SEPTA Tops for Women Transit Riders

"According to the [SEPTA's] s customer satisfaction surveys, 64 percent of SEPTA riders are female, a figure higher than New York, Chicago, Portland, and San Francisco, amongst others," reports Jim Saksa.

PlanPhilly undertook the comparison of ridership statistics, finding that several cities, led by Philadelphia, experience higher than average use by women.

"Comparing survey results shows SEPTA just edging out a handful of other major cities for this somewhat dubious gender distinction: 62 percent of riders on Chicago’s MTA are women, as are 60 percent of DC Metro riders, New York City MTA straphangers and Boston 'T' passengers." 

Although Saksa acknowledges the limitations of PlanPhilly's survey, which requires an unreliable comparison of ridership data from studies conducted by individual transportation agencies with sometimes varying methodologies, he also digs into other studies for the potential implications of Philadelphia and other cities' strong trend of transit ridership by women.

For instance, Saksa also calls on the U.S. Census American Community Survey to make the following point: "In nearly all the cities reviewed, the ridership survey results were higher than the ACS commuter data – suggesting that women take public transportation more frequently outside of work, too."