And the Diogenes honest man (or woman) award goes to the individual who, despite enormous political risk, actually TOLD THE TRUTH; that the transit system has been serving essentially the same people for the last ten years despite massive capital subsidies to try to attract new riders, that it would look even worse than it does if they hadnt added in 5 and a half million non-fare trips, that really werent counted in the historical figures, and that the actual transit share for the last year given may be up to 25% less than what was being claimed.

From the King County 199 Benchmark Report: http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/orpp/benchmrk/bench99/99-bm-ch5.pdf

Metropolitan Outcome: Increase the Availability of Modes Other Than Single Occupant Vehicle. INDICATOR 42: Transit trips per person. Definitions: Ridership for 1986-1998 is based on annual operating statistics of revenue-linked passengers trips. Ride Free Area ridership figures were updated in 1988 and after. These add about 5.5 million non-revenue trips to the annual revenue-linked ridership figures. Observations: This indicator has fluctuated over the last ten years, with per capita ridership reaching a high in 1989, and a low in 1994. It increased again from 1994 to 1997, but leveled off in 1998. The 1998 figure is calculated from an annual ridership of 80,269,178, and a population of 1,665,800. Because of the overall stability, the transit system may be serving the same riders over the last ten years, with the same market response. Metro Transit Ridership Per Capita 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 46.4 44.1 47.8 48.7 48.7 48.2 48.1 46.8 44.8 45.5 46.9 48.3 48.2

Year Re ve nue -linke d Pas s e nge r Trips Pe r Ye ar Per Capita Ridership Per Capita

Outcome: Assess the Mode Split INDICATOR 43: Percent of residents who walk or use transit, bicycles or carpools as alternatives to the single occupant vehicle. Notes: 1. HOV = High Occupancy Vehicle (van or carpool); Non-Motorized = Bicycle, Pedestrian; SOV = Single Occupant Vehicle. The numbers for 1997 are unweighted, so that the transit and HOV numbers may be overstated. The actual share of transit may be closer to 4 - 4.5%. Percent of County Residents Who Travel by Means other than a Single Occupancy Vehicle 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995* 1996 1997 Transit 3.2% 3.6% NA 3.9% 4.1% 3.7% NA 3.8% 5.7% HOV/ Carpool 36.6% 33.4% NA 35.3% 34.3% 35.8% NA 33.8% 33.0% Non-Motorized/ Other 4.9% 5.8% NA 5.8% 7.3% 6.3% NA 6.9% 6.9% SOV 54.4% 56.3% NA 54.4% 53.6% 53.7% NA 55.4% 54.4%

-- Craig Carson (craigcar@crosswinds.net), December 22, 1999