 |
BOX 6-B
Unlinked Passenger Trips vs. Number of Passengers
All
transit ridership data relate to trips taken-not to
people-because that is how data are collected and reported. The heavy use of
passes, transfers, joint tickets, and cash by people transferring from one
vehicle, service, or public transportation agency to another makes it
impossible to count people. Only boardings (i.e.,
unlinked passenger trips) can be counted with any accuracy. At the largest
public transportation agencies, even the number of boardings may be estimated for a portion of the ridership (e.g., free shuttle vehicles without fareboxes and
light-rail service using a "proof-of-payment" system).
The
majority of people using public transportation take two trips per day (one to
work in the morning and one home in late afternoon or evening). A small
proportion-perhaps 5 percent-make only one public transportation trip (e.g.,
they ride public transportation to the airport and then fly out of town, or
they ride public transportation in the morning to work, but ride home in a
friend's automobile at night). A somewhat larger proportion
(primarily the public transportation-dependent) take 4, 6, 8, or even 10
trips per day.
At
most agencies, perhaps 10 to 30 percent of riders must transfer to a second
(and sometimes a third) vehicle to reach their final destination. Some transfer
from bus to bus, from bus to train, from one agency's vehicle to another
agency's vehicle, and so on. Thus, there is a large amount of double-counting
of people. APTA's best estimate is that the number of
people using public transportation on any day is about 45 percent of the number
of trips reported.
Saturday ridership is often about 50 percent of weekday ridership, and Sunday ridership may be only 25 percent. In many smaller cities, public transportation service
does not operate on Sundays; in a lesser number, there is no Saturday service.
Source: American Public Transportation Association, "Number of People Using
Public Transportation," available at http://www.apta.com/, as of June 2005.
|
|
