TriMet: 8.9 million riders in May ~ Comparision with cities across North America

PacificNW · #1 Posted: **Jun 10, 2008, 11:43 PM**

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 3:50 PM PDT
TriMet had record 8.9 million riders in May
Portland Business Journal

Print Article Email Article Reprints RSS Feeds ShareThis
TriMet MAX and bus ridership set a new record in May.

Weekly rides on MAX and buses were up 4.4 percent from May 2007, averaging 2,064,800 rides, for a total of 8.9 million.

The record is also a 3.3 percent increase over April 2008 weekly figures.

Weekday trips increased to an average of 225,200 bus rides and 112,100 MAX rides. Bus rides increased 4.4 percent and MAX increased 1.6 percent from May 2007.

Weekend ridership averaged 217,500 bus trips and 160,800 MAX trips. Bus rides increased 7.6 percent and MAX increased 11.2 percent from May 2007.

More commuters are riding during morning rush hour (7-9 a.m.). An additional 5,400 trips were taken as compared with May 2007, an 11.2 percent increase from May 2007. This brings the total morning commute trips to 52,500.

New record trips were taken during evening rush hour (4-6 p.m.). Compared with May 2007, the increase of 6,000 riders was a 10.2 percent jump. This adds up to 65,100 daily commuter trips in the evening.

"This continuation of record ridership shows that riders are looking for alternatives to driving and ways to help offset high fuel prices, and TriMet is a great alternative," said TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen.

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/...ml?jst=b_ln_hl
_____________________________________

Is it me, or am I off base? These stats don't seem to me too be that impressive considering what I have read about other transit authorities ridership increase's in the other parts of the U.S. I assume different transit authorities measure their ridership figures differently could be a reason.

MarkDaMan · #2 Posted: **Jun 11, 2008, 1:32 AM**

Weekday trips increased to an average of ... 112,100 MAX rides

Weekend ridership averaged ... 160,800 MAX trips

Are these correct?

PacificNW · #3 Posted: **Jun 11, 2008, 2:04 AM**

How are "commuter trips vs. rides" and "boardings" computed/compared? What is the difference between these terms? The following are the stats for King County (Seattle) Metro:

During the month of April, Metro averaged 395,000 daily boardings on weekdays. Itís an increase of about 22,000 boardings a day over the average for the same month in 2007 ñ or, a 5.9 percent increase.

Park-and-ride lots are also seeing increased use. During the first three months of 2008, the 129 lots served by Metro accommodated almost 2,000 more vehicles a day. That equals a 13 percent increase in park-and-ride usage for the first quarter of 2008 compared to first quarter of 2007.

http://www.metrokc.gov/kcdot/transto...8.htm#feature1

Sekkle · #4 Posted: **Jun 11, 2008, 2:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkDaMan

Weekday trips increased to an average of ... 112,100 MAX rides

Weekend ridership averaged ... 160,800 MAX trips

Are these correct?

I think the weekend trips are probably Saturday and Sunday combined, whereas the weekday stat is an average for each weekday.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PacificNW

How are "commuter trips vs. rides" and "boardings" computed/compared? What is the difference between these terms?

"Boardings" (also called "unlinked passenger trips") count each time someone gets on a bus or train, regardless of whether or not they're transferring from another bus or train. I assume "commuter trips" is equivalent to "linked passenger trips" which counts a passenger's entire trip from starting point to destination as one trip, regardless of how many buses or trains they rode.

PacificNW · #5 Posted: **Jun 11, 2008, 1:57 PM**

It was stated on MSNBC this morning that transit ridership (probably includes Sound Transit Bus and Commuter Rail) is up 28%.

PacificNW · #6 Posted: **Jun 11, 2008, 11:32 PM**

Thanks for the explanation. Are there transit authorities who count every boarding as a new passenger regardless if they are transferring from another bus, or light rail line? So, if a passenger catches 3 different modes of mass transit to get to their destination they are counted as 3 passengers/riders? If this is the case how can transit ridership increases/decreases/numbers be accurately compared with one another cities stats if transit agencies provide different types of calculations? Whew..does my question make sense?

JordanL · #7 Posted: **Jun 11, 2008, 11:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by PacificNW

Thanks for the explanation. Are there transit authorities who count every boarding as a new passenger regardless if they are transferring from another bus, or light rail line? So, if a passenger catches 3 different modes of mass transit to get to their destination they are counted as 3 passengers/riders? If this is the case how can transit ridership increases/decreases/numbers be accurately compared with one another cities stats if transit agencies provide different types of calculations? Whew..does my question make sense?

Ideally transit numbers should described in trips, not boardings, and as a percentage of travel that day.

