# What is causing transit ridership to bounce back in some cities and not others?

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2025-06-28

paris, london, new-york, rio-de-janeiro, shanghai, seoul, transit, mobility, ridership, bloomberg, citylab

---

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/d366f6cd736a0165a50152ca618ce98f.png)

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/4ede22bdcea7caf9789d1de43229f064.png)

Nationwide across the US, transit ridership is only at about 70% of where it was in 2019 before the pandemic. But this is not the case in all cities around the world. According to [this recent Bloomberg article](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-06-05/asia-europe-cities-lead-in-public-transit-recovery), Madrid, Hong Kong, and Paris are all above their 2019 ridership levels. Seoul and Shanghai are also close at just over 90%, and London is at 85%.

So this problem of fewer people riding transit seems to be a North and South American phenomenon. Rio de Janeiro is at 73%, Mexico City is at 70%, and San Francisco is somewhere near or at the bottom at 44%. The obvious explanations for this are that Europe and Asia are generally denser and less car-oriented, their return-to-office patterns have been much stronger (less WFH), and their governments probably care more about transit (and spend more money on it).

Broadly speaking, I think this is all true, but I'd love to know more _precisely_ what's driving these differences. Because it's not exactly obvious. Consider, for example, Paris and London. Paris is at 103% of its 2019 levels, whereas London is only at 85%. Why is that? Both cities share a lot of similarities. They have a river that weaves through the middle, they're dense, they have lots of trains, and both are alpha global cities.

So why the delta? What _exactly_ is Paris doing that is encouraging more transit usage?

_Charts via_ [_Bloomberg_](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-06-05/asia-europe-cities-lead-in-public-transit-recovery)

---

*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/what-is-causing-transit-ridership-to-bounce-back-in-some-cities-and-not-others)*