[N]ot only are RTA fares the highest they have ever been in real dollars, but in the static period between October 1975 and September 2009, fares more than doubled overall inflation.
I went ahead and built a model to see what relationship exists between RTA ridership and a few logical variables. What influences ridership? I think fare prices are obvious, regional population seems intuitive, and gasoline prices are often cited as a reason why people use transit instead of driving. Lastly, it’s often suggested in the media that transit usage dips during recessions because if people don’t have jobs, they don’t have anywhere to go – so I threw in unemployment for good measure.
The (not so good) results of his number-crunching, and a passle of graphs are at the full post on Brewed Fresh Daily.
2 Comments
1 cubejockey wrote:
the PD should cover this…but…of course…their newsroom is currently the Yes on Issue 6 HQ.
2 Adam Harvey wrote:
You’re totally right, the planning bloggers ‘round Cleveland do a much better job than the PD ever has.