Quote Originally Posted by Jason View Post
Here's ridership by station. For JLA there are still people at Riverfront Towers who use it, and also they're also planning to reopen the Joe's garage, so there will still be some ridership at that station, but yeah.



Ridership for the 2019 calendar year was 1.6 million. For the last 20 years, other than years when construction has interrupted the system, it's usually between 2 and 2.4 million [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_People_Mover). In 2018 it was still at 1.9. I really don't know what happened to make it go so low in 2019.

Looking at their website now it looks like sometime within the last few months they got a new [[interim) general manager. idk if the previous one retired [[she'd been there a billion years) or if there was a shakeup, but either way hopefully it will be a good change.
There are a few changes over the last few years that have hurt ridership for DPM:
1- DPM has not really adopted to a [[more) cashless society. There is a growing segment of the population that doesn’t carry cash on them, and pays entirely electronically or via card. Neither paying option is convenient for using the DPM, and as such that population doesn’t ride.
2- Downtown is a lot more safe and walkable. If you were traveling across downtown 10 years ago, many people felt uncomfortable or unsafe doing so. The DPM provided a safe ride. With the improved downtown, that fear is significantly less than in years past.
3- Smartphone Apps can navigate walkers. In years past, the Woodward plan made walking downtown difficult for unfamiliar walkers. The DPM provided an option to avoid the confusion. With GoogleMaps, that is no longer necessary.
4- The Joe is gone. JLA was always difficult to get to on foot. The people mover took hockey fans and other event goers there. No more. The massive JLA parking garage being closed also had an impact, even on days without hockey.
5- Tigers attendance is way down, because the team is awful. 81 home games can bring a lot of fans, some of whom will ride the mover. They aren’t coming to watch this baseball team.
6- Festivals in Hart Plaza are down. There used to be a lot more events there in years past [[country music hoedown, etc) that aren’t happening. Many of those patrons would use the mover.