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Weekday EL ridership is around 650,000, and weekday Metra ridership is about 230,000, so no. That is not particularly high rail ridership for a region approaching 10 million residents. Chicago has significantly lower transit share than Boston, San Francisco and DC (and, of course, NYC).
Again, no. Weekday bus ridership is well under 1 million boardings. Chicago has half the weekday bus ridership of LA, and one-fifth the weekday bus ridership of NYC, though certainly population plays a role in these numbers.
Weekday EL ridership is around 650,000, and weekday Metra ridership is about 230,000, so no. That is not particularly high rail ridership for a region approaching 10 million residents. Chicago has significantly lower transit share than Boston, San Francisco and DC (and, of course, NYC).
Again, no. Weekday bus ridership is well under 1 million boardings. Chicago has half the weekday bus ridership of LA, and one-fifth the weekday bus ridership of NYC, though certainly population plays a role in these numbers.
Weekday EL ridership is around 650,000, and weekday Metra ridership is about 230,000, so no. That is not particularly high rail ridership for a region approaching 10 million residents. Chicago has significantly lower transit share than Boston, San Francisco and DC (and, of course, NYC).
Again, no. Weekday bus ridership is well under 1 million boardings. Chicago has half the weekday bus ridership of LA, and one-fifth the weekday bus ridership of NYC, though certainly population plays a role in these numbers.
Weekday EL ridership is around 650,000, and weekday Metra ridership is about 230,000, so no. That is not particularly high rail ridership for a region approaching 10 million residents. Chicago has significantly lower transit share than Boston, San Francisco and DC (and, of course, NYC).
Again, no. Weekday bus ridership is well under 1 million boardings. Chicago has half the weekday bus ridership of LA, and one-fifth the weekday bus ridership of NYC, though certainly population plays a role in these numbers.
Where are you getting those numbers??
Chicago's weekday ridership on the L is 750,000 not 650,000.
The weekday ridership on Metra is 305,000 not 230,000.
The weekday bus ridership on CTA is 1,002,000 not "well under 1 million boardings".
LA's buses deliver 1,142,000 riders per weekday. Chicago has 88% of that total, not "half".
CTA's buses deliver around 40% of the ridership of NYC, not 20%.
Just look in the CTA monthly ridership or APTA national quarterly reports.
Someone else questioned CTA having a fairly low ridership for being a large city - a lot of it has to do with the 155 bus routes in the city. They deliver many more rides than the trains because there's such a dense network. Hence you've got bus ridership of less than 400,000 in Boston, 450,000 in Washington DC, less than 300,000 in San Fran and 575,000 in Philly but over 1,000,000 in Chicago. Buses really offset here for a lot of local rides.
Just to be clear, Boston *doesn't* have a higher ridership, it has a higher percentage of the population that take public transportation. Total ridership is higher for Chicago on the subway, bus lines, and commuter rail compared to Boston:
Someone else questioned CTA having a fairly low ridership for being a large city - a lot of it has to do with the 155 bus routes in the city. They deliver many more rides than the trains because there's such a dense network. Hence you've got bus ridership of less than 400,000 in Boston, 450,000 in Washington DC, less than 300,000 in San Fran and 575,000 in Philly but over 1,000,000 in Chicago. Buses really offset here for a lot of local rides.
Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco and Philly have significant suburban bus agencies. Chicago doesn't. CTA is, by far, the dominant bus agency in Chicagoland. In contrast, SF has Non-MUNI bus riders than MUNI bus riders. You can't compare the regions without comparing all the major bus agencies.
I'm including APTA stats, not Wikipedia stats. And I'm including all transit agencies, not only CTA vs. LA MTA; obviously that isn't a reasonable comparison when one agency has 95% of local bus riders and the other agency has 50% of local bus riders.
I'm also including unlinked transit trips only, so the numbers will be lower than reported by CTA or what-have-you.
I think it's reasonable to say that, relative to population, Chicago has low bus ridership, at least compared to the largest U.S. cities. Certainly NYC and LA have higher proportional bus ridership. The point of all this was that some forumers were saying that Chicago's low rail ridership was offset by high bus ridership.
Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco and Philly have significant suburban bus agencies. Chicago doesn't. CTA is, by far, the dominant bus agency in Chicagoland. In contrast, SF has Non-MUNI bus riders than MUNI bus riders. You can't compare the regions without comparing all the major bus agencies.
I'm including APTA stats, not Wikipedia stats. And I'm including all transit agencies, not only CTA vs. LA MTA; obviously that isn't a reasonable comparison when one agency has 95% of local bus riders and the other agency has 50% of local bus riders.
I'm also including unlinked transit trips only, so the numbers will be lower than reported by CTA or what-have-you.
I think it's reasonable to say that, relative to population, Chicago has low bus ridership, at least compared to the largest U.S. cities. Certainly NYC and LA have higher proportional bus ridership. The point of all this was that some forumers were saying that Chicago's low rail ridership was offset by high bus ridership.
While CTA is the dominant bus system in the region, there's also PACE, which is very important to the suburbs.
Average weekday ridership of CTA + PACE: ~ 1.1 million
Average weekday ridership of LA MTA + Long Beach Transit + Orange County Transit + Santa Monica Transit: ~ 1.5 million
I wouldn't call Chicago's percentage of bus patrons low...and it's certainly not half of LA, as you had claimed.
Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco and Philly have significant suburban bus agencies. Chicago doesn't. CTA is, by far, the dominant bus agency in Chicagoland. In contrast, SF has Non-MUNI bus riders than MUNI bus riders. You can't compare the regions without comparing all the major bus agencies.
I'm including APTA stats, not Wikipedia stats. And I'm including all transit agencies, not only CTA vs. LA MTA; obviously that isn't a reasonable comparison when one agency has 95% of local bus riders and the other agency has 50% of local bus riders.
I'm also including unlinked transit trips only, so the numbers will be lower than reported by CTA or what-have-you.
I think it's reasonable to say that, relative to population, Chicago has low bus ridership, at least compared to the largest U.S. cities. Certainly NYC and LA have higher proportional bus ridership. The point of all this was that some forumers were saying that Chicago's low rail ridership was offset by high bus ridership.
Right, which puts the ridership at roughly 1.3 million...which is definitely impressive given the size. I think Boston's city rail coverage (primarily from the Green Line) is a bit better than that of Chicago. Part of this is obviously due to the smaller size of the city, but it's still covered very well. I do enjoy the EL a lot though. I think it's a great system.
Overall, I think they're more/less tied. They're very close.
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