Bus Ridership Up in Albuquerque
ALBUQUERQUE – ABQ RIDE has officially replaced old fare boxes for counting riders with new automatic passenger counters (APCs). As of July 1, 2024, the City’s transit system is fully collecting ridership data using APCs. The improved data collection method shows that ridership reached 645,974 in July and 667,727 in August – its highest numbers since March of 2020 at 630,292 when the pandemic began.
“Getting this more accurate picture of how many folks are actively using our transit system will allow us to further improve service, safety and efficiency,” said Mayor Tim Keller. “The fact there are so many choosing to ride our city’s buses shows we’re on the right track to building back our transit system.”
The addition of this technology marks a historic shift away from traditional ‘fareboxes.’ When the City purchased the Albuquerque Bus Company in 1964, founding ABQ RIDE, the transit system featured metal boxes next to the driver to collect bus fare. These fareboxes were manually emptied each day by a Vault Puller, and in recent years, fareboxes counted passengers upon collection. Since the implementation of Zero Fares, ABQ RIDE has relied on manual driver counts of passengers.
“ABQ RIDE is ahead of the curve with a frictionless Zero Fares system,” said Transit Director Leslie Keener. “With fareboxes no longer necessary, we have an opportunity to improve ridership data quality by taking out the margin of human error through digitization of our system.”
Since 2019, ART buses have had APCs. Now, this technology is providing data across ABQ RIDE’s fleet, and APCs provide the official data source for ridership that is submitted to the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) for annual funding. The APCs detect the shape of people coming in and out of the doors above every door. This technology improves data quality and efficiency in gathering ridership data.
APCs provide reliable counts and record locations where riders get on and off the bus, which will help ABQ RIDE evaluate productivity of particular stops or route segments to strategize future service planning.
This new data collection system shows ridership has increased by 25% since last July. The demand for public transportation continues to grow even though ABQ RIDE is currently running at 2/3 of service. Despite this reduction, service is as productive per vehicle hour as it was before the pandemic. Increased ridership puts a strain on current staffing resources and illustrates the continued need to hire drivers and mechanics. ABQ RIDE will return to full service as soon as ABQ RIDE closes the gap in hiring these key positions.
ABQ RIDE encourages candidates to apply for driver and mechanic positions featuring hiring incentives ranging from $500-$5,000. For more information about ridership, available jobs, and hiring incentives, visit ABQRIDE.com.