Subway Ridership Starting to Rise in New York City, but not as Quickly as Car Trips

"Subway ridership is ticking up slowly but surely, new turnstile data show, but straphangers are still not coming back as fast as drivers," reports Dave Colon from New York City. 

The findings come from Todd Schneider, who provides analysis of publicly available ridership data for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) subway system. The MTA subway system counted 600,952 riders on May 15, the highest number since the system counted 676,556 riders on March 27.

The information comes with a note of caution: the slight increase on the New York subway is nowhere near enough to overcome the system's fiscal emergency, and most of the city is still staying home, so a return to normal is not suddenly imminent. Moreover, the increase in subway ridership is slower than the number of drives returning to the streets in the city. "Up on the streets, vehicle miles traveled rose from 21,630,000 miles on March 30, one week into PAUSE, to 34,240,000 miles on May 8, an increase of 58 percent," according to Colon.