Survey: Increased frequency tops list of transit riders' requests

Results from the 2023-2024 Regional Transit Passenger Snapshot Survey presented Friday to the Regional Network Management Committee reveal shifts in transit ridership post-pandemic. 

The survey collects high-level demographic and trip pattern data from 23 of the Bay Area’s 25 federally funded transit operators. Golden Gate Transit and ACE Rail conducted separate surveys. 

This information will be used to develop comparisons of pre- and post-pandemic travel and create interactive dashboards for data collection. The Snapshot Survey was offered in English, Spanish and Chinese to 16,500 passengers. 
Notable survey findings include: 

• Fifty-eight percent of riders feel safe or very safe riding transit.
• About 50% of passengers use transit to travel to and from work, down from 60% pre-pandemic.
• Nearly 3/5 of riders use transit five or more days per week and 91% expect to ride transit the same or more next year.
• Transit frequency, lower fares and reliability are among the most requested transit improvements. 

The one-year Snapshot Survey is a simplified version of MTC’s ongoing Transit Passenger Survey program. Conducted from 2013 through 2019, the ongoing Transit Survey Program provided a thorough regional dataset but required five to seven years to complete a full cycle of data collection. MTC paused the Transit Survey Program in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic but relaunched the program in 2023 while pursuing the Snapshot Survey in parallel. 

MTC is considering other data collection options – such as transit customer experience surveys – to help inform the work that MTC and transit agency partners are doing to make the transit ridership experience better as part of Regional Network Management. The Regional Network Management Committee helps set the vision for transit in the Bay Area and drive the direction of Regional Network Management. The committee also oversees many of the programs MTC runs for the public, including 511 and Clipper®.