Busiest Bus Routes (metro, downtown, Atlanta, subway)

[memph]

I'm curious to see what the busiest bus routes in Canada/USA are (including express, local, BRT and trolley buses). You can combined local and express service if they follow the same route.

Toronto (2007 weekday ridership)

Vancouver (2010 weekday ridership)
-I couldn't find any data for non-BRT routes

Montreal (2009 weekday ridership)

I could see some of Ottawa's BRT lines being 20k+ but I couldn't find numbers yet

Top 25 so far:
1. 80 + 165 + 535 Avenue du Parc: 71,600 (Montreal)
2. 99 B-Line: 50,000 (Vancouver)
3. 39 + 139 + 199 Finch: 44,600 (Toronto)
4. 29 Dufferin: 43,600 (Toronto)
5. 36 Finch West: 42,600 (Toronto)
6. 139 + 505 Pie-IX: 41,900 (Montreal)
7. 67 + 467 Saint-Michel: 41,800 (Montreal)
8. 32 Eglinton West: 41,100 (Toronto)
9. 25 Don Mills: 40,600 (Toronto)
10. 35 Jane: 39,000 (Toronto)
11. 54 Lawrence East: 33,800 (Toronto)
12. 121 Sauve/Cote-Vertu: 32,600 (Montreal)
13. 69 Gouin: 30,300 (Montreal)
14. 85 Sheppard East: 28,300 (Toronto)
15. 141 Jean-Talon Est: 28,078 (Montreal)
16. 106 + 196 York University: 27,700 (Toronto)
17. 60 Steeles West: 27,500 (Toronto)
18. 34 Eglinton East: 26,300 (Toronto)
19. 51 Boulevard Edouard-Montpetit: 24,866 (Montreal)
20. 53 Steeles East: 23,700 (Toronto)
21. 24 Victoria Park: 23,700 (Toronto)
22. 95 York Mills: 23,600 (Toronto)
23. 96 Wilson: 23,500 (Toronto)
24. 41 Keele: 22,800 (Toronto)
25. 18 Beaubien: 22,775 (Montreal)

Bold any routes that would break the top 25 and I'll add them in.

[Malloric]

The B46 and M15 lines (Brookyln and Manhattan) are both above 16 million, or 46,000 daily. Not sure what they are on weekdays, but probably over 50,000.

[memph]

Well for Toronto's commuter rail, you divide the yearly number by about 260 or 265, but it has much much less ridership on weekends than on weekdays, while B46 and M15 are probably more even. They would probably be around 55,000 per weekday. Do most American bus routes have ridership data only in yearly numbers?

Anyways, I'm thinking it would be more fair to split 80 + 165 + 535 in two. Basically, the 535 is an express bus line that has a U shape, with the "bottom" of the U being downtown Montreal. 80 and 165 run on either side of the U without meeting, let alone overlapping. If you look at the two sections, they would probably have around 35,000 and 45,000. If you look at 80+all of 535 and 165+all of 535, they would be about 45,000 and 55,000.

[Mgyeldell]

IN Atlanta I think the busiest are

95 Metropolitan
39 Buford Hwy
110 The Peach(Between Arts Center and Lenox)

In Charlotte

11 North Tryon
9 Central Ave
7 Beatties Ford

The 7 and 9 are being combined and being turned into a Streetcar
and the 11 will be followed by light rail in the next few years.

[nei]

The Geary St bus routes in San Francisco claim greater than 50,000. And 110,000 if you include buses running on the same direction on parallel streets.

[uptown_urbanist]

I believe the Wilshire bus routes (I believe they are the 720, 20, and maybe 920?) in LA are among the busiest in the country. Both Geary in SF and Wilshire in LA are prime examples of streets that desperately need subways!

[nei]

Originally Posted by Malloric

The B46 and M15 lines (Brookyln and Manhattan) are both above 16 million, or 46,000 daily. Not sure what they are on weekdays, but probably over 50,000.

M15 is 51,461. B46 is 49,673 weekday.
M15 is 55,000 for Saturday + Sunday and B46 is 63,800 for Saturday + Sunday. So bus ridership drops somewhere between 40-50% on weekends.

[checkmatechamp13]

Originally Posted by Malloric

The B46 and M15 lines (Brookyln and Manhattan) are both above 16 million, or 46,000 daily. Not sure what they are on weekdays, but probably over 50,000.

Back in March 2010, the MTA gave out booklets detailing service reductions they were going to make, and they listed every single bus route in the system. The B46 and M15 were a little over 53,000 as far as weekday ridership goes. For weekend ridership (Saturday + Sunday), the B46 had about 67,000 and the M15 had about 54,000.

Originally Posted by nei

M15 is 51,461. B46 is 49,673 weekday.
M15 is 55,000 for Saturday + Sunday and B46 is 63,800 for Saturday + Sunday. So bus ridership drops somewhere between 40-50% on weekends.

If you're using this website (mta.info | Facts and Figures), there are some groups they are excluding. For instance, I don't think they take Student MetroCards into account. On the S55/56, the ridership adds up to about 1,200 on that website IIRC, whereas on the stats they put out when they were doing the service reductions, they had them listed down as 1,800 (and those routes are known for having a high percentage of student riders because the areas they serve are upper middle-class and more car-centric)

So for the B46, there are probably another 4,000 student riders or something that aren't being accounted for. (I don't know if they count fare evaders in those stats. The drivers press a button to record people who don't pay as riders, but I don't know if it's the same situation as students where they're only counted in the more precise numbers)

[nei]

Why is the B46 bus route so busy?

The B46/M15 are both probably the busiest single bus routes in the US, but the San Francisco and Los Angeles ones mentioned are probably higher if you include all the nearby lines.

[checkmatechamp13]

Originally Posted by nei

Why is the B46 bus route so busy?

The B46/M15 are both probably the busiest single bus routes in the US, but the San Francisco and Los Angeles ones mentioned are probably higher if you include all the nearby lines.

Part of it is because it's so long: Running all the way from Williamsburg to Kings Plaza.

Second of all, that whole area of Southeast Brooklyn was supposed to get a subway line down Utica Avenue, back when the IND was planning the Second System. The character of the area is pretty much consistant with the rest of Brooklyn (mostly rowhouses, with more apartment buildings scattered about), but if you think about it, that type of density (When you have a straight corridor of continuous density like that) could sustain a subway line, so it makes sense that the buses would get great ridership. You also have the B35 in East Flatbush, which also gets around 50,000 riders per day, and the B41 and B44 also get something like 40,000 riders per day because of the lack of subway service.

In that area, Flatbush Avenue is known for having a lot of dollar vans running along the street (stealing some ridership from the B41), so it's really an area where demand for transit is high.

So for San Francisco and LA, how far away are the nearby lines? Because the B46 has the B47 a half mile to the east (I think it gets something like 14,000 riders per day), and the B44 a mile to the west (I think it gets about 40,000 riders per day). And the B41 cuts across Flatbush Avenue, but it's not really parallel (the B44 and B47 both go to Williamsburg, whereas the B41 goes to Downtown Brooklyn)