Union's PR vs. MTA's Numbers
December 20th, 2005
Robert Snyder, author of Transit Talk, thinks the Transport Workers Union has not done a good job of pushing their cause to riders. On this morning’s Brian Lehrer show, Snyder said that a more effective public relations campaign would have highlighted workers’ shared interests with the riding public, the safety issues they face on the job post-9/11, and the hard work they do behind the scenes that takes its toll on their bodies over the course of their lives.
Perhaps the union should have taken every opportunity to remind riders about a fare hike based on what city and state comptrollers concluded was a second, cooked set of books.
Here’s another number that has been widely touted — in particular, by media outlets — but rarely broken down or used accurately: 7.7 million. That’s how many average weekday passengers the MTA says ride its system, which includes NYC Transit but also the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad (neither of which are staffed by striking workers).
An Associated Press article explains that each fare is counted as one rider.
According to 2000 U.S. Census data, the number of New York City workers over 16-years old who take public transportation to work each day is just about 1.7 million.
By Hilary Russ on December 20, 2005, 1:49 pmIn category: Transportation | 2 Comments »

December 20th, 2005 at 11:13 pm
Census data does not accurately reflect how many individuals use nyc transit either because it does not include the many commuters who do not live within the city limits.
March 29th, 2011 at 2:59 pm
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