METRO ridership up?
At METRO’s August 18, 2005 board meeting, BikeHouston members Woody Spear and Jacqueline Friedman asked for an update on METRO’s agreement to install bike racks on buses. While bikes are allowed on METRORail (Guidelines and rules for cyclists) they don’t have a comparable program for buses. METRO has talked about it since 2001, agreed in principle again a year ago, conducted a limited pilot study, and has federal money in hand (which runs out this year) to do it. Since the local match is only ~$200,000, adding bike racks to buses seems like a cheap-and-easy way to increase METRO’s reach and ridership.
CEO Frank Wilson agreed that the board should formally consider the issue and make a policy decision once and for all. He volunteered that management would review the issue and prepare a presentation for a Sept 22 committee meeting, so the board can vote whether to move forward. One way or the other, we’ll know next month whether Houston can join the ranks of Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and other cities that recognize the multiplying effect of bike racks on buses.
In addition, Wilson walked through METRO’s June 2005 “Quarterly Management Report,” which includes budget, ridership, and sales tax revenue data, as well as performance metrics and management discussion.
Ridership is up or down depending on how you look at it. In October 2004, METRO cut a number of its poorest-performing bus routes, which cut off some number of riders. On the remaining routes (apples-to-apples), system ridership is up this year by 7.3%:
- METROLift boardings are up 2.5%
- METROVan boardings are up 8.4%
- Special event bus boardings are down 20.7% (Rodeo/Reliant traffic shifted to METRORail)
- METRORail boardings are up 72.5% (comparing Jan - June ‘04 to Jan - June ‘05)
- Fixed-route bus boardings are up 0.1% (after declining for 4-5 years)
So… focus on cost-cutting has culminated in extensive route cuts. Now, it’s time to grow the top line. METRO must focus on growing ridership on its best-performing routes.
METRO’s operating performance is now holding steady. Wilson says METRO’s “operating ratio,” calculated as fare income divided by transit cost, trended downward for five years but has remained flat this fiscal year (an improvement) at 15.2%, just shy of their 2005 target ratio of 15.3%. As fares cover a growing share of the costs of service, this ratio will rise.
This data is useful for assessing METRO’s progress by proponents and skeptics alike. I continue to hope they will make this report available for download from their website.
METRO’s next board meeting will be Thursday September 22 at 1:00 pm, on the 2nd floor of their downtown administration building at 1900 Main Street.