Automatic Passenger Counters

Metro now has brand new automatic passenger counters (APC)'s installed on all its buses. Sensors placed at all doors are able to automatically count people entering and leaving the bus.

Actual vs Sampled Ridership

When APC's were first introduced in the market, transit agencies didn't always have funding to install counters on every bus. Some relied on "sampling" data for trips that didn't have this equipment.  

For example, if a particular trip operated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, an average of those three trips are used to account for missing data on other days.

Even though many agencies now have 100% of their fleet equipped with APCs, a vast majority still use sampling data. 

Historically, Metro has reported actual numbers recorded by farebox equipment rather than using APC's or sampling data collection. 

Changing Methodology

Using its new farebox equipment, Metro is in the process of converting to sampling data collection to safeguard against possible future data gaps. 

In order to get permission from the FTA to sample ridership instead of using actuals, Metro needs to submit a sampling plan for official approval.  

To get a FTA Sampling Plan approved, staff need to conduct a series of manual checks on the bus to ensure new APC equipment operates within approved data accuracy thresholds. 

2024 Rides

Around Spring of last year, Metro began experiencing a lot of data loss that resulted in missing ridership data due to old farebox equipment that is nearing the end of its useful life.

Since Metro is not yet been certified by the FTA to use sampling to account for missing data, there is no way to fill in the gaps of unrecorded rides. 

As a result, for September through December, Metro reported its official ridership numbers using a combination of data collected from its old fare system as well as smartcard taps from its newly installed fare system.

These numbers are lower than unofficial numbers starting to be collected through its automatic counter system. 

Staff are making good progress on the APC certification process which will allow Metro to report via APC sampling for 2025 and beyond. 

This upgrade in methodology is believed by staff to be more accurate and will also provide the ability to track other important indicators like bus crowding and specific boarding data by stop.