A new report published by The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has found that transit ridership is continuing to increase across the United States, with the sector seeing an increase of over 17% from 2022 to 2023.
The study shows that buses, subways and light rail ridership has increased following the COVID-19 pandemic.
In total, transit agencies have provided roughly 6.9 billion throughout 2023, with the sector having grown almost twice as quickly as domestic air travel within the same, year-long time frame.
The time period also saw the recruitment of over 10,000 new workers into the transit industry, with salaries growing to over 1 billion USD in total. By 2024, over 388,000 people were employed in the sector, with a growth rate for jobs at 4% doubling other occupations in the country at 2%.
Accessibility improvements have also been shown to have increased significantly, with 84% of the United States’ transit stations considered fully accessible in line with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Station improvements include alterations such as platforms for level boarding, as well as ramps, both of which have increased by 4.6% over the last ten years.
FTA Deputy Administrator, Veronica Vanterpool, said:Our nation's public transportation systems continue to punch above their weight, providing billions of trips covering billions of miles for millions of people all across our nation.
This report shows an upward trend in people using transit, which provides many benefits, including less time wasted in traffic, fewer carbon emissions and better air quality.
Data for the report was sourced from The 2023 National Transit Summary and Trends report, which provides a yearly picture of public transportation data based on submissions from 3,000 agencies across the country to the National Transit Database. The report, which includes metrics collected regularly throughout each year, is published each Autumn and offers operators and the public insights into trends, workforce growth and conditions of transit systems nationwide.
