. Some of the downsides of bus ridership are obvious; they are often the slowest vehicles on the road and frequent stops – which makes it more useful to more people – ultimately makes the journey that much longer. This is why buses are now often the ride of last resort. In Richmond and Arlington County Virginia, for example, there are only 12.5 miles of dedicated bus lanes in the entire state, there are only 300 intersections with Traffic Signal Priority (TSP) computers out of thousands of locations.
But, changes can be made so that these numbers have the potential to turn around. In some cases, certain agencies already are making changes. All regions need buses that are fast, reliable, and frequent. The Greater Richmond Transit Company recently launched the longest BRT line in the Capital Region, which now provides 900,000 trips daily.
Any city that wants to utilize buses successfully, must address five key actions:
- Optimize routes
- Make space for the bus
- Make boarding faster
- Make buses easy to use
- Measure and report on performance
In addition to ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft, other, emerging forms of “getting around” are taking riders off the bus, including micro-mobility, think e-bikes and e-scooters.
The only way to reverse the continuous decreases in public transit, and buses in particular, in the U.S. is by providing better service up front. And while riders might not come on day one, there are numerous examples, from cities like Phoenix and Seattle, that prove that better service attracts more riders. More riders in turn justify spending taxpayer dollars to improve service.