Bay Area roads are more crowded than ever, and yet fewer people are turning to public transit to escape the traffic jams.
Between 2016 and 2018, ridership on BART, Muni, Caltrain and all of the other Bay Area public transit systems combined fell by 5.2%, amounting to 27.5 million fewer trips per year, according to a report in the Mercury News, citing a study by UCLA's Institute of Transportation Studies.
The results of the study are slated to be released in February.
Ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft are partly to blame, the study finds, as is the fact that people are living farther away from transit hubs.
The decline is taking place during off-peak hours, not during normal commute times, the Mercury News reports. So, transit officials are trying to figure out how to get more people on buses and trains.
The study suggests lower transit ticket prices, more dedicated bus lanes and increased housing closer to transit hubs could help increase ridership on public transit.
