Public Transit is Safer Than You Think, Despite Covid-19

Covid-19 has hit public transportation systems hard. Many transit users are now staying home or driving to work, or taking a bike in Europe — anything to avoid a train or a bus. But after further review, there’s little evidence to suggest that subways and buses pose a more significant risk of infection. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, public transit is proving to be much safer than you might think.

Ridership Is Way Down

The company that makes the excellent Transit app has been measuring the changes in transit use during the pandemic. It’s not a pretty picture.

By April 15th, ridership was down 90% in the San Francisco Bay area and remains down 84% today. In New York City, where Covid-19 hit especially hard, ridership dropped as much as 74% and is still down by 59%.

There’s no doubt that fewer riders allow for better social distancing. Thus, a lower incidence of coronavirus infection than you might expect. But you’d still expect to trace some clusters of infection to our transportation systems, right?

No Transit-Related Virus Clusters

Not really! The Atlantic says our “fear of public transit got ahead of the evidence.” Here are just a few of the stats they cite:

• In Paris (link in French), researchers found that none of the city’s coronavirus clusters started on public transit.
• Austria (link in German) had more than 300 coronavirus clusters, yet none could be traced to transit services.
• Hong Kong, with nearly 13 million daily transit riders, had just 1,100 cases of coronavirus in the entire city.

It’s difficult to reconcile the fear with the facts. And in any event, there simply is no way that big cities can abandon transit in favor of solo drives to work. The increase in traffic would crush our cities under their own weight.

Wear a Face Covering

It’s relatively easy to stay safe on public transit: wear a mask!

Face coverings work well to prevent the spread of Covid-19, and the growing body of evidence is hard to ignore.

In what could be called an accidental study, two hair stylists in Missouri tested positive for Covid-19 yet still saw more than 140 clients. But… they wore masks. Among their clients and co-workers, 46 were tested for the novel coronavirus. All tested negative. Everyone else just waited out the two weeks, and none showed symptoms.

Of course, you should also wash your hands frequently and maintain social distance when possible. But all this advice leads to a single goal, to reduce the spread of droplets and new Covid-19 infections. Face coverings can help with that, as several new studies have shown.

In Hong Kong and Japan, where public transit use is widespread, the use of face coverings is just normal behavior. Could that be why these places have suffered considerably less from Covid-19? I think so.

And while you might not think of it, public transit usually lends itself to quiet. There are exceptions, like a bus full of happy football fans after a win, but commutes are mostly quiet. We’ll engage in small talk, read, look out the window, or check our smartphones. We don’t often sing, cheer or talk loudly — the kinds of behaviors that would unleash even more droplets and further their spread.

Final Thoughts

It appears our assumptions were wrong. Despite the risks from Covid-19, it’s safer to use public transit than most health experts thought. That’s good news, because our cities depend on healthy transit systems. Whether you drive a car or ride a bus to work, transit helps keep you and our cities moving.

I must admit, I’m still a bit nervous to jump back on a bus. I’ve already traveled by air during the pandemic, but I have a lot more confidence in both the airlines’ cleaning regimens and their HEPA filters. When I think bus or subway, my first thought isn’t about their cleanliness.

Transit systems are thinking a lot about how to lure riders back. Efficient cleaning will certainly be part of the solution. If there’s a bright side to Covid-19 for transit users, it’s that stations and subway cars should become a lot cleaner. Well, hopefully…

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[Cover Photo: Washington Metro Map via Sameboat/Wikimedia Commons]