Posted on 01/11/2023 9:18:11 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal had a story about a topic I’ve covered before, the hollowing out of American cities as a result of changes brought on by the pandemic. One symptom of those changes is the decline of mass transit in major cities on both coasts.
While offices have largely reopened and travel has resumed, many commuters are only coming in a few days a week. That shift has left subways, buses and commuter trains operating at well below capacity—particularly on Mondays and Fridays…
The ridership drop also has fueled an increase in transit crime, which in turn has pushed away more riders.
“The more you lose a ridership base, the more difficult it becomes to maintain a level of service that people are used to,” said P.S. Sriraj, director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois, Chicago. “It’s becoming a vicious cycle.”…
New York’s subway system has regained about two-thirds of its pre-pandemic ridership with about 91 million trips in November, according to the MTA. But that is about 50 million fewer rides than in November 2019. Officials worry usage has stalled out at that level.
In San Francisco, the Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, recorded 3.7 million trips in November—a little more than one-third of the ridership before Covid.
For the moment, these subway systems are surviving on federal money (about $69 billion) which was doled out in 2020 and 2021 as part of various COVID response bills. But that money is running out now and will be cone in another couple years. Even before that happens some system like the MTA are running a deficit. Very soon these big cities will have to make some choices about how many trains and how large a system they can continue to operate given the current ridership.
For BART, federal funds are expected to run out in 2025, after which it projects a budget gap of more than $200 million. The authority plans to seek a new funding stream. Without it, the shortfall could trigger service reductions. One planning document shows BART would need to cut the number of train lines to three, from the current five, to break even.
Cutting lines and reducing the number of trains will help balance budgets temporarily but the reason administrators haven’t taken these steps yet is because they know it will also result in fewer riders. It’s the vicious cycle again which will only prompt the need for further cuts.
Some cities are considering alternative funding mechanisms. In New York there’s a new congestion tax being aimed at drivers in Manhattan who want to go south of Central Park. In Washington, DC the city will be offering free bus rides starting next summer in hopes of bringing ridership back up. It may work long term but in the short term DC is looking at spending $42 million to cover the costs.
The other problem driving the decline in ridership is crime and, in particular, homelessness. The MTA in New York surveyed riders and found that 60% said they were riding less because of fear of crime.
Lori Romeo, a lawyer who lives in Brooklyn and works in downtown Manhattan, said she rarely goes to her office anymore and takes an express bus instead of the subway when she does.
“The homeless are sad, but the floridly psychotic and dangerous make going into Manhattan a challenging experience,” she said.
One of the more depressing statistics in the recently released crime figures in New York City was that crime on the subways was up 30% this year despite an expensive effort ($20 million per month) to reduce it. It’s not all bad news though. In Chicago, mass transit crime has started to decline for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
On the trains, crime and arrest trends have troubled some riders, like Sam Bergman, 22. He now avoids taking the train after becoming entangled in what looked to him like a mugging that spilled over into the Red Line car he was riding in one evening at the end of October.
What seemed like a fight in the next train car burst through the emergency exit door into his car, Bergman said. One person looked clearly beaten up, and seemed to be trying to call 911. In the tumult, Bergman and his girlfriend got shoved into a corner of the car, but managed to avoid getting hit, he said.
None of these problems are going away anytime soon. Office workers will continue working from home and the homeless will continue using the trains as a moving bedroom and sometimes bathroom. It’s hard to see how the situation that existed pre-pandemic is ever going to return. Instead we’re headed for a new normal, one where mass transit and retail downtown are less important than they used to be.
Are they asserting that "homelessness" is a subset of "crime?!"
Poorly written article!
Regards,
I think it was on the old Dick Cavett Show that Ralph Nader, who had killed the Chevy Corvair, was asked what car he drove. He said he had no car and tried to use public transportation in all the cities to which he travelled.
Socialists cannot allow public transportation to die. Their subjects will need it.
Gas cars will be banned and the oil producers and refiners bankrupted. EVs will turn out to not work well. Serious flaws. Same with self driving cars.* Like Thalidomide and CPAP inhalers they will turn out to have serious flaws and will be ended as bad ideas. I won’t embarrass the corrupt medical profession by mentioning Covid jabs now. Oops, I just did.
*Story today of 8 car collision caused by self-driving car.
Past time to move along....
Except in really high class areas (and no guarantees there, either) it is not a good idea to stand waiting for the arrival of a bus or train with the career criminals and gang members and junkies sizing you up and making decisions as they drive by in their cars.
People get painfully beaten and murdered that way.
This is not looking at the positive sides of public transport. Today your chances of being murdered on public transit or greatly increased, which means you’ll never have to take public transit again. Win win.
Do you think Nader really had no car?
One of thw symptoms of COVID is it kills bail dead.
RE: Do you think Nader really had no car?
So you’re saying in effect Nader was a bald faced lowdown liar? Then I agree. An anti-American, anti-capitalist Commie.
One of my best buddies in high school had a Corvair and we guys loved that car.
I searched for about 15 minutes and was not able to find a car Nader drove anything else related. Searches were flipped to say things against Corvairs, car safety problems and, news to me, against self-driving cars.
Due to type of leadership rather than presence of buses and trains, which as I mentioned earlier ought not be owned and/or operated by the government. The only type of “public transit” that exists in Detroit, for example, is buses.
The removal of electric trolley cars (today misnamed “light rail”) and replacement with buses was once sold as a way to remove such type of transportation from the hands of monopolistic utility companies and into the hands of private bus operators, ironically enough. And once they “failed” due to government policies, right into the public sector they went.
COVID-1984 jabs are not the only embarrassment upon government-run “health” systems, of course.
The Corvair was no different from the old VW Beetle; the front tires were inflated by design to a lower air pressure than the rear tires and would handle normally when so inflated. Nader’s lies about the Corvair ought to have been more transparent to the public at large.
Needing less office space will result in savings for businesses, so they may not want many employees on site anymore.
True, but without him, we would have had President Gore That thought makes my blood run cold.
I don’t attribute W’s victory to Nader.
MARTA = Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta
I would ask how much of their debt is pure union. Union pensions, extortionate wages and benefits for very little productivity. They are running out of other people’s money. The dems will save them because their existence is required for democrat lack of car ownership.
Why not cut many of the bus lines and mainly run trains? That’d probably save them some good $$.
True, the Democrats did not completely master the art of stealing elections until more recently.
New Jersey allowed private companies using former school “short buses” to compete with NJ Transit-run local routes in Hudson and Passaic counties about two decades ago, and those proved more popular and even profitable contrasted to the state-run unionized routes they ran parallel to.
A friend of ours was a juror in a lawsuit against MARTA some years ago. She will NOT go near the system as a result of what she learned about violent crime on MARTA from that experience. Can’t say I blame her.
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