The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly affected transportation demand across the country, especially in urban areas where mass ridership is still far below 2019 or pre-pandemic levels. With a fiscal cliff approaching for most transit systems, many local governments and agencies are scrambling for solutions.
The transit ridership recovery has varied drastically from metro area to metro area and even more from mode to mode. Transit ridership decreased from 802 million trips in January 2020, before the pandemic, to 158 million trips in May 2020, as most states were shut down. That’s an 80.3% decrease in transit ridership. Today’s transit ridership has somewhat
