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2008 transit loads

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  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Georgia USA SW of Atlanta
  • 11,919 posts
2008 transit loads
Posted by blue streak 1 on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 8:18 AM

Ridership reports of transit agencys are difficult to get until 30 - 90 days after the reporting period. With the volitile gasoline prices it might be good if all our posters would give quick updates of numbers of riders and new choke points that are happening.

Ex. A park and ride lot in Cummings Ga. opened last week. Two days later the lot was full and additional buses had to be added.

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Chicago, Ill.
  • 2,843 posts
Posted by al-in-chgo on Thursday, May 15, 2008 2:36 AM
 blue streak 1 wrote:

Ridership reports of transit agencys are difficult to get until 30 - 90 days after the reporting period. With the volitile gasoline prices it might be good if all our posters would give quick updates of numbers of riders and new choke points that are happening.

Ex. A park and ride lot in Cummings Ga. opened last week. Two days later the lot was full and additional buses had to be added.

I think there should be more sharing of rail-transit (or transit in general) data.  Of course, the LRT systems of Denver, Houston and Salt Lake City or the commuter-rail systems of Albequerque, Chicago, or Seattle may have considerably different constituencies, but some of the same principles apply -- especially now that we seem to have reached the "ouch-boing" price of gasoline that pushes a lot more people into the transit market.

In fact, given the near-simultaneity of Internet data, it's really a pity no one has put together a national clearinghouse for these types of data and not have it confined to lengthier summaries such as annual reports or infrequent conventions and meetings.  Perhaps other people have thought of it and there simply isn't enough money in the average RT district -- it goes to maintaining the infrastructure, paying the fuel bills and trying to keep up with parking and demand for buses, etc.

OTOH perhaps some bright person or persons would take a clue from the Wikipedia and just set up a website to SHARE the stuff!  Ridership reports are almost always public records, after all.

Hey, don't look at me.  I don't know my *** from my elbow about setting up blogs and websites.  But with all the volunteering going on with reviews of books, movies, consumer products, and the sharing of opinions in blogs, perhaps there are some good people out of there who could start building a site to integrate the relevant data much more quickly.  And keep opinion out of it or relegated it to editorials that do not pose as news articles or statistics. 

 

                                    --            "Just the facts, Ma'am." 

                                                                      -     Jack Webb on TV's Dragnet

 

al-in-chgo

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