Jonathan Bowles of the The Center for an Urban Future, a
nonpartisan think tank based in New York City, sent an email on Monday to announce their new study which reveals that Brooklyn
was home to 51 of the 111 subway stations that experienced an increase in
ridership of 50 percent or more between 1998 and 2008.
The report also shows
that bus ridership in Brooklyn increased by 21.9 percent between 1998 and 2008,
much more than in Manhattan
during the same time period.
The Center for an Urban Future report documents the percentage increase in weekday ridership for every subway station
in the system between 1998 and 2008 as well as the growth in daily bus
ridership by borough, highlights just how important the city’s public
transportation system has become for residents living outside of
Manhattan. Now here's what really sucks: this comes at a time when the MTA is planning to cut back dramatically on bus and subway lines outside of
Manhattan and as some outer-borough
legislators are opposing new tolls on the bridges as a way to prevent the
transit cuts.
The Center’s findings include:
·
20 of the 22 stations with the
largest percentage increase in average weekday subway ridership between 1998
and 2008 were either in the outer boroughs or in
Manhattan north of
96th Street .
· In 2008, 62 stations outside of
Manhattan had an average
weekday ridership of more than 10,000 people, up significantly from 46 stations
in 2003 and 36 in 1998.
·
More than a quarter of all New York
City subway stations—111 out of 425—saw an increase in average
weekday ridership of 50 percent or more between 1998 and 2008. Brooklyn
accounted for nearly half (51) of those stations; there were 28 in
Manhattan , 20 in the Bronx and 12 in Queens .
·
13 stations on the L line and nine
on the N line were among the 50 fastest growing stations citywide. Other lines with
several stations among the 50 fastest-growing stations in the system between
1998 and 2008 were: the 2 (seven stations), 3 (six stations), F (five
stations), J (five stations) and M (five stations).
·
Overall, 82 percent of the citywide
gain in bus ridership between 1998 and 2008 occurred in the boroughs outside of
Manhattan .
While average daily bus ridership in
Manhattan increased by just 7.6 percent during the past decade, bus ridership
surged by 28.4 percent in Queens, 28.4 percent in Staten Island, 23.5 percent
in the Bronx and 21.9 percent in Brooklyn. (
Manhattan actually experienced a 6.7 percent
decline in bus ridership between 2003 and 2008, the only borough to see a
decrease during this period.
The Center’s analysis, which is based on data from MTA
New York City Transit, is the latest issue of New York by the Numbers, the Center for an Urban
Future’s monthly economic snapshot of the five boroughs
Last month, the Center published a
major report about the challenges facing New York
City’s middle class which argued that rising
commuting times and overcrowded subways have already become a key quality of
life issue for many residents living in the boroughs outside of
Manhattan . This new data
makes a strong case that these residents should be seeing an improvement in
transit service rather than a dramatic cut—and it suggests that elected
officials representing neighborhoods in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and the
Bronx would be well-served to pay as much or more attention to their transit-riding
constituents as to the relative handful of car drivers into Manhattan.
The new study is available here:
http://www.nycfuture.org/images_pdfs/pdfs/TransitOverload.pdf