- 1.7 percent of working-age people in ABQ area use public transit to commute to work.
- 89.5 percent take cars or trucks.
- Bus system budget keeps growing despite falling ridership.
- You're paying for a system that almost no one uses.
Almost no one rides the bus in Albuquerque. And I mean almost no one.
Oh, city planners and bureaucrats will tell you that there are hordes of millennials and others who ride public transit here, but they're lying. And lying in a big way.
In New Mexico's First Congressional District, which includes most of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County—the public transit hub of the state—a measly 1.7 percent of the working-age population [age 16 and up] took public transportation to commute to work in 2018.
Looking at it another way it means that 98.3 percent of the working-age people in this area DON'T use public transit to get to work. So why are we spending $52 million a year on a bus system that no one uses? Who knows, but we do.
To those who are fuming that those statistics just can't be true, well, calm down and shut up because they come from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey. And you can find them right here.
Here's what this means in actual numbers. In the 1st Congressional District there are 322,822 working-age people. Of those, 5,523 use public transit, meaning buses, to get to and from work. That's it! Out of 322,822 people, only 5,523, or 1.7 percent, take the bus to get to and from work.
So how do most people get to work here? Hang on, car haters because this will get you all to sputtering and stomping your feet: 89.5 percent of them take cars and trucks. That's 89.5 percent!
A mere 4,857 of those 322,822 working-age people—1.5 percent—walked to work, and 6,150—1.9 percent—found some other way to get to their jobs.
Last week I told you that bus ridership in Albuquerque has fallen by 31 percent since 2012. Now I'm telling you one of the reasons why. Almost no one here takes the bus! Almost no one as in 1.7 percent of the working-age population. That's insane that we're using taxpayer money to subsidize a mode of transportation that almost no one uses.
What makes me sicker than these stats is that no one but me reports them. In my 34 years here, I've never seen your alleged newspaper of record, the Albuquerque Journal, report on these numbers. And these figures are available to everyone with just a few keyboard clicks.
Are Journal reporters stupid, lazy and biased in that they don't want these embarrassing numbers out? Of course they are.
You would think that the TV news departments would jump on this story, and such lopsided figures, but they don't. Why? Because there are no cats involved. That's how sick and useless TV news is.
When I got here 34 years ago I saw that this sick, backwater place used a system of enforced mediocrity to keep people down and the news from getting out. It persists to this day. And you're paying for it through a bus system that almost no one uses.