The people behind Transit, one of the more popular trip planning apps, have put together an estimate on how Covid-19 has affected every transit agency they track. Here are the figures for the Puget Sound.
The company says that the percentage declines are approximated based on previous years’ app usage, since they don’t have actual ridership data. Since these are all percentage declines against “normal”, you don’t see the typical weekend drop-offs. Still, some trends are obvious, such as the probably-shoulda-been-canceled Sounders home game on March 1.
Metro has also updated its own ridership measures, showing a continued decline over the month. There are now an average of 150,000 weekday riders, down from 400,000.
In related news, here is a big list of all local agencies, including many community-based shuttle services, that have had service impacts as a result of Covid-19.
Update 8:55am: Metro has an online tool for you to check whether or not a specific trip is cancelled.
I’m glad Metro is listing which individual trips are cancelled. And I’m also glad they are restoring some service to routes that are overcrowded. It seems to me that the first place they should cut is commuter express routes with high-income, P&R-based ridership (I assume ridership is nearly zero because these passengers are likeliest to be able to work from home or drive). For an example, I checked route 219 to Issaquah Highlands. Curiously, they have cut five of six inbound AM trips, but only two of nine outbound PM trips. So there is seven times as much outbound than inbound service. That seems very wasteful.
Any information on how the cancelled trips show up in OBA? Do they appear as late/on time/early, scheduled arrival, or simply missing (like they should be)?
[trolling]
[ah]