The Oil Drum

Good News? Subway and Bus usage is up despite ongoing capital projects that produce baffling subway re-routes every weekend and slow buses service because of traffic congestion.

Average weekday subway ridership rose to 5.076 million in September, the highest level since transit officials began making monthly calculations in 1970, New York City Transit said yesterday. It was the first time since 1970 that the average weekday figure passed 5 million on the subway. Combined subway and bus ridership in September was 7.61 million on an average weekday. That was the highest combined figure since December 1970, when it was 7.627 million.

However this is still significantly down from December 23rd 1946 when almost nine million (8,872,244) trips were made on NYC transit subways and buses.

Photograph of crowded L train from lauratitian on Flickr

If the city has seemed empty on the weekends lately, it's probably because of all the service changes on the weekend. And much of this is needed, as for decades the MTA capital budget was slashed and there was no money to even maintain the system in good working order or remove graffiti, nevermind actually expanding or improving the system. So I'm glad much of the system is getting a long overdue upgrade and expansion in many areas. But all of it seems to be happening at once with no extra service on the remaining few lines that remain operational. And there are huge swaths of the city that simply lack any good mass transit options. What would help make this situation better?

As readers of this page may know, I have about a two mile commute from my apartment to my office. It's basically a straight shot down Second Ave. I have several commuting options, which is unique in America where most people rely completely on their car.

When I first moved here about 6 months ago I reflexively took the 4 or 5 train from 86th street to Grand Central Station, but in the NYC Summer it started to get really, really oppressively hot in the tunnels, so I took the bus a few times and much to my surprise, it was a pleasure! Typically I had a seat the whole way (something I never got on the Subway), although it was slower due to traffic, particularly around the Queensboro Bridge off ramp at 59th and 2nd Ave.

Then I started to walk more to get a little exercise in. Below you can see the breakdown of the various considerations in choosing which transportation to take.