{"id":24763,"date":"2016-07-12T21:16:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T21:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145710.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=24763"},"modified":"2016-07-12T21:16:25","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T21:16:25","slug":"first-quarter-2016-shows-2-6-billion-public-transportation-trips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/first-quarter-2016-shows-2-6-billion-public-transportation-trips\/","title":{"rendered":"First Quarter of 2016 Shows 2.6 Billion Public Transportation Trips!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0American Public Transportation Association&#8217;s (APTA) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apta.com\/mediacenter\/pressreleases\/2016\/Pages\/First-Quarter-2016-Ridership.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">First Quarter 2016<\/a> report shows 2.6 billion trips taken on public transportation in the U.S. &#8211; for those 3 months alone. This .4% increase compared to the previous year may be partially due to rises in employment, as 60% of commutes are for work. More employed people = more commutes = more commutes on public transportation. (IMHO, may also be due to warmer temperatures this year, as\u00a0they make commuting on public transportation even easier).<\/p>\n<p>What cities saw the largest increases in ridership?\u00a0Albany, Flagstaff AZ, Oklahoma City, and Seattle.\u00a0Increases were seen across the country, though &#8211; ranging from Boston to Lewisville, TX, and San Fransisco to Little Rock.<\/p>\n<p>All of these increases occurred even <em>in spite<\/em> of lower gas prices this year. This may demonstrate a preference for, rather than a demotion to, public transport. Light rail systems saw the greatest rise in popularity &#8212; 3% on average, with impressive spikes in\u00a0Houston, TX (32.3%), Baltimore, MD (25.1%), Seattle, WA (21.2%), and Newark, NJ (13.5%). Commuter rail ridership increased by a close 2.7% overall, with\u00a0Anchorage, AK (29.0%), Boston, MA (19.6%), and Seattle, WA (15.7%) taking the top 3 spots. So what&#8217;s happening in these cities?<\/p>\n<p>In Houston, <a href=\"http:\/\/urbanedge.blogs.rice.edu\/2015\/10\/28\/in-texas-two-dramatically-different-transit-philosophies-emerge\/#.V3AlapMrK1s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">destination-focused planning<\/a> has made its rail system efficient and pragmatic for riders, especially compared to those of other Texas cities like Dallas. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/seattle-news\/transportation\/check-out-uws-new-light-rail-station-and-how-it-could-transform-seattle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Seattle expanded<\/a> its already successful light rail program, adding bustling stations at the University of Washington and Capitol Hill. These stations alone could add 45,000 riders to their transit system. Perhaps <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/metro\/2015\/10\/05\/mbta-tackle-scheduling-anomalies-improve-commuter-rail-service\/YPRFK0H0aQBPxcp22rGwqL\/story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">scheduling changes<\/a>\u00a0to address an inefficient rail system and an MBTA Commuter Rail Tracker App have increased the popularity of the rail system in Boston. These changes reflect a growing focus on public transportation in city planning, but even in many cities where no\u00a0big changes have been made, ridership has increased.<\/p>\n<p>According to APTA, economic growth correlates with greater ridership, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apta.com\/resources\/reportsandpublications\/Documents\/economic_impact_of_public_transportation_investment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">public transportation systems increase economic growth<\/a>\u00a0&#8212; quite the positive cycle. Given this, we should continue to\u00a0see this growth continue into 2016.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0American Public Transportation Association&#8217;s (APTA) First Quarter 2016 report shows 2.6 billion trips taken on public transportation in the U.S. &#8211; for those 3 months alone. This .4% increase compared to the previous year may be partially due to rises in employment, as 60% of commutes are for work. More employed people = more commutes &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/first-quarter-2016-shows-2-6-billion-public-transportation-trips\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">First Quarter of 2016 Shows 2.6 Billion Public Transportation Trips!<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":24656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566],"tags":[510,511,1619,667,524],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/train-1553734.jpg",330,440,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/train-1553734-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/train-1553734-225x300.jpg",225,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/train-1553734.jpg",330,440,false],"large":["https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/train-1553734.jpg",330,440,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/train-1553734.jpg",330,440,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/train-1553734.jpg",330,440,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Mira Bai Shahan","author_link":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/author\/mirabai\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The\u00a0American Public Transportation Association&#8217;s (APTA) First Quarter 2016 report shows 2.6 billion trips taken on public transportation in the U.S. &#8211; for those 3 months alone. This .4% increase compared to the previous year may be partially due to rises in employment, as 60% of commutes are for work. More employed people = more commutes&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikocity.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}