\u201cWe\u2019re calling it the Ohtani effect,\u201d said BART General Manager Robert Powers, referencing the draw of the Dodgers star player after the agency in April came close to smashing its record for busiest post-pandemic day, when the Dodgers were in town to play the Giants.<\/p>\n
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The agency did hit that milestone nearly a month earlier, however, on March 25, with 227,300 exits, coinciding with the Giants Opening Day \u2014 a feat that, in turn, broke the previous record set in February, during Super Bowl LX week.<\/p>\n
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni, the city\u2019s bus, light rail and streetcar service, reports total ridership hit 85% of pre-pandemic levels in March, with weekend ridership at 99% compared to the year prior. Caltrain saw a 33% jump \u2014 an increase of nearly 300,000 more people riding the rail line serving San Francisco and areas south.<\/p>\n
AC Transit spokesperson Robert Lyles said March ridership data was still not available due to \u201csoftware issues with a vendor that is currently impacting several key performance indicators.\u201d<\/p>\n The added revenue from the surge still falls far short of fixing the agencies\u2019 looming budget deficits, but agency officials said they welcomed the news.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aTypically, March is when things begin to creep up. But this isn’t a creep. This is a jump,\u201d said Dan Lieberman, a spokesman for Caltrain. \u201c\u200aIf this is what it feels like to just be warming up, we are going to have an outstanding summer.\u201d<\/p>\n With AAA marking the average price of gas in San Francisco at $6.13 for a gallon of regular, it\u2019s likely that some commuters are deciding to switch from driving to riding public transit, according to Michael Anderson, who researches transportation economics at UC Berkeley. But dramatic impacts on public transit ridership would take time and depend on how long fuel prices remain elevated, he said.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aYou might get an immediate group of switchers who are pretty flexible, but the majority of people who might change modes might need to rework their schedules or where they live before they would be able to substitute away from driving to taking transit,\u201d Anderson said. \u201c\u200aThere’s a lot of people for whom it’s not really feasible to just ditch the car.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew Jardner, 32, started taking Caltrain six months ago, when he got a job working in software development in San Francisco. The Hillsdale resident now takes Caltrain and Muni to get to and from work three days a week, leaving his car at home.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aHaving the option to take the train was one of the reasons I accepted the job,\u201d Jardner said. \u201cI would’ve been more hesitant if I had to drive into the city.\u201d<\/p>\n Muni\u2019s ridership gains were driven by more people taking the agency\u2019s Metro service, which hit a post-pandemic record of 74% of 2019 levels in March, according to Michael Roccaforte, spokesperson for the SFMTA.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a big deal. Up to this point, the highest performing bus lines have been carrying system growth with Muni Metro ridership, and downtown being the missing piece of the puzzle,\u201d Roccaforte said.<\/p>\n Roccaforte said the increases were proof that the agency\u2019s Muni Forward initiative<\/a>, which aims to make the service faster, safer and more reliable, was working to increase ridership.<\/p>\n Fernando Zermeno moved to downtown San Francisco a year ago from Mexico and said he rides the T-Third Street line every day to take his daughter to and from daycare, and that he prefers the light rail over the bus.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aIt\u2019s more convenient and spacious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n BART has reported a steady monthly year-over-year growth in ridership of about 10%-13%. But March saw that number jump to nearly 20%. Still, BART\u2019s average weekday ridership is about half of what it was before the pandemic, according to monthly ridership reports.Caltrain, SFMTA and BART are all facing severe pandemic-related budget deficits beginning in the next fiscal year and are warning of steep service cuts unless voters in five Bay Area counties approve a regional sales tax measure<\/a> to provide additional funding.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/04\/260428-TRANSITRIDERSHIPREBOUND00540_TV-KQED.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
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