undefined | Better HN

0 pointsabeppu6mo ago0 comments

I think that's a misleading statement:

- Prior to the pandemic, BART got >60% of its operating costs from riders (p9 in your linked doc)

- Ridership is still way down relative to 2019 even though costs are up in absolute terms

- Even from 2020 data, BART was hitting 50% https://lovetransit.substack.com/p/most-profitable-public-tr... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farebox_recovery_ratio#United_...

The subsidy in BART is higher than anyone would like it now, but I do think that's still a transient response to the pandemic; either more people will have to eventually go back to riding public transit, or we'll need to drop the emergency funding it's been receiving.

0 comments

flerchin6mo ago

Well I wasn't trying to be misleading. I do agree with what you've said wrt historical ridership, but it's been 6 years. BART docs imply that RTO is driving ridership back. We may be in a new normal wrt remote working patterns. Dropping emergency funding would, imo, lead to a death spiral of reduced maintenance and service which further reduces ridership. We can have nice things, paid for by taxes.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse