Photo by a nameless yeast

The Examiner ran an interesting piece this morning on the results of a 2007 survey that suggests that Metrorail riders in the D.C. metro area are wealthy (they have a whopping median income of $102,110) and college educated (80 percent!), while Metrobus riders are less well off: their median income is $69,620, and 59 percent have a college degree. First things first: the most obvious point to be made here is that even Metrobus riders in the D.C. area appear to be very, very well off according to this survey. I mean crap, I realize that figure isn’t an average income, but I now feel like one of the poorest people on the bus.

Secondly, regardless of how skewed those median income figures are, there is a clear disparity between the two parts of the transit system. That disparity, according to the survey, also breaks down along racial lines – more than half of Metrobus riders are minorities, while they make up only a quarter of Metrorail riders.

There are surely a number of factors at play here, key among them the spoke-and-wheel design of the Metro system that funnels suburban dwellers in vs. the more flexible innercity service offered by Metrobus. But surely the main reason is just super simple: on the Metrobus system, you get your return trip for free within three hours. As the survey also shows, women outnumber men on the Metrobus system 2-to-1, so what we’re talking about here is mothers relying on the bus to run their errands. Metrorail offers no such discount incentive on its own, and only recently did it start offering reduced fare transfers when beginning a trip on a Metrobus. We’ll be curious to see whether the new bus-to-rail and rail-to-bus transfer fare structure that went into effect this year could affect this apparent demographic split in any way, along with the recent increase in peak Metro fares.