Transit App Updating Transit Demand Estimates Daily

The Transit app has created the most comprehensive portal for transit ridership data—with a key caveat made about the source of the data.

1 minute read

March 23, 2020, 5:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Salt Lake City, Utah

Ritu Manoj Jethani / Shutterstock

"Public transit is experiencing drops in demand across the board — while continuing to be a lifeline for those who must travel," according to a Coronavirus page set up recently by the Transit app to track transit ridership on U.S. transit systems as the effects of the pandemic take hold around the country.

While reporting on transit ridership has been piecemeal in recent days, the new website consolidates transit ridership data into one place, reporting daily figures starting on February 15 for France, Canada, and the United States, as well as providing specific data by transit agency. 

One key caveat of the data provided here: these data aren’t official ridership figures, but a rough proxy for demand based on the use of the app. "We compare actual usage of the app, to projected use of the app based on last year’s numbers (adjusted for annual growth) to measure how far we are from ‘normal," according to methodology of the page.

 

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