Business owners are just human beings like any other, so how pro-transit they are depends on their knowledge/exposure of the subject.

So I'm guessing they're opinions about transit are about the same as the general population's, but I'm also guessing that if they were reached out to they'd be more interested in learning about the issue.


I know this isn't how the money is allocated but I think instead of spending millions on studies it would be better to spend millions on tv commercials and direct mail campaigns to inform people, since 90%+ of the region knows nothing about the issue.

For the business people even without real statistics rough numbers might help convince them. If daily ridership is 50,000 and 1 out of 10,000 stop and buy something at your store worth $1 in profit, then 5x365x1= $1,825 in extra profit from new transit riding customers.

The total income [[per capita x population) in the 4 county area is 105.5 billion dollars. If you did a 0.1% income tax [[$1 per $1,000) the RTA would raise a staggering 105 million dollars a year. The average household would pay less than $50 a year. Half of that is closer to what the registration fees are supposed to raise [[iirc), and the average household would pay less than $25.

So as you can see, it's a massive win for any business people near a stop, and getting this kind of info out there would probably raise some support.