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Fewer Montrealers want to take public transit at night time because the introduction of the province’s COVID-19 curfew in line with knowledge from Montreal-based Transit app.
Based mostly on how typically its customers lookup transit instances, Transit is calculating modifications in ridership through the pandemic. (This, it ought to be famous, might not be essentially the most consultant of samples.)
Demand for transit in Montreal was the identical through the day Wednesday because the week earlier than, in line with Transit, earlier than declining as of eight p.m., when the curfew comes into impact.
Earlier than the pandemic, Transit knowledge suggests demand at 9 p.m. was 42 per cent of the height usually achieved through the night rush hour.
At 9 p.m. on Jan. 13, demand was simply 4 per cent.
The pandemic had already seen demand for transit drop off dramatically earlier than the announcement of the curfew.
On Jan. 6, the final Wednesday earlier than curfew, transit demand at 9 p.m. was at eight per cent of its historic peak — low however twice the determine recorded on Jan. 13.
“With no soul in sight, (Montreal) is a bit mind-boggling,” STM bus driver John Daoust told the Montreal Gazette on the first night of curfew. “A bit ghastly.”
“It’s positively a as soon as in-a-lifetime factor.”
