# What percentage of people use public transit in you city?



## LtBk (Jul 27, 2004)

Not just for commuting for work, but for everyday use like shopping and visiting friends


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## PlayasCity (Aug 10, 2008)

Like 60% i believe... Tijuana, Mexico


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

in Zwolle, the Netherlands (pop. 120,000).

Public transport is mostly used to transport students from the region to campus by train, which makes the Zwolle trainstation rather busy for the size of the city. Buses are used to get students from the station to another big school.

For leisure; I guess nearly nobody, cycling has a big share of 35%, which can be as high as 80% to the historical city center, and as low as <10% to industrial/office job locations. 

Cycling through town is mostly faster than taking the bus, and some cycling paths have over 14,000 cyclists per day. Amsterdam is known for it's extensive cycling, though this is true for most larger Dutch cities, especially those with universities like Groningen, Leiden or Delft.


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## RawLee (Jul 9, 2007)

Somewhere around 60% is the modal split inside the city,and around the city is about 68%.


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## schum-ho (Oct 14, 2008)

In Halle (Germany) it's somewhat like 50-60% I'd say. That's at least the percentage when thinking about the people I know here.


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## 2co2co (Apr 8, 2008)

I don't even know..... how do you count the millions and millions in that jam-packed Yamanote and Keihin Touhoku lines... I read somewhere that on workdays, it is 85~90% by PT, and for leisure, given that crowdedness on weekends is only little different from workdays, probably 75~80%. At least, I would never drive to Shibuya or Akiba. It will be a hell to find a parking space.


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## Vapour (Jul 31, 2002)

2co2co said:


> I don't even know..... how do you count the millions and millions in that jam-packed Yamanote and Keihin Touhoku lines... I read somewhere that on workdays, it is 85~90% by PT, and for leisure, given that crowdedness on weekends is only little different from workdays, probably 75~80%. At least, I would never drive to Shibuya or Akiba. It will be a hell to find a parking space.


Just guessing; do you live in "nicotama"? :lol:


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## siamu maharaj (Jun 19, 2006)

I don't understand why huge underground parking areas aren't made in busy business districts? Is it because then they won't be able to charge ridiculous prices for parking?


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Underground parking garages are expensive to construct and maintain.

But necessary in inner city districts imo. Nothing kills a central city like huge parking lots.


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## voidale (Jun 12, 2009)

schum-ho said:


> In Halle (Germany) it's somewhat like 50-60% I'd say. That's at least the percentage when thinking about the people I know here.


czech republic the same


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

HK must have 80% or more of its population that uses public transit.


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## Skybean (Jun 16, 2004)

^^ 90% for journeys. I would say around the same for percentage of people.



> Hong Kong has a highly developed and sophisticated transport network, encompassing both public and private transport. Over 90% of the daily journeys are on public transport, making it the highest in the world.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Hong_Kong


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

You can measure this in two ways... by # of trips or the mileage. For instance, the Dutch trains get about 8% of the mileage, but only 2% of the trips. (0.06 journeys per person out of a daily 2.99)


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

In Hartford, according to the 2000 Census, it was 18.6%.

36.1% of city households apparently don't have a car. 5th highest ranking in the country.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

^^ I guess that has to do with this:



> With thirty per cent of the population living below the poverty line, Hartford's rate of poverty is second in the United States only to Brownsville, Texas.[18] About 28.2% of families were below the poverty line, including 41.0% of those under age 18 and 23.2% of those age 65 or over.


(wikipedia article about Hartford)


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

Yep. Poor population -> Lower car ownership. Cars aren't cheap.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Much cheaper than Europe though. But even social housing flats in the Netherlands have parking space problems. Mobility is important to people. 

I guess most transit within Hartford is done by buses?


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

All transit is by buses, actually. Hartford only has one intercity (Amtrak) train station.

The region had an actually dense tram network a few decades ago, but that's in the past.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Xusein said:


> The region had an actually dense tram network a few decades ago, but that's in the past.


Yeah, that has happen in many places, also in Europe. The Netherlands used to have quite an extensive regional/rural tram network in the late 1800's/early 1900's. I guess they were deemed not profitable. 
Funny how that works, many railroads were build in times with low population, similar railway construction today would be too expensive if it was for the same population as in the 1800's.


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## siamu maharaj (Jun 19, 2006)

ChrisZwolle said:


> Underground parking garages are expensive to construct and maintain.
> 
> But necessary in inner city districts imo. Nothing kills a central city like huge parking lots.


Places like Manhattan and Shinjuku (is that right?) should certainly have them. Metered parking will pay for the maintenance. 

As for the OP, buses are the only public transport available in Karachi and are heavily used. Don't have official numbers, but if I were to guess it'd be around 30%. Then another similar number would go to motorbikes. The rest would be cars. I'm only talking people going for work.


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

I have a hard time believing those numbers above of a PT modal split of 60% (or even more). I mean usually 20-30% are done by walking. Suggesting that the bicycle has a share of 0% that would leave less 10-20% for cars and motor bikes. 

