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Given the economic crisis as well as high gas prices, it comes as no surprise that the CTA's 2008 ridership numbers were way up. The agency announced it had 526.4 million rail and bus rides in 2008, an increase of 26.8 million (or 5.4 percent) over 2007. The overall total is the highest since 1992 and it's also the largest single-year increase in 34 years. That worked out to 1.68 million rides per weekday. The big gainer was the buses, which saw a total of 328.2 million rides rides, up 6.1 percent over 2007. The CTA is attributing a part of this jump to the Blue Line slow zone work and the Brown Line expansion work. Rail rides increased by 4.1 percent to 198.2 million. Also not surprising: the largest decreases in ridership occurred at train stations near the city's two airports, something the CTA blames on the decrease in air travel. Check out the CTA's full report at their site.
Photo by Cycle the Ghost Round
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I'm not sure why you believe that the economic crisis would cause the CTA's ridership to increase. The overwhelming majority of passenger trips are people going to work. So when there are fewer jobs there are going to be fewer people who use the CTA. The CTA's ridership numbers throughout history has reflected this. When there is an increase of jobs in Chicago there generally is an increase in riderhip. When there are fewer jobs there is usually either a smaller increase or a decrease. Occasionally there may be another factor that offsets this, such as the huge spike in gas that we saw last year. But an economic crisis certainly does not help the CTA.
The economic crisis, of course, really come to full fruition until the very end of the year. So it really wouldn't be reflected in last year's numbers. So that combined with the much lower gas prices (and if you saw 60 Minutes on Sunday you will know that the spike last year probably is not going to occur again anytime soon)means the CTA will probably have a ridership decline this year. The only thing that might help them is the fact that there won't be as much construction going on so there will be fewer delays and reroutes on the rail system. And the slow zones have basically all been fixed. But I doubt that will be enough to offset the other factors.
Like most things in Chicago, the numbers are suspect. With respect to rail lines, rather than count entries to the system they assume (correctly) that about 20-25% of people transfer lines, and then count them as two riders. So the reality is about 20% of the "rides" are the same person on the same commute who just happen to ride two trains.
Their website changed all the stats going back to as long as they list the numbers. I remembered reading last year they had about 155 million, which then got jacked upward.
And yes, I am a nerd for knowing this.
Unfortunately, increased ridership does not necessarily mean increased revenue, increased quality, or increased frequency/scope of service.
MK, where are you getting your info about ridership as it relates to unemployment rates?
Probably a culmination of reading news articles and hearing CTA officials mention this. This isn't something that is in dispute. It is as obvious as the fact that people drive, shop, and go to restuarants more when the economy is better. Or when the weather is nicer more people engage in outdoor activities. Some people drive to a destination instead of using a plane when the economy is bad just as some people use public transit instead of driving. But that is small compared to the factors hurting ridership. Some people will eat out at a restuarant instead of going to the opera in a struggling economy. But that doesn't help the restuarant business offset the much larger amount of business they lose.