Survey: Average Daily Ridership
For a formal bus operation, passenger statistics are usually derived from the ticketing system, but if no tickets are issued, ridership figures are not readily available, and must be determined by means of surveys.

It is not sufficient to count the number of passengers on each bus as it passes a particular point, since many passengers normally board and leave the bus at points along the route. On a route with a high turnover of passengers the number of passengers carried on a single trip may be several times the capacity of the bus.

It is necessary for surveyors to travel on a sample of buses, counting the number of passengers boarding at each stop. If the bus has more than one door it is usually necessary to have one surveyor near each door. This must be done for every trip made by the bus during the working day; it is useful to record each trip separately.

It is not necessary to conduct the survey on every bus, and it is normally sufficient to take a sample of between 5% and 10% of all buses on a route, or in the system.

The average daily total number of boardings for each bus is then multiplied by the number of buses operating to give daily ridership. The survey should be carried out on a number of different days, and there should be separate surveys for weekdays and weekends.

The most simple survey will merely involve counting passengers boarding, and will require a form like this:

Date
Route
Bus Number
Surveyor
Door 1/2/3*

* if there are two or more doors on the bus; number the doors from 1, starting with the door nearest the front of the bus.

 

Trip no.	Starting point	Destination	Departure time	Number of passengers boarding*	No.
1
2
3
etc
Daily Total

* record the number of passengers using the “five-bar-gate” method. Enter the actual number in the final column; this may be done later.

For some purposes it is useful to record passengers boarding and alighting at each stop. This enables the total number of passengers on the bus to be measured at different points along the route, so that service frequencies can be varied on different sections of the route according to demand. The survey form becomes more complex, requiring a separate entry at each stop; a separate form should be completed for each trip:

 

Date
Route
Bus Number
Dep. time
From
To
Surveyor
Door 1/2/3*

* if there are two or more doors on the bus; number the doors from 1, starting with the door nearest the front of the bus.

Name of stop	Time	Passengers boarding*	No.	Passengers leaving*	No.	Total on bus
Total

* record the number of passengers using the “five-bar-gate” method. Enter the actual number in the next column; this can be done at the end of the journey, or even at the end of the day by a different person, as can the calculation of the number of passengers on the bus.

Each stop may be given a number to save the surveyor from having to write down the name of every stop.

If there are two or more surveyors on the bus, it will not be meaningful to complete the final column (total on bus) on each form. The data from the individual forms should be collated on a form as follows:

Date
Route
Bus Number
Dep. time
From
To

Name of stop	Time	Passengers boarding (at door number)				Passengers leaving (from door number)				Total on bus
		1	2	3	total	1	2	3	total
Total

These forms can be collated into a daily summary for each bus, similar to the first form.

Of course, this manual collation process, and the calculation of the overall average, may be computerized.