Monona transit commission cites higher ridership and rising paratransit use, staff flags data limits

Monona Transit Commission Chair Rick Bernstein on July 8 reviewed a first-quarter 2026 ridership report compiled from Madison Metro data and said the figures show increased use after the recent expansion of Metro service into Monona.

“The ridership numbers are very strong,” commission member Addie Ferber said, calling the service change an “incredibly successful merger” between the two systems. Staff reported roughly 30,000 revenue trips for fixed routes in the period and about 31,000 total trips when transfers are included; the package also referenced 2024 figures under the prior Monona system.

Why it matters: the report is the data the city must file for state transit grants and helps the commission target capital investments such as benches and shelters. Commissioners pressed for more granular information to understand how much ridership is genuinely new to Monona versus rerouted or pre-existing trips.

Commissioners asked whether Metro can disaggregate trips at individual stops (for example, a stop that formerly served a nearby community and recently moved into Monona). Mark Botaker, city compliance director and staff lead, said he has the raw datasets and will convert them into graphs for the commission’s next meeting so members can compare stop-level changes. “I’ll have that converted for the next meeting,” Botaker said.

Paratransit: members noted a marked increase in paratransit rides in the recent quarter—staff reported almost 900 paratransit rides in Q1 2026 versus 10,000 for all of 2024 under the previous service model. Commissioners welcomed the apparent increase in access for riders who need door-to-door service but cautioned against over-interpreting early figures. Botaker told the commission that exit (alighting) data has only been available for about four months, and that some trips may be split or counted as separate legs, which can make year-over-year comparisons misleading.

“Early signs are encouraging, but the count can be a bit misleading without full trip-path data,” Botaker