An example of APC/AVL reports at http://www.psrc.org/boards/advisory/rtf_62008_KCMetro.pdf

Now I wish there was an easy way for us to have a look at that data.

Metro’s Route Performance Reports do not include rides within the Ride Free Area in the evaluation.

I’m not following. Are you saying that they can differentiate rides within the RFZ. How do they know if someone boarding in the RFZ is getting off again or actually boarding to go somewhere? I would imagine that a large percentage of all trips originate in the RFZ.

Another point of confusion is SLUT. I understand there are sensors (pressure or optical) which measure boardings on buses but on SLUT I’ve read that ridership is quoted based on operator surveys and it’s been impossible to replicate those figures by independent parties. Why no automated boarding sensors on SLUT, or are there?

Boardings are a great thing to measure but they shouldn’t be reported as something they’re not. A boarding does not equate to number of passengers and a 20% increase in boardings doesn’t equate to a 20% increase in ridership. What’s important are percentage of fare recovery, passenger miles provided, vehicle trip reduction,etc. It’s fine to report number of boardings but it’s not really very useful unless it’s translated into something more tangible. For example, what’s going to happen to boardings when Link is fully phased in? Will boardings increase because there will be lots of short haul trips to and from stations or will they decrease because bus service is replaced by light rail? What if boardings remain unchanged? It obviously wouldn’t be a valid conclusion that Link had no effect.

First off, Sims and BRT caucus are shown to have over-promised Rapid Ride in order to make a bOgus comparison with light rail.

Second, the light rail-hating Discovery Institute gets their you-know-what handed to them for pushing the ridiculous “least cost planning” micro ferry concept. Considering the fact these jokers pushed monorail, BRT, DMU’s, Mag-Lev, and passenger ferries as “alternatives” to light rail, their record is now 0 for 5.

Thank you, Bruce Agnew and Bruce Chapman. And a big thanks to Microsoft, for wasting $10 million on these idiots. Seriously, who is in charge of their money burning machine?

Cannibalization of WSF passengers and funding the systems have been major issues hovering over planning for Central Puget Sound passenger ferry service. We’ve been told that select WSF runs will likely be cut if passenger ferries siphon off too many passengers from WSF, due to the decrease in revenue. Part of this equation, though, is the perennial complaint that ferry and bus schedules don’t mesh, although all we’ve gotten for years are excuses and finger-pointing from the transit agencies involved. A lot of folks have said they’d definitely leave their cars at home if buses met the ferries and the buses got them where they needed to go in a reasonable amount of time. As long as that’s not happening, I don’t think people will willingly give up their vehicles.

This might not matter for the foreseeable future, at least in Kitsap County. Even if Kitsap Transit’s problem-plagued, long-delayed passenger ferry prototype eventually passes muster, there are no funds to operate one boat, let alone a fleet. Two separate Kitsap County ballot measures funding fast passenger ferries have failed, and Kitsap Transit just announced a new round of service cuts to its already exceedingly inadequate bus service.

Other routes on 520 (the peak hour routes) are 167, 242, 243, 250, 252, 256, 257, 260, 261, 265, 266, 268, 272, 277, 311, 555/556. Given my daily experience waiting at Montlake, I would guess around 1,500 additional commuters. Also, 280 suburban night owl service but that’s negligible.

The only all day buses across 520 are the 255, 271, 540, 545.

From Bejan’s 2007 average weekday ridership chart, the 271 and 255 each had almost 4,000 boardings, the 545 had almost 5,000 boardings, and the 540 almost 2,000 boardings. So the 545 has 1/3 of the boardings. This is for entire routes not just 520.

That said, you don’t get to just make guesses as to what numbers feel right to you, either.

Most planners I know DO assume most transit trips are return, and not just one-way. OTOH, I actually regularly commute only one way and get picked up to return home depending upon what I do after work. I’m sure I’m not the only one. And while many non-commute trips make involve multiple stops, you’re providing no data to assess how many vs. folks like my husband who takes the bus round trip to work twice a week for medical appointments, making one and only one stop.

Of course, just to really mix things up with something I hate about Metro: Does he count as two trips or one, since he can often use a transfer to make the return trip home? (I think transfers here should be directional.)

The 50,000 is just a guess. I think the numbers County wide for commuting is about 2.5% (not sure on that) and there’s roughly a million jobs in King County. I’m figuring half of transit use is purely commuting, could be more or less. Non-commute transit dependent riders are going to see more boardings per day because they make multiple trips. Anyway that puts it somewhere around 50,000 people that ride Metro. If someone can make a more refined guesstimate that would be great. I know everyone gets some benefit from public transit whether they use it or not but it would be useful to compare the amount of tax dollars spend per person on transit vs other needs (like schools) which must all be funded by the same pool of tax payers.