Transit Riding: Its NOT All About New York

Commentators who seek to minimize the importance of recent growth in public transit ridership argue that this increase is predominantly a result of New York's rising ridership. There is a grain of truth to this argument: New York is so big that rising ridership in that city alone can affect national ridership trends. On the other hand, New York is hardly the only city experiencing rising ridership. In fact, this graph shows that transit usage per capita in many Sun Belt cities has risen more rapidly than New York ridership. While New York ridership rose by 26 percent between 2002 and 2013, ridership in Phoenix rose by 50 percent, in Raleigh by over 100 percent.