103.2 Million Riders On The Bus, 103.2 Million Riders

Seattle Metro Transit is reporting that 2006 was a record year for bus ridership with 103.2 million boardings and for some reason we feel like cheering this news. Yay Metro Transit, you're competently running a bus service for the city of Seattle. Way to go. The release claims that this year's numbers represent a 4.3% increase over 2005 and attributes the increase in ridership to additional jobs in the area - The previous high-ridership mark was set in 2000 when there were also a high number of jobs in the city. We'd like to attribute it to an increased awareness of the lack of sustainability built into the automobile-based model of transportation in the region, but we also attribute our cat's energetic moods to the tides, so... The closest Metro Transit will come to saying something like that is:

“Overall, we saw about a 4.3 percent real increase in bus ridership last year compared to 2005,” said Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond. “The combination of more jobs and higher gas prices are likely the two biggest reasons we saw for more people riding the bus, but improved transit connections were also a factor.”

"Higher gas prices"... That must be their code for "a mass realization by area residents that one-commuter/one-car is not sustainable in terms of energy, emissions or road real estate which spawns an almost universal personal, financial and philosophical commitment to an immediate sea-change in favor of using, funding and building mass transit infrastructure?" Whatever, they're almost the same thing.

Anyway, Metro's ridership high-water mark comes at a time when the bus tunnel downtown is closed for the installation of light rail tracks, a fact which had absolutely no bearing on Seattlest's personal bus utilization this year (We ride the bus downtown every day anyway, but if the tunnel was open we'd take a route that made use of it). We predict next year will see even higher numbers at Metro Transit as job growth continues and "gas prices remain high." Ridership is going to skyrocket when either the Viaduct closes to traffic or light rail starts coming on line, but neither of those will likely happen in 2007.