Yesterday Billboard Insider wrote that transit ridership is growing rapidly but lags 41% from precovid levels.  Intersection CEO Chris Grosso points out that it’s a mistake to equate transit ridership with out of homne transit revenues:

I’m an avid reader of Billboard Insider. Your take on the impact of transit ridership on transit plants is incorrect. Most of the revenue from a transit plant does not depend on ridership. Bus exterior ads and street furniture which drive the majority of revenues are doing well from an audience perspective. People are back out in cities, and even if they spend more time in their local neighborhoods, they will still see the ads on the sides of buses and on street furniture.

Grosso is right and the numbers bear him out.  Look at the OAAA’s numbers for out of home transit revenues since 2009.  Revenues are only down 21% from pre-covid for the quarter ended June.  Billboard Insider expects the gap to have narrowed further when the third quarter 2022 numbers come out in the next few weeks.  $$$ in millions

The transit revenue numbers exclude street furniture.  When you look at street furniture, the revenue recovery is even more pronounced.  In the fourth quarter of 2021 street furniture revenues exceeded pre-covid.  For the first two quarters of 2022 street furniture revenues are only 10% off pre-covid.  $$$ in millions

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