Chart of the Day: Bus Maintenance per Hour vs. Ridership

Here’s a chart that shows bus costs according to “systems hour”, the costs “per hour” for different transit systems as they relate to ridership. Looks like the Twin Cities ranks around average for a system its size.

systems-hour-chart-bus-MSP

I don’t even remember where I found this chart, to be honest. It was in a folder on my hard-drive. Maybe someone can point me in the right direction?

I’ve always head that Metro Transit ranks pretty well on a “costs per rider” basis. What’s the difference between costs per rider and costs per systems hour per rider? Does this kind of metric have to do with the amount of time that the bus in service? So systems with higher “ridership density” (i.e. fewer buses running around empty) would score better here?

Bill Lindeke

About Bill Lindeke

Pronouns: he/him

Bill Lindeke has writing blogging about sidewalks and cities since 2005, ever since he read Jane Jacobs. He is a lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Minnesota Geography Department, the Cityscape columnist at Minnpost, and has written multiple books on local urban history. He was born in Minneapolis, but has spent most of his time in St Paul. Check out Twitter @BillLindeke or on Facebook.