Source: National Transit Database, Department of Transportation; Motor Fuel & Highway Trust Fund, Office of Highway Policy Information, U.S. Department of Transportation.
Analysis by Beacon Economics
Source: National Transit Database, Department of Transportation; Motor Fuel & Highway Trust Fund, Office of Highway Policy Information, U.S. Department of Transportation
Anlysis: Beacon Economics
Highlights
- Due to the pandemic, as a large percentage of the workforce had shifted to more remote work, wholesale distribution of gasoline and gasohol (-18.9%) and diesel and alternative fuels (-11.2%) continued to decline in 2022 relative to 2019. 2022 was the first year Wholesale distribution of gasoline and gasohol and diesel and alternative fuels was below the pre-pandemic 2019 level. On the other hand, trips on public transit, commonly known as unlinked passenger trips (UPTs, which represent the number of times passengers board public transportation vehicles), increased by 28.1 percent in 2022 compared to 2021. However, that is still roughly 40 percent lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
- The increase in public transit ridership from 2021 to 2022 has been the most pronounced in Santa Cruz-Watsonville (+75.6%), followed by El Centro (+57.6%), San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (+49.1%) and Modesto (+48.4%). Although in most of these places, transit ridership is quite low. In fact, all counties in California had increased their public transit ridership, except for Redding, CA (declined from 2021). Pre-pandemic, UPTs had been falling in California for several years, due to factors such as increased access to automobiles and households increasingly located in outlying areas resulting in longer commutes and less transit access to employment.
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