I only believe this once I have seen the numbers and their definition with my own eyes. 

I think some people mistake the percentage of people who use principally PT with the percentage of the ways taken by PT on the overall traffic. Thats quite a difference. 



For Vienna the modal split in 2008 looked like that:

35% Public Transport
*33% car* (whereas 24% points as drivers and 9% points as co-drivers)
5% bicycle
27% walking

These numbers are for the city proper. (~1.6 mio inhabitants)


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Only 5% cycling in Vienna? I expected a little more... Not Dutch levels, but certainly somewhere around 15%...


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## LtBk (Jul 27, 2004)

Co-drivers?


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Yeah, people who drive along. Kinda like carpooling, but not necessarily carpooling. (I don't think bringing a kid to school counts as carpooling).


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## KiwiGuy (Jul 9, 2009)

Shit all people take public transport where I live mainly due to the fact that A) There is an almost non existent but cheap bus service B) All the buses are used for school transport and C) No one really knows of the bus routes or how much they cost or even if routes even exist.

For a decent bus transport system, one has to travel to the big cities. It's such a shame, because I think we build some of the best looking, most evironmentally friendly buses in the world.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/handbook/c09cont.htm

Stats about Japan.

Even in Japan, the private car has the majority of the modal split. Ofcourse, this is different for certain areas, Tokyo's not the same as a smaller rural town, or a medium sized city.


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## Unsing (Apr 15, 2006)

http://www.publicpurpose.com/ut-tokmkt.htm
In Tokyo, 78.3% for city proper and 62.5% for metro area.

Figures are based on the numbers of passengers carried, so they don't take account of walking and bicycle.


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## LtBk (Jul 27, 2004)

ChrisZwolle said:


> http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/handbook/c09cont.htm
> 
> Stats about Japan.
> 
> Even in Japan, the private car has the majority of the modal split. Ofcourse, this is different for certain areas, Tokyo's not the same as a smaller rural town, or a medium sized city.


The car has the majority of the modal split in almost every country, but only because cars make more trip and you include all the rural areas that require a car to get around and such.


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## RawLee (Jul 9, 2007)

Slartibartfas said:


> I have a hard time believing those numbers above of a PT modal split of 60% (or even more).


Well,I cant quote english(or german) sources,but it is all well documented in hungarian.


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## siamu maharaj (Jun 19, 2006)

Three cities I'm really interested in getting the numbers for are:

Moscow
London
Paris

They all have a huge metro system, which covers pretty much every acre of the city proper and a lot of the suburbs too. Would be nice to know the figures for them. Anyone knows where these figures can be found?


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## adrimm (Dec 17, 2006)

I have a website bookmarked at work that looks at all sorts of urban indicators/statistics from European cities... 

The most interesting part is that it shows them for central cities and also the LUZ (larger urban zones) of cities - the differences are striking.


Found it: 
http://www.urbanaudit.org/DataAccessed.aspx
http://www.urbanaudit.org/compare.aspx 
http://www.urbanaudit.org/CityProfiles.aspx


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## siamu maharaj (Jun 19, 2006)

adrimm said:


> I have a website bookmarked at work that looks at all sorts of urban indicators/statistics from European cities...
> 
> The most interesting part is that it shows them for central cities and also the LUZ (larger urban zones) of cities - the differences are striking.
> 
> ...


While it's drawing a blank on the info I needed, it's a very useful site for other info. Thanks!


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## AndrewJM3D (May 1, 2009)

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is a public transport authority that operates buses, streetcars, subways, and rapid transit lines in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1954, the TTC has grown to comprise three subway lines and an elevated rapid transit line with a total of 69 stations, as well as 149 connecting surface routes (buses and streetcars) of which 148 routes make 243 connections with a subway or rapid transit station during weekday rush hours.

The TTC operates the third most heavily-used urban mass transit system in North America (after the New York City Transit Authority and the Mexico City Metro).[2] In 2007, the TTC carried 1.5 million passengers per day, and there were 459,769,000 passenger trips in total. The average daily ridership exceeds 2.46 million passengers: 1,197,000 through bus, 328,700 by streetcar, 35,300 by intermediate rail, and 901,400 by subway.[3] The TTC also provides door-to-door services for persons with physical disabilities known as Wheel-Trans; about 5,500 trips are made through this service daily. The TTC employed 11,235 personnel in 2007.[1]

Colloquially, the subway cars were known as "red rockets", a nickname originally given to Gloucester subway cars, which were painted bright red and which have since been retired. Its legacy lives on as the TTC uses the phrase to advertise the service, such as "Ride the Rocket" in advertising material, "Rocket" in the names of some express buses, and the upcoming "Toronto Rocket" subway train, which is due to arrive in late 2009. Another common slogan is "The Better Way".


Ad in GO Transit and Toronto's numbers would be well over 2,500,000 rides a day.


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## mattec (Aug 2, 2009)

0%, there is no public transportation is the city of Beckley. I believe there are 2.8 cars per household, though.


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