Yesterday’s Move It! column noted that METRO’s ridership is down:
Ridership went down in November for all of Metro’s primary modes of transportation: rail, Park and Ride and local bus service.
The slide in Metro’s ridership comes at a time when commuters now rely upon public transportation at record levels, according to a recent report from the American Public Transportation Association.
METRO’s ridership bookkeeping has always been mysterious, so who knows what the agency’s real numbers are. But it’s not hard to figure out that a contributing factor in the reduced number of riders is what happened to gas prices. Given a choice — affordable gas prices vs. late, uncomfortable, inflexible mass transit — the vast majority of people will choose to drive their cars. It’s personal freedom.
