Off To Work

The high employment rates of 2003 to 2007 set the upward trend in ridership of public transportation because the majority of riders on public transit are commuting to work. According to the American Public Transportation Association, or APTA, 59.2% of riders are going to work. Since the majority of riders are commuting to their job an increase of employment would create an increase in the amount of riders on public transportation and vice versa. Starting in July of 2003 unemployment rates began to decrease. The percentages stayed low until they began to increase at the introduction of 2008 (Unemployment Rate). This increase in employment created the upward slope in the use of public transit from 2003 to 2007. Starting in 2003, the number of riders was just under 9.75 million. The ridership increased to just less than 11 million in 2008 (Laskow). Spikes like that of 2008’s have been seen throughout history, namely the 1940s.

During World War II, there was a public transportation boom much like 2008’s; this boom was because unemployment rates dropped after the Great Depression. After the 30s, employment rose an incredible amount at the start of World War II in December of 1941: “Suddenly, America was back on the job, with factory workers boarding streetcars, subways, and buses to get to defense plants making bullets, ships and airplanes” (Bellitteri, 57). To get to the factories, workers used mass transit. Public transit rose steeply in the 40s, as seen in the figure at the right, which is a graph that depicts the ridership annually from 1917 to 2011. Transit ridership rose because it is tied to the rise and fall of employment seen in both 21^st century and the 40s. Part of the staggering rise in public transit also can be attributed to the fact that most people didn’t own cars yet, “even in the 1950s people didn’t own a lot of cars,” says Virginia Miller, an APTA spokeswoman. It wasn’t until the 60s that cars grew in numbers (Beutler). However, the 1940s spike in ridership shows the connection between employment and the amount of people riding public transportation.

How was there still a spike in ridership in 2008 if employment had begun to decrease?