Transit ridership in Greater Vancouver hit a fresh all-time record in June.
By Jeff Nagel
Black Press
Jul 27 2007
More than 26.5 million people boarded a bus, community shuttle, SkyTrain, SeaBus or West Coast Express that month, according to TransLink estimates.
That broke the old one-month record of 26.1 million set last November
But, as usual, there is no reference to the important statistic, market share. These numbers of riders mean nothing without the context. For one thing there are more people here now, and density has been increasing in some areas including those that have seen increased transit service frequencies. So of course the numbers have gone up. It would be very surprising if they didn’t. But have they gone up in pace with employment growth? Have the number of car trips increased by the same amount or faster? Is transit keeping pace with the size of its market and its increasing demands? Are people making more trips than they used to? There is no way to tell from this article. So all the talk about rising gas prices is just speculation. And anyway, haven’t you noticed that pump prices have already fallen back?
The average local price is 12.5 cents lower than the same time period in 2006 — and 21 cents lower than its record peak of $1.27 in May 2007 — according to Natural Resources Canada.
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