By all accounts, Coronado is seeing more visitors, and hotels and the commercial corridor are busier than they have been in a while. However, ridership numbers for the first month of Free Summer Shuttle service, following a one-year break due to COVID-19, were lower than the same time period in 2019. It should be noted that ridership was down across all public transit agencies during the pandemic. In April of 2020, weekday ridership averaged 9 passengers. Comparing that to the average number of weekday riders from June 6 through June 30, when service resumed, that number rose to 486, representing a 5,090% increase.
As people get reacquainted with public transit and being out and about in a safe manner, the expectation is that transit ridership will increase.
Here are the numbers: In 2019, there were 32,370 passengers from June 6 through June 30. During the same period in 2021, there were 12,474. This reflects a more than 61% decrease. On July 3 and 4, 2019, there were 2,377 and 3,593 Summer Shuttle passengers respectively. In 2021, there were 506 passengers on July 3 and 1,170 passengers on July 4. That is about a 72% reduction. In 2019, the Cays Fourth of July shuttle only ran one day, on July 4, and had 557 passengers. This year, there were two days of free shuttle service to the Cays. The total number of passengers on July 3, the day of the parade, was 516. On July 4, a Sunday, there were 364.
The City will continue to find ways to promote the Free Summer Shuttle.
