Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
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Table 4-3: Transit Ridership in the 50 Largest Urbanized Areas: 2004

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Urbanized area Population (2000) Rank by population Annual unlinked passenger trips (thousands) Percent
Motor bus Heavy rail Light rail Commuter rail Other
New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT 17,799,861 1 3,383,886 37.8 54.1 0.3 7.0 0.8
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 11,789,487 2 606,843 86.8 5.1 5.4 1.6 1.1
Chicago, IL-IN 8,307,904 3 582,786 56.2 30.7 0.0 12.2 0.9
Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD 5,149,079 4 350,518 55.7 27.7 7.2 8.7 0.7
Miami, FL 4,919,036 5 151,222 80.1 10.3 0.0 1.9 7.7
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 4,145,659 6 85,764 76.1 0.0 19.1 2.5 2.3
Boston, MA-NH-RI 4,032,484 7 396,087 30.6 39.8 17.8 10.1 1.7
Washington, DC-VA-MD 3,933,920 8 442,936 42.2 56.6 0.0 0.8 0.4
Detroit, MI 3,903,377 9 45,393 95.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.2
Houston, TX 3,822,509 10 95,882 91.7 0.0 5.6 0.0 2.7
Atlanta, GA 3,499,840 11 363,326 45.5 19.0 12.4 0.0 23.0
San Francisco-Oakland, CA 3,228,605 12 199,369 45.4 48.9 0.0 3.3 2.3
Phoenix-Mesa, AZ 2,907,049 13 55,334 97.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.0
Seattle, WA 2,712,205 14 156,256 64.3 0.0 0.8 0.6 34.3
San Diego, CA 2,674,436 15 88,605 66.2 0.0 30.0 1.6 2.3
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 2,388,593 16 67,397 92.6 0.0 4.4 0.0 3.1
St. Louis, MO-IL 2,077,662 17 47,883 67.1 0.0 30.3 0.0 2.6
Baltimore, MD 2,076,354 18 114,290 77.4 10.9 5.3 5.9 0.6
Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL 2,062,339 19 21,027 95.4 0.0 2.5 0.0 2.1
Denver-Aurora, CO 1,984,889 20 82,363 86.6 0.0 12.2 0.0 1.2
Cleveland, OH 1,786,647 21 58,870 82.0 12.4 4.3 0.0 1.3
Pittsburgh, PA 1,753,136 22 69,142 85.5 0.0 9.6 0.0 4.8
Portland, OR-WA 1,583,138 23 105,698 69.0 0.0 29.8 0.0 1.1
San Jose, CA 1,538,312 24 39,776 83.9 0.0 13.8 0.0 2.3
Riverside-San Bernardino, CA 1,506,816 25 24,183 96.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.0
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN 1,503,262 26 27,124 98.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.6
Virginia Beach, VA 1,394,439 27 20,489 96.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.8
Sacramento, CA 1,393,498 28 32,354 64.9 0.0 34.1 0.0 1.1
Kansas City, MO-KS 1,361,744 29 13,754 95.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.1
San Antonio, TX 1,327,554 30 43,210 97.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.3
Las Vegas, NV 1,314,357 31 51,295 98.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.4
Milwaukee, WI 1,308,913 32 56,350 97.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.1
Indianapolis, IN 1,218,919 33 9,300 96.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.6
Providence, RI-MA 1,174,548 34 17,169 95.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.3
Orlando, FL 1,157,431 35 23,433 96.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.2
Columbus, OH 1,133,193 36 14,703 98.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.1
New Orleans, LA 1,009,283 37 54,945 77.2 0.0 16.2 0.0 6.6
Buffalo, NY 976,703 38 23,134 76.0 0.0 23.7 0.0 0.3
Memphis, TN-MS-AR 972,091 39 12,679 90.3 0.0 7.7 0.0 1.9
Austin,TX 901,920 40 35,712 98.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.8
Bridgeport-Stamford, CT-NY 888,890 41 9,859 96.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.4
Salt Lake City, UT 887,650 42 26,627 57.3 0.0 37.6 0.0 5.0
Jacksonville, FL 882,295 43 10,195 87.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 12.4
Louisville, KY-IN 863,582 44 15,523 97.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.3
Hartford, CT 851,535 45 15,893 87.5 0.0 0.0 2.5 10.0
Richmond, VA 818,836 46 12,146 97.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.8
Charlotte, NC-SC 758,927 47 18,876 97.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.4
Nashville-Davidson, TN 749,935 48 6,411 97.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.2
Oklahoma City, OK 747,003 49 3,978 96.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.9
Tucson, AZ 720,425 50 16,853 98.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.0
Top 50, total 127,900,270   8,206,845 54.3 33.5 4.3 5.0 3.0
United States, urbanized area total1 193,767,600   8,852,131 57.2 31.0 4.0 4.7 3.2
Top 50 as % of U.S. total 66.0   92.7 88.0 100.0 100.0 99.9 86.9

1Excludes Puerto Rico.

NOTE: This table includes data from urban transit agencies that are required to report information to the federal government because they applied for or are direct beneficiaries of urbanized area formula grants (49 USC 5307). Transit agencies with nine or fewer vehicles that would otherwise need to report under this definition typically receive a waiver from detailed reporting and, thus, are not necessarily included in the source database.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database, available at http://www.ntdprogram.com/ as of Oct. 23, 2006.