Driving? Fuhgeddabout it! Brooklyn Stats Say Transit Rules
It's always been moving to see Brooklynites move. In a poem called "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," Walt Whitman could barely contain himself: "Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes! how curious you are to me! On the ferry-boats, the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose."
Straphangers shoe-horning themselves onto a packed L train or waiting endlessly for the B41 bus might sometimes find Brooklyn's commuting crowds more contemptible than curious. But a new report from Brooklyn College's Center for the Study of Brooklyn, finds that despite rising fares and crowded platforms, more Brooklynites are using mass transit—even in outlying areas where taking the train takes a lot of time.
The percentage of Brooklynites who use mass transit increased from 56 percent in the 2000 Census to 60 percent in the 2007-2009 American Community Survey, also put out by the Census Bureau. The share that drove slipped from 32 percent to 26 percent.