San Diego Metropolitan Transit System ridership reached pre-pandemic ranges on the company’s Free Journey Day occasion final week, officers introduced Tuesday.
Preliminary numbers present greater than 280,000 journeys have been made on MTS buses and trolleys Wednesday, Oct. 4, the best ridership since March 2020, and a ten.4% enhance in ridership in comparison with the earlier week’s each day common.
MTS buses logged almost 136,000 journeys, with trolley ridership estimated to be simply over 145,000 journeys. The 281,206 journeys mark a 5.7% enhance over the 2022 Free Journey Day occasion, in response to the transit company.
“Whether or not folks selected transit to scale back their carbon footprint or to scale back their invoice on the gasoline pump, the ridership from this yr’s Free Journey Day serves as a testomony to the worth of transit in our neighborhood,” mentioned Stephen Whitburn, MTS board chair and San Diego metropolis councilman.
“As an company, we’ll proceed to spend money on and enhance upon our service in order that we will proceed to welcome new riders onboard,” he mentioned.
The American Public Transportation Affiliation launched a report final month exhibiting San Diegans can save a median of $1,244 a month, virtually $15,000 yearly, by switching from driving to taking transit.
MTS has created a price calculator to assist riders decide how a lot they might save by taking public transit.
