Chinese New Year parade brings BART record ridership

229,583 riders on Saturday - highest in historyf

The numbers are in, and lfast Saturday BART saw the highest ridership it's ever had for a Saturday in its nearly 35-year history.

On Saturday, March 3, 2007, 229,583 people rode BART to attend the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. That's about 42% more people than on a typical Saturday during this time of the year.

The previous record high for a Saturday was on October 7, 2006 when 229,314 people used BART to get to Fleet Week and other sporting activities.

"It certainly was an extraordinarily beautiful and warm weekend for the Chinese New Year Parade," BART Board President Lynette Sweet said. "Clearly riders decided it would be better to take BART than to waste a weekend of wonderful weather fighting gridlock traffic while burning high priced gas only to be frustrated trying to find an expensive parking spot."

HIGHEST SATURDAY RIDERSHIP TOTALS

1. 3/3/07 -- 229,583 2007 Chinese New Year Parade
2. 10/07/06 -- 229,314 Fleet Week Fire Works, A’s/Minnesota; CAL/Oregon
3. 2/11/06 -- 218,393 Chinese New year Parade; Soccer – Korea/Costa Rica
4. 9/24/05 -- 211,897 A's/Texas; Anti-War Demo; Love Parade
5. 9/2/06 -- 204,552 Bay Bridge Closure, A's/Baltimore

95% ON-TIME PERFORMANCE
To top it off, BART's passenger on-time performance was 95% on Saturday. "Our goal is to maintain at least a 94% passenger on-time performance," Sweet said. "Being able to exceed the goal is icing on the cake for our riders."