Work From Home Should Mean Transit Expands Beyond Commutes – The Philadelphia Citizen
By Diana Lind
Four-and-a-half years since the onset of the pandemic, several recovery metrics have plateaued. According to the latest American Time Use Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which gathered data from 2023, 35 percent of American workers did some or all of their work at home last year, just 1 percent more than in 2022.
Office occupancy, though increasing bit by bit each year, particularly on peak days, is still just 50 percent on average around the country, according to national key-card data from Kastle Systems.
The metric that actually seems to be changing — and has the potential to change even more — is transit ridership. According to the American Public Transit Authority, the more than 7 billion public transit rides in 2023 exceeded 2022’s numbers by 16 percent. And the second quarter 2024 report shows a 7.5 percent increase in rides across all transit systems for the year to date.
Philadelphia mirrors these national trends. SEPTA’s ridership is up 18 percent over last year, according to the latest data from July. But the recent announcements that SEPTA is hiking fees for its discounted Key program, and that the partnership between SEPTA and Drexel University ended as the university will no longer give employees and students heavily discounted passes, are just some indications that many no longer feel the need to boost transit ridership.
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