Metro ridership is up, yet downtown Seattle worker foot traffic falls

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Downtown Seattle small business owners awaiting the return of office workers will have to wait longer.

The percentage of downtown worker foot traffic declined last month to 37% of pre-pandemic levels, according to new data from the Downtown Seattle Association. That's nearly 5 points lower than September and almost 8 points lower than August's 44.7%, the highest level so far in 2022.

This doesn't jibe with what King County Metro saw in October. Terry White, the director of Metro's Transit Department, on Wednesday told the county Regional Transit Committee that average weekday daily boardings have climbed to 259,000, or 8% higher than in September.

Nor does it square with what people are seeing and what other DSA data shows: over 2.4 million downtown visitors in October, up 285,709 from the same month last year and nearly 1.2 million two years ago. In October 2019, DSA counted over 2.5 million visitors.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/11/17/downtown-seattle-october-foot-traffic-declined.html

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. My DC Metrorail Blue Line train going home yesterday was jammed. SRO. NT

[The Conductor]

2. They are confused - We are not...

Business Journal seems confused how October ridership on the local Sound Transit rose, but foot traffic downtown declined. Those of us who have watched transit a while realize there are many, many things that affect transit numbers, like the fact that February most always has a decline in ridership, even if the number of riders per day is the same as January (because January has three extra days). In Seattle's case, the decline in people walking around is not exactly a surprise, considering that high temperatures in the first part of October there were a very un-Seattle-like 80-degrees plus many days, peaking at a record high of 88 degrees on October 16th. Not only is that not walking around weather, but we ought to take note that the buses and light rails are fully air conditioned, likely some of the only A/C systems in Seattle that easily keep up with that sort of high. The second part of October dove into the forties and fifties, which makes it a bit chilly for there - also not the kind of temps where people casually stroll the boulevards. (Call it a "Climate Change Tax," maybe.) These alone could explain the disparity, even without looking into whether there were local events drawing people away from downtown (say, that wildcard berth in the playoffs by the Mariners, maybe?). Whenever you see a month-to-month ridership drop, it is most often related to outside forces. It is the long-term ridership trend that tells the real story, smoothing out the noise of daily data.