Poll results: reader’s bus ridership high
I was pleasantly surprised by the results of last week’s poll:
Q: Have you ever ridden a municipal bus?
- Yes in St. Louis and other cities 181 [ 67%]
- Yes but not in St. Louis 50 [19%]
- Yes in St. Louis only 18 [7%]
- No and I have no plans to ride a bus ever 13 [5%]
- Not yet but I plan to do so 4 [1%]
- Other answer… 3 [1%]
The three other answers were:
- Rode in STL; vacationed in San Antonio
- I certainly have and I was born in West County, went to public school
- Yes, but never riding again
Only 5% had no plans to ride a bus for the first time. Hopefully these folks will reconsider at some point. I’m curious if they have ridden our light rail?
Nearly 20% hadn’t ridden a bus elsewhere but not in St. Louis.
– Steve Patterson
I think it would be more elucidating to ask who has ridden a bus in the last year. I voted “Yes in St. Louis and other cities” as my answer, but it's been close to ten years since I've ridden the bus in St. Louis.
Good point, my initial question was just to figure out who had ever ridden a bus. Perhaps next week I will do the followup question.
My thoughts, as well, although I've ridden the bus in St. Louis in the past year, but only once. “Ever” is a big and increasing timeframe for everyone, and what you did twenty or thirty years ago isn't really relevent to Metro's current situation.
I only use the Metro/Bus when going to a game downtown. Otherwise my transit ridership is exclusively outside of the STL Metro….when on holiday in other cities.
Same with me; I'm about ready to leave for Italy and plan on using nothing but public transit. In St. Louis, I drive everywhere.
I can count over 40 family & friends who ride metrolink downtown for events, mostly centered around sports. About half of those same people have ridden a STL bus maybe once, but like most everyone else it was 10 years ago or greater. The STL bus system is networked well, but it ineffectively only comes on average every 25 or 30 minutes and ceases operations early in the evening. We've often wanted to stay out late downtown for nightlife, but Metrolink also ends service around 11:50pm. Yet bars stay open until 1:30am or later.
Something like this would be a great poll. I feel like I am missing one combination of possible results.
In the last 365 days do you:
1. Never ride the bus. Never ride Metrolink.
2. Never ride the bus. Ride Metrolink only for special events like sports.
3. Never ride the bus. Ride Metrolink most weeks.
4. Ride the bus only for special events like sports. Ride Metrolink most weeks.
5. Ride the bus only for special events like sports, and ride the Metrolink only for special events like sports.
6. Ride the bus most weeks. Ride Metrolink only for special events like sports.
7. Ride the bus most weeks. Never ride Metrolink.
8. Ride the bus most weeks. Ride Metrolink most weeks.
Thanks for the suggestion, working on a poll for next week now.
How about “ride it on work days only” and “ride it every day” as options as well?