honolulutraffic.com

formerly The Alliance for Traffic Improvement

Seeking cost effective ways to reduce traffic congestion on Oahu

June 5, 2005. "Bus ridership still down"

Mike Leidemann, Advertiser Transportation Writer, reported in yesterday's paper that TheBus management still hopes to build back ridership to what it was before the strike. 

  OPINION: If you look carefully at the Advertiser's graph you'll notice that even before the strike, bus ridership was in  decline.  If you allow for the growing population it means that TheBus is continuing to slide in riders per capita as it has been doing for the last 20 years.

Council Transportation Committee Chair Nestor Garcia's answer to that is to try to find the money for 400 more buses. He might note that the last time bus ridership was this low was in 1977 with 66.6 million riders yet only 350 buses. Today, we have 525 buses, up 50 percent from 1977, yet ridership is down from then. Clearly all that 400 new buses will do is drive up already escalating bus operating losses. The Council needs to take a hard look at alternatives that might reduce losses. READ MORE