Comments on: More Ridership Data http://www.orphanroad.com/blog/2008/05/more-ridership-data Puget Sound Transportation and Land Use Issues Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:55:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Bernie http://www.orphanroad.com/blog/2008/05/more-ridership-data/comment-page-1#comment-540 Bernie Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://wp.orphanroad.com/?p=685#comment-540 It's dangerous to equate "ridership" with "boardings". Long haul commuter routes (the 3 digit routes) have a lower number of boardings but those people ride much farther per boarding. So it may be just as crowded at any point on the ride as a short haul route where 5-10 people are getting on and off every couple of blocks. Another example; a 15 Express would likely show lower "boardings" than the 15 but might be just as crowded as the standard 15 at peak hours. In other words, "boardings" doesn't equate to percentage of capacity used (capacity utilization). Boardings per stop might be a better comparison. They're all taking pictures of the same thing but what you see varies dramatically with the lighting. The Route Performance Reports have a number of metrics to try and examine the relative value of different routes based on goals such as reduced VMT, system ridership, fare recovery, peak hour congestion relief, etc. Metro uses Rides/revenue hour and passenger miles per revenue hour in trying to determine route effectiveness. ST gives us boardings per trip. All of these can be related to capacity utilization whereas boardings per mile of route length is wildly distorted by frequency and trip distance. It’s dangerous to equate “ridership” with “boardings”. Long haul commuter routes (the 3 digit routes) have a lower number of boardings but those people ride much farther per boarding. So it may be just as crowded at any point on the ride as a short haul route where 5-10 people are getting on and off every couple of blocks. Another example; a 15 Express would likely show lower “boardings” than the 15 but might be just as crowded as the standard 15 at peak hours. In other words, “boardings” doesn’t equate to percentage of capacity used (capacity utilization). Boardings per stop might be a better comparison. They’re all taking pictures of the same thing but what you see varies dramatically with the lighting.

The Route Performance Reports have a number of metrics to try and examine the relative value of different routes based on goals such as reduced VMT, system ridership, fare recovery, peak hour congestion relief, etc. Metro uses Rides/revenue hour and passenger miles per revenue hour in trying to determine route effectiveness. ST gives us boardings per trip. All of these can be related to capacity utilization whereas boardings per mile of route length is wildly distorted by frequency and trip distance.

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