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Public Transit Ridership in the United States

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If you think the bunch of numbers is unrelated or wrong, why don't you construct a counter argument that is supported by verifiable financial and operational data. What you have offered up are opinions based on your observations.  They do not reflect a very good grasp of DART's financials, ridership levels, and activities.  The   financial and operating data can be found on DART's webpage.  Have a look. That is where I get most of my information regarding DART. Three or four years ago, I asked DART for a breakdown of ridership numbers for the buses, light rail and TRE.  I never thought that they would make them available to me.  Boy was I surprised.  They e-mailed me an Excel spreadsheet for every bus and rail line with data for every run from the first run in the morning to the last run at night.   As one might imagine, ridership peeks during the morning and evening rush hours. It is relatively light during the pre-morning and after evening rush hours. On the TRE for example, from CentrePoint to downtown Dallas, the rush hour trains had an average load factor of approximately 85 per cent of capacity. However, overall the average load capacity was approximately 33 per cent of capacity.  Some of the late night trains, unless there is a special event at the American Airlines Center, operate with an average load of 10 per cent.  The figures probably have not changed much.  In fact, according to an article in this morning's Dallas News, ridership for the system is down from it peaks.  Load factors can be deceptive.  During the morning and evening rush hours a typical TRE train has four cars. However, during the day, as well as the pre-morning and after evening rush hours, a typical TRE train has two or three cars.  Thus, by reducing capacity during the day, the TRE shows a higher load factor than otherwise would be the case. By comparison, DART does not change the consist of its light rail trains because they are semi-permanently coupled together.  Again, if you think these are a bunch of unrelated statistics, that's up to you. But unless you can offer some validated counter figures, I am sticking with my story. When you offer a fact, which is rare, you select the data, i.e. the $7 day pass on DART/TRE/T without mentioning the substantial subsidies riders receive. The reason that you don't understand the financial data and statistics is because you haven't delved into them.  Your conclusions are based on personal observations, which are not supported by facts. You are wasting your time criticizing my use of data unless you can present properly supported counter data. If you don't understand the relationship of incomes to neighborhoods to the ability to drive on a toll road to the ability to park close in or the relationship of low income to the need to use public transit, there is nothing that I can say  that would convince you that the numbers are drivers of outcomes.  Or to be more accurate they are input and outcome indicators. Or that they are not just a bunch of numbers!
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