Continued Economic Woes Help Push Public Transit Use Down in ‘09
By Jon Whiten • Mar 10th, 2010 • Category: Blog, NewsIt’s the economy, stupid.
That’s why the number of public transportation trips in New Jersey and across the United States decreased in 2009, according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), which on Monday released its annual report on transit-riding statistics.
The total number of trips across the country fell to 10.2 billion in 2009, a 3.8 percent decrease from 2008, a year that broke the modern record for mass transit use.
“Given last year’s economic hardship, this small decrease in ridership from a record number of ridership trips in 2008, indicates that support for public transit remains strong,” APTA president William Millar says in a statement. “Considering that nearly 60 percent of riders take public transportation to commute to and from work, it is not surprising that ridership declined in light of the many Americans who lost their jobs last year.”
North Jersey’s major transit agencies were pretty much in line with the rest of the country, seeing ridership decreasing by less than 5 percent in 2009.
The PATH train saw an estimated 72.4 million trips in 2009, a 3.36 percent decrease from 2008. Meanwhile, total traffic on NJ Transit was down 4.32 percent — a drop of 4.64 percent on commuter rail, 4.26 percent on buses and 3.64 percent on light rail.
For full statistics and more on the report, click here.
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Jon Whiten is the editor and co-publisher of the Jersey City Independent and NEW magazine.
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