» Mass Transit / Public Transportation Systems Market Size Blog

Bike Parking Racks

September 12, 2011 — The Editors

The current Transportation Commissioner in New York City, Janette Sadik-Khan, is working on increasing the ease with which people are able to use bicyles in that city, even encouraging people to use bikes as their commuter vehicles. While New York has a long way to go to reach the level of biker welcomeness found in other large, world cities it has made progress, doubling the number of bike paths to an estimated 500 miles since 2007. As biking becomes easier in the “Big Apple” the demand for more safe places to park bikes is expected to continue to rise.

Today’s market size is the estimated number of bike parking racks in place in New York City as of the summer of 2011.

Geographic reference: New York
Year: 2011
Market size: 12,800
Source: Frank Bruni, “Bicycle Visionary,” The New York Times, September 11, 2011, page SR1.
Original source: NYC Department of Transporation and Pucher, co-author of an upcoming book titled City Cycling.
Posted on September 12, 2011

Posted in All Transport Vehicles, Bikes, Mass Transit / Public Transportation Systems, Sporting Goods. No Comments »

Public Transportation

August 23, 2011 — The Editors

The Capital Area Transit Authority (CATA) is the largest public transit provider in the Lansing, Michigan tri-county area. The tri-county area consists of Ingham, Clinton, and Eaton counties. CATA has been operating public transportation in the area since 1972. Ridership grew steadily during the 1970s, before leveling off during the 1980s and most of the 1990s. During the 1980s and 1990s, the number of rides fluctuated around 3-4 million annually. In 1999, CATA took over the Michigan State University bus service. Since then ridership has increased nearly 3-fold. In contrast, the population of the tri-county area grew by 22.6% from 1970 to 2010. Data represent the number of rides annually on CATA vehicles in 1972 and 2010.

Geographic reference: Lansing, Michigan area
Year: 1972 and 2010
Market Size: Less than 1 million rides and 11.35 million rides respectively
Source: “CATA Demand Grows with Community Need,” CATA 2011 Community Report: Greater Lansing on the Move, August 2011; Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, “Tri-County Regional Growth: Choices for Our Future,” Draft Report, August 2002 available online here; “Ingham County, Michigan” available online here; “Clinton County, Michigan” available online here; and “Eaton County, Michigan” available online here

Posted in Mass Transit / Public Transportation Systems, Transportation. 1 Comment »

Public Transportation in Detroit, Michigan

August 2, 2011 — The Editors

In 1945, public transportation in Detroit consisted of 22 street car lines. The last street car line stopped operation in April 1956. By 2010, public transportation in Detroit consisted of 48 bus routes serving Detroit and 22 surrounding communities. Data show the annual number of passengers that rode these forms of public transportation in the city.

Detroit is known as the home of the auto industry and as such has never been a strong proponent of mass transit. Furthermore, and worth noting in this context, is the fact that in 1945 the City of Detroit had a population of approximately 1,736,000 and in 2010 its population was less than half this number (715,000). Is the shrinking of this once major U.S. city in any way related to its lack of mass transit offerings? That is a question we can not answer in this brief little blog but it is food for thought.

Geographic reference: Detroit, Michigan
Year: 1945 and 2010
Market Size: Nearly 500 million and less than 40 million respectively
Source: Doug McInnis, “Talk of the Town: Midtown Detroit Undergoes an Economic Revival,” Wayne State, July 2011, pages 10-19; “DDOT FAQ’s,” available online here.
Original Source: 1945 data compiled by the late transit historian Jack Schramm.
Posted on August 2, 2011