We’ve all kind of blocked it out of our minds but the COVID pandemic was absolutely devastating for transit ridership and even now, four years since 2020, we haven’t fully recovered. But some cities and systems actually fared much worse, while others have rebounded almost to their pre-pandemic numbers. In this video we’re going to take a look at the fall and recovery of rapid transit systems in the US and Canada to see who made it through the best and the worst.

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References:

Ridership data from APTA: https://www.apta.com/wp-content/uploads/2019-Q4-Ridership-APTA.pdf BC had laxer COVID rules than the rest of Canada in the summer of 2020: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2021/02/staff-analytical-note-2021-1/ Vancouver cut transit service less than most of North America: https://findingspress.org/article/13395-a-tale-of-40-cities-a-preliminary-analysis-of-equity-impacts-of-covid-19-service-adjustments-across-north-america?attachment_id=37160 California stricter COVID measures: https://exploratory.io/viz/kanaugust/COVID-Lockdown-Stringency-Index-Data-for-US-States-Japan-QME1fIs9FS LA transit commuters tend to be lower income: https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-public-transportation-riders-demographic-divide-for-cities.html Vancouver's strong downtown recovery: https://downtownrecovery.com/charts/rankings Population growth contributing to Vancouver's transit recovery: https://www.translink.ca/news/2024/april/translink%20ridership%20rebounds%20to%20pre-pandemic%20overcrowding%20levels Boston slow zones: https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2023-03-13/mbta-interim-head-says-commutes-will-remain-slower-asks-for-patience Boston maintenance problems: https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2023-09-07/systemic-mbta-problems-led-to-poor-track-maintenance-and-slow-zones-new-reports-find

Creative commons images of transit vehicles in different cities:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBTA_subway#/media/File:Alewife_MBTA_Red_Line_Station,April_2024.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line(MBTA)#/media/File:Northbound_Green_Line_train_at_Park_Street_station_(2),July_2021.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH(rail_system)#/media/File:PATH_Kawasaki_5602c.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARTA_rail#/media/File:College_Park_MARTA_Station.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Purple_Line_(Los_Angeles_Metro).jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Street_Line#/media/File:SEPTA_Broad_Street_Subway_car_at_Race-Vine.jpg