But it?s not easy to measure the impact of one-time transit events On the same day that the Women?s March brought hundreds of thousands to Washington D.C., over 500 ?sister marches? were held in cities across the country.
Among the strikingly universal photos of pink-hatted attendees filling downtown streets and waving protest signs coast to coast, there are just as many images featuring Women?s Marchers packing buses and swarming subway stations.
After Washington, D.C.?s Metro rail system reported its second-highest one-day ridership in the system?s history, transit agencies across the country also touted their own exceptional ridership figures. Some preliminary estimates show at least 3.3 million people attended the U.S. marches nationwide. ?Even using a conservative estimate, it was the single largest day for a demonstration in the U.S.,? said Erica Chenoweth, a civil resistance expert from the University of Denver who is still tabulating attendance. Was it a record-setting day for transit as well"
While the science of crowd counting can be politicized, transit boarding can provide a somewhat reliable estimate of special event attendees?especially on a Saturday, in a system that?s not being taxed by commuters. Compare the 570,557 boardings on D.C.?s Metro on Friday, January 20?the same day as the inauguration (which was actually below the average weekday boardings of 630,000)?and Saturday, January 21, which saw 1,001,616 rides. Only Barack Obama?s 2009 inau...