San Francisco BART ridership

BART moves commuters, residents, and visitors around the Bay Area region. It is a key mode of transit for workers from throughout the Bay Area region to access jobs in Downtown San Francisco. San Francisco has four downtown stations at Embarcadero, Montgomery Street, Powell Street and Civic Center.

The dashboards below track two BART metrics:

1. Exits by day of the week

2. Monthly exits by year

Why do we track these metrics?

BART tracks the number of people who exit at each of its stations. By tracking how many people are exiting at the four downtown stations, we can get a picture of how many people are coming to Downtown San Francisco, when they are coming, and how this compares to trends before the pandemic.

Exits by day of the week

Historically, there is a big difference between the number of people using BART on the weekends and the weekdays. This has been especially true for the number of people exiting at the Downtown stations. This is primarily due to workers commuting to downtown on weekdays.

Comparing weekday exits to weekend exits helps show who is returning to downtown and for what purpose. Comparing BART station exits by the day of the week can also show us if hybrid work is impacting the number and frequency of people returning to downtown.

Monthly exits by year

Looking at monthly exits by year tells us about how many people are travelling to San Francisco’s Downtown on BART overall and how this compares to previous years.

How do we interpret these metrics? 

Downtown San Francisco was especially hard hit by the pandemic. During the pandemic, most office workers began to work from home. Activities outside of the home were discouraged. In March 2020, the number of BART exits fell dramatically and remained low through 2020 and 2021. As of 2022, BART exits at the four downtown stations are still much lower than their pre-pandemic numbers. This difference shows that far fewer people are visiting the downtown and the economic core for work, shopping, dining, and entertainment. 

Exits by day of the week

There is a dramatic difference between BART exits at the four downtown stations before and after the pandemic. This is seen across all days of the week. This difference shows that in late 2022, there were still fewer people coming to downtown on BART than before the pandemic.

We can compare weekend exits and weekday exits. In 2022, both types of exits were significantly lower than the pre-pandemic averages. However, weekend exits were closer to pre-pandemic averages than weekday exits.

We can also compare weekday exits by days of the week. Hybrid work among office workers had become more common by late 2022. Comparing BART exits by days of the week can tell us if downtown office workers are commuting to downtown on specific days of the week. As of 2022, the year-to-date average per day of the week in 2022 was not significantly different from normal variations in previous years. As a result, we do not see strong evidence to suggest that hybrid work models are having a significant impact on BART ridership by day of the week. This may suggest that office workers may not be using BART to commute, even as they return to the office.

Monthly exits by year

Looking at monthly exits by year tells us about downtown economic recovery over time. As of 2022, the data shows that there has been a slow but consistent recovery in BART ridership since the City lifted lockdown restrictions in May 2020, although that has declined somewhat over the winter of 2022. Additionally, despite the slow but consistent increase in exits, BART ridership was still significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels.