WakeGOV

Title

Bus Ridership

Trend at a Glance

At last count

9,625,167 passenger boardings

Current Through

FY2019

What does this measure?

Bus ridership is the number of passenger boardings among the primary public transportation service providers in Wake County: GoRaleigh, GoCary, NCSU Wolfline, and GoTriangle.
Bus ridership measures the use of public transportation among citizens who use the service for financial reasons or personal preferences in Wake County, and indicates the adequacy of public transportation options in the community. Heavy use of public transportation has the ability to reduce highway wear, congestion, transportation costs, and exhaust emissions. Many factors impact bus ridership, including affordability, convenience of schedules, service reliability, route proximity to origins and destinations, vehicle conditions, and how efficiently the system links citizens to school, work, goods, and services.

How is Wake County performing?

Bus ridership in Wake County peaked in 2013; however ridership in 2019 remains nearly 17.9% higher than 2010 totals. Ridership began to grow in fiscal year 2018 as Wake County increased services associated with new transit sales tax.

Did you know?

GoRaleigh provides service for nearly 55% of all bus passenger boardings. NCSU Wolfline is the second largest at approximately 35%.

Data Source

National Transit Database; Transit service providers in Wake County

Data Considerations

Note that because GoTriangle also provides service to Durham and Orange Counties, reported numbers for this metric includes only those routes primarily serving Wake County (as determined by GoTriangle). Reports from the National Transit Database will include passenger boardings for other Counties served by GoTriangle.