DIA to consider buying MPS-managed parking garages

[Peter Griffin]

^ LOL.  That's two riders accounted for!  Only tens of thousands more to go.

You are invaluable citizens but I don't think anyone is worth $372 million (on top of tens of millions already invested + millions more in annual operating losses) to get a ride to work .

Well, we don't need to count them one by one. 1.2 million people ride the Skyway a year.

You might get 1.2 million passenger trips in a year, but that does NOT mean that 1.2 million INDIVIDUALS ride in a year.

Presuming that a typical rider would ride the Skyway every working day to get around town, you can get a low-ball estimate of the number of individual users by taking 1.2 million rides divided by 260 weekdays in a year yields 4,615 rides every day. Accounting for the fact that a trip would likely be 2-way to get to your destination and back to you origin, it's possible that as few as 2307 individuals can account for the overall ridership numbers of the system.
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[thelakelander]

^ LOL.  That's two riders accounted for!  Only tens of thousands more to go.

You are invaluable citizens but I don't think anyone is worth $372 million (on top of tens of millions already invested + millions more in annual operating losses) to get a ride to work .

I was just making a point that more than homeless people use the Skyway. That point was not intended to be validation for spending $400 million on the U2C plan.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ Ennis, no slight was intended toward you (but maybe the Skyway).  Just an attempt to add a little humor to the thread .

[WAJAS]

You might get 1.2 million passenger trips in a year, but that does NOT mean that 1.2 million INDIVIDUALS ride in a year.

Presuming that a typical rider would ride the Skyway every working day to get around town, you can get a low-ball estimate of the number of individual users by taking 1.2 million rides divided by 260 weekdays in a year yields 4,615 rides every day. Accounting for the fact that a trip would likely be 2-way to get to your destination and back to you origin, it's possible that as few as 2307 individuals can account for the overall ridership numbers of the system.
[/b]

Well, when you break it down like that...

At least it hit hit the original ridership goal, 100,00 riders per month. However, it did take a couple decades to get there. Honestly, my opinion of the Skyway is going to be significantly affected by what the ridership looks like after COVID. Let's say the 2021-2022 fiscual year (hopefully). It would be the first fiscal year with the JRTC, Brooklyn station, all Flyer lines, and the new apartment complexes open without COVID messing with the numbers. If the ridership doesn't increase past 1.2 million, then that isn't a good sign.

[thelakelander]

Covid will likely still impact the number of daily office workers and events being hosted. It may take a few years to get a good read on how transit will ultimately be impacted nationwide.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ We have been waiting over 30 years to get a "good read" on how the Skyway will perform... and there has never been a "good read," just awful ones. 

COVID, Downtown development failures, not expansive enough, not connected properly to other transit systems, technology shortcomings... so many excuses.  All just that... excuses for a system that will never be viable in my (common sense) opinion because it is simply not efficient, cost effective or user friendly.

The Skyway has failed to come anywhere close to ridership numbers projected for 30+ years ago levels for what is already built (i.e. without counting on a larger system and being free standing), even with free rides (original projections were based on users paying fares).

It's obvious to anyone not vested in the Skyway that it needs to be put out of its misery and monies currently directed to it or planned for the future need to be redeployed elsewhere where they can actually provide some value.

There is nothing in the cards, including autonomous vehicles or grade level expansions, that are going to change the spots on this animal.  I think it would be a pretty safe wager that if JTA gets its way with the gas tax proposal, that in 10 or 20 years from now, people who support it will still be making excuses for its continued failures.  For that, we taxpayers will be hundreds of millions of dollars poorer.

Want lipstick on a pig?  Convert it to a Highline pedestrian walkway that might be a real asset to Downtown (instead of a black eye) and move on.