US public transportation ridership on the decline, but not in Arizona
By: Alexis Morgan
Public transportation in the United States as a whole is on the decline. According to the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) Public Transportation Ridership Report for 2017, it is down 2.9%. There are a multitude of different types of public transport, these include: heavy rail, light rail, commuter rail, trolleybus, and buses.
Other potential methods of public transport in other countries include ferry boats as well. Like in Australia, where they saw an annual growth rate of 1.84% in ridership across all methods of public transportation from 2009 to 2013 according to their most recent Urban Public Transit Report.
According to Virginia Miller, the Director of Media Relations from the APTA, “In 2014 we had a modern record for ridership. I say modern because the highest ridership for public transportation was in the 1940s, because people didn’t own cars the way they did now, it was a very different world. A lot of people got around on trains and buses, in the 1950s you maybe owned one car and that was it.”
According to the International Association of Public Transportation (Union Internationale des Transports Publics, UITP), the U.S. falls in the lower demand per capita category of the countries that were studied. This means that the demand there is “at least 10% smaller than average of countries.” Countries like Singapore and Germany lead the higher demand category.
The transition from public transportation to individuals driving in cars came in the 1960s when families started owning multiple cars. “We started building highways, and the car took off. Roads were being increased and our communities were built with a car in mind. You had to drive to go to the supermarket,” said Miller.
However, certain areas of the country are not seeing this downward trend in recent years. The state of Arizona has actually been showing a substantial amount of increased ridership.
If the public appeal for transportation is there, then ridership will increase. This is proven to be true based on how Phoenix, Arizona went about enhancing and revamping their bus transportation system.
According to Kevin Peng, the Principal Planner at the Public Transportation Department in the city of Phoenix, “The trend of public transportation in the U.S. is mostly on the decline, with a few exceptions. The city of Phoenix is one of those exceptions, and we are very proud of that. With Proposition 104, which passed in 2015, the voters have empowered us with a lot more power to invest more into public transportation.”
Phoenix has shown an impressive 6.2% ridership increase from 2016 to 2017. Miller said, “Phoenix is up 6.2%, and it all goes back to that ballot initiative where they got the funding to improve the system, the frequency, and the hours of service. You will see a number of systems are down, but Phoenix is up.”
If the people want better public transportation, then they will demand it from the city.
Phoenix is not the only city in Arizona demanding better transit, Flagstaff is as well. According to Jackie Lenners, the Marketing Manager for the Mountain Line bus system in Flagstaff, “A lot of transit agencies around the U.S. are decreasing ridership on their bus systems. Here at Mountain Line we have seen year over year increases nearly every month in our ridership.”
Lenners attributes the increase to a couple of aspects, and said, “The growing NAU population definitely has something to do with it. This past year we added five more of the 60-foot buses that bend in the middle, it has doubled our capacity, while not increasing our operating cost because there is still just one driver.”
“The whole idea of public transportation is that it is more local,” says Miller, “There are a few state public transit systems in the U.S., like in Rhode Island and New Jersey. Some places are regional, but the most popular systems are going to be local.”
A large difference between public transportation in the U.S. and other countries is that in the U.S., public transport is largely city-based, it is more local. While in places like Australia, it is the entire state that controls most of the rail systems and some of the buses.
According to the most recent Statistics Brief compiled by the UITP in 2015, out of all the large countries in the study (countries with more than 30 million urban residents), the U.S. had the least public transportation journeys per capita by far. While Japan and Korea lead this category with number in the 200’s, the U.S. comes in last with 40.
These numbers for the U.S. reflect a lack of desire for more public transportation across the country. Peng said, “If the voters in a place want better public transport, they will ask for it. Phoenix voters asked and made a ballot initiative, then then gave the city the ability to provide them with the level transportation they wanted. It shows in the increased ridership numbers.”
There are a lot of benefits to utilizing public transportation. Miller said, “Public transportation is very important for communities. It is also very important for the local economy. Mayors all across the country know, they need a good transportation system to be economically prosperous.”
Another benefit is that it has less of an impact on the environment. “For one thing, when you take a bus or a train you are not an individual on a car on the road creating air pollution,” said Miller, “We are taking cars off the road, so just by virtue of that, public transportation is very environmentally friendly.”
Some forms of transport take the environmental impact to the next level, like Flagstaff’s bus system having its entire fleet of buses being hyper-electric. According to Lenners, “Hyper-electric buses are fuel efficient, and more environmentally friendly. The voters of Flagstaff in 2008 passed five ballot proposals related to Mountain Line, and one of them was giving us the ability to purchase the hyper-electric buses. It is a big desire of this community to be environmentally friendly. We got rid of our last two diesel buses about two years ago.”
Public transportation is constantly expanding. Peng said, “We are definitely looking to expand our service, looking for areas where service is lacking and looking to expand in those areas.” Phoenix’s public transport will continue to grow, and if more places around the country start to ask for it, it will increase in other places as well.
The rest of the world is still on top when it comes to ridership and efficiency of service, but the U.S. could catch up if people decide they want that. According to Miller, they are starting to come around to the idea. “What has really happened in more recent years is that there has been a return to appreciation for public transport and its value in a local community,” said Miller, “The whole idea of a walkable community is sustainable, you don’t have to get in the car every time you go somewhere. You walk, or you take a bus or train.”
The UITP Statistics Brief concluded that, “Most selected countries experienced an increase in public transport use… however, different countries show a variety of trajectories and paths of evolution.”
With request from voters across the country, the U.S. has potential to continue to grow and catch up to the ridership of other countries around the world. If it is what the voters want and they want to make sure their tax dollars are going to public transport, then all they have to do is ask.