Demand for public transit has decreased underneath curfew: report

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Fewer Montrealers want to take public transit at night time because the introduction of the province’s COVID-19 curfew based on knowledge from Montreal-based Transit app.

Based on how typically its customers search for transit occasions, Transit is calculating adjustments in ridership through the pandemic. (This, it needs to be famous, will 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, based on Transit, earlier than declining as of 8 p.m., when the curfew comes into impact.

Before 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.

“Without a soul in sight, (Montreal) is a bit mind-boggling,” STM bus driver John Daoust informed the Montreal Gazette on the primary night time of curfew. “A bit ghastly.”

“It’s definitely a once in-a-lifetime thing.”