>>
>>Also, I don't buy the "rule of thumb". Everyone I know who rides MUNI
>>almost always takes one route in two directions -- that is, two
>>boardings per person per day, not the assumed three.
>
>Neither do I. SF's large population of *mixed* users would best be
>estimated at less than 1 per day, since non-Muni days would be spent in a
>car, on a bike, or on foot.
>
>Using Muni's Facts and Figures from last year:
>
>weekday boardings = 682,000
>
>SF population = 750,000 (including kids)
>
>.33 * 750K = 250K transit-only users (also mixed users)
>250K transit-only users * 2 boardings/day = 500K boardings, approximately.
Maybe but doubtful. Many people get around by walking or bicycling
and don't use Muni regularly even if they don't own a car. During
my first years in S.F. I walked to work and only used Muni occasionally
(and owned no car).
So even tho it is plausbile to assume that about a third of the population
don't have cars, some are in the occasional Muni user category.
Moreover, typical transit-only users may take more than 2 rides a day,
on average. That's because the carless may use transit for other
things than work, such as doctor visits, going downtown to go shopping,
etc. Those who have cars tend to use transit only for commuting.
So, the upshot is that we don't really know how many Muni users there
are in the absence of hard data, i.e. some sort of survey. One piece
of hard data that would be useful would be the proportion of SF workers
who say they use transit to work in the 1990 census.
Tom Wetzel