Sekkle · #8 Posted: **Jun 11, 2008, 11:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by PacificNW

Thanks for the explanation. Are there transit authorities who count every boarding as a new passenger regardless if they are transferring from another bus, or light rail line? So, if a passenger catches 3 different modes of mass transit to get to their destination they are counted as 3 passengers/riders? If this is the case how can transit ridership increases/decreases/numbers be accurately compared with one another cities stats if transit agencies provide different types of calculations? Whew..does my question make sense?

Most, if not all, US transit agencies report "unlinked" trips (i.e. boardings) to the American Public Transportation Association, which compiles ridership reports. (See this page). I think most European agencies (and maybe Canada, too) count linked trips... but I could be wrong. So in other words, you can compare US transit agencies to one another pretty easily, but comparing to other countries is another story. Numbers for US cities will likely be inflated since each boarding is counted.

PacificNW · #9 Posted: **Jun 11, 2008, 11:54 PM**

Thanks guys for your input....

I will bookmark that report you provided ForAteOh for future reference. You may be correct that Canada may do their calculations differently. I remember guys from Calgary always making comments about the poor support of mass transit in the U.S. compared to Canada....which could be true, I don't know.

alexjon · #10 Posted: **Jun 12, 2008, 1:48 AM**

We'll get linked trip calcs when we get smart cards.

RED_PDXer · #11 Posted: **Jun 13, 2008, 7:19 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexjon

We'll get linked trip calcs when we get smart cards.

TriMet could provide linked trip calcs now. Every few years they conduct origin-destination surveys of riders on certain lines with the goal that each bus and max line get surveyed at least once every few years. One of the questions is "how many times did you need to transfer to make this trip?" These transfer rates can be weighted by passenger counts (on/off data collected by the automatic passenger counters) in order to get a linked trip calc.

The rates, from what I remember, vary somewhat significantly from line to line, and between mode. For example, the streetcar tends to attract riders who would not otherwise use transit, so they only take streetcar when it goes where they need to go, and will drive otherwise. Similar for the MAX.. The Interstate MAX actually experienced a decline in transfer rates from the Line 5 it replaced since all the additional riders who rode it because it took them directly where they wanted to go. I think about 83% of MAX and streetcar riders do NOT transfer, whereas some bus lines probably see transfer rates as low as 60%. From my recollection, the Trimet systemwide average transfer rate is about 1.3 (based on the surveys) so that 1.3 boarding rides represent a trip (I could be a little off)... Therefore, about 337,000 daily rides represents about 260,000 calculated linked trips.

MarkDaMan · #12 Posted: **Jun 13, 2008, 1:24 AM**

^God I hope that doesn't happen...only because I'm selfish. My employer buys me a pass annually, and with a 'smart card' they could then change their stance to only paying for trips I take commuting to and from work. I had a 'smart card' in Phoenix and my employer forbid us from using it for anything other than the commute...and the damn card readers were broken down so much I had to take a couple bucks anyway, just in case. (When the card reader is down, they don't let you ride for free because you have a card)

alexjon · #13 Posted: **Jun 13, 2008, 2:21 AM**

Smart cards seem like such a Portland thing. I bet the project manager up here in Seattle will run down there after he finishes his final report on the ORCA card

MarkDaMan · #14 Posted: **Jun 13, 2008, 4:22 AM**

^why do you think that? Portland is so anti-establishment, I don't see a huge 'smart card' lobby emerging.

zilfondel · #15 Posted: **Jun 13, 2008, 7:58 PM**

I read that in Canada they count one trip as a round-trip (to and from work), so our stats, even when counting linked trips, are inflated 2x compared to Canada.

deasine · #16 Posted: **Jun 13, 2008, 8:45 PM**

Here's statistics of Metro Vancouver from 1997-2007: passenger trips & system boardings.

http://www.gvrd.bc.ca/growth/keyfacts/transit.htm

PacificNW · #17 Posted: **Jun 13, 2008, 10:36 PM**

⇡Cool, tks!

Bill_G · #18 Posted: **Jun 16, 2008, 1:01 PM**

Trimet ridership stats are derived from the passenger counters in the stairwells of each bus. The counts are accumulated during a run, and downloaded when the operator turns in his pouch. Manual audits are a thing of the past. However, the system has a well known error factor of at least 3 percent. It is not uncommon for an empty bus to return to the yard with 20 passengers aboard after a full days run. "More on's than off's" used to be a common maintenance issue. Now it's only addressed if no passenger count data is accumulated during the day because no fix was found for the accumulated errors. The technology is just not there to be 100 percent accurate.

And privacy issues drive the anonymity factor for now. If a smart card could be tracked without linking to an individual, then it would be accepted and the data brought into the system. We could follow a particle in the tube without knowing who they are. If people get the hint that a card identifies them, the technology would not be used.