Because I’d like to see more and better public transportation in this region, I’d also like to see more–and better–sources of public transportation funding. In my ideal world, we’d fund transit with gas taxes, parking taxes, tolls, and congestion charges–instead of just sales tax. For now, I’ll settle for advertising as a source of revenue. […]
I’m still in Detroit, so I almost forgot that the first phase of service improvements funded by Transit Now took effect today. Here’s a summary of the changes: Route 8 – Adding several trips during the morning and afternoon commute to offer bus service every 15 minutes on the portion of this route between Seattle […]
Let’s get the stick out of the way first. From our friend Mr. Singer: Guess those muscle cars Detroit is so fond of haven’t been doing the trick. And now, the good stuff: From a recent American Public Transportation Association study: • Public transportation usage reduces U.S. gasoline consumption by 1.4 billion gallons each year […]
In Seattle: • 2006 was a year of record ridership for Metro. The current estimate: 103.2 million passenger boardings. I’m guessing Bus Nerd and I account for about 10% of those. Kidding! (sort of) The article also explains how Metro counts riders: The most precise method of counting ridership involves the use of Automated Passenger […]
Good news from the American Public Transportation Association (drum roll, please): Public transportation ridership is up! According to APTA’s press release, transit ridership increased 3.2% nationwide–and a lot more in our neck of the woods. Bus ridership in small, medium, and large communities also showed increases. Nationally, bus ridership increased by 3.2%. The largest bus […]
Detroit recently hosted its 12th annual Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise, “the world’s largest one-day celebration of car culture.” Yikes. I have to admit, the cars are fun to watch (yes, this bus chick has been known to admire shiny, pimped-out rides), and–judging by the million plus people who turned out to salivate over them–I’m not […]