San Francisco SFMTA Routes/Muni Ridership Recovery, Weekday
San Francisco MUNI (SFMTA) Routes Exceeding Pre-Pandemic Levels. Muni ridership recovery. SFMTA route recovery since COVID. Commuter rider data SFMTA/MUNI
Context: Muni crosses half-million monthly rider average for first time since 2020
SFMTA (MUNI) Ridership Recovery
Most SFMTA routes are lagging pre-March 2020 numbers anywhere from 10-30% but a few lines have returned to pre-pandemic levels while some are exceeding them.
These are the weekday routes exceeding numbers from pre-March 2020.
UPDATE: Recovered Weekend Routes For MUNI/SFMTA
My goal here is to get the attention of the SFMTA, politicians and public transportation supporters to understand the changes in ridership and highlight routes so we may see additional buses and begin to think how we can plan for better efficiency and use going forward.
Some of you may not be aware of this, but the 38 bus route is one of the busiest ones west of the Mississippi. It transports folks across the city, mainly along Geary Street.
Check out my favorite things to do, see, eat drink along the route below:
9 San Bruno Weekday
12 Folsom/Pacific Weekday
14 R Mission Rapid Weekday
19 Polk Weekday
22 Fillmore Weekday
27 Bryant Weekday
49 Van Ness/Mission Weekday**/***
*Contains only routes that existed pre-March 2020.
**The Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lines opened on April 1, 2022.
***47 bus (which had about ~11k passengers) was suspended in 2020 effectively rolling into 49 bus
Source: SFMTA
SFMTA/MUNI Ridership Recovery - Looking Forward
These numbers are interesting but next month should be more telling once we see impact from companies like:
Salesforce requiring employees to return to the office at least 4 days a week beginning October 1, 2024
Amazon requiring employees to return to the office 5 days a week beginning January 2, 2025
Similarly, September has a few large events that could be attributed to a rise in some of these numbers, including Dreamforce, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Oktoberfest, Flower Piano, and the return to school for many SF students.
Smaller routes, particularly cable car routes, are also interesting to see, as they are likely to be correlated with the city's tourism numbers.
Related read: San Francisco Etiquette For Bus Riders & More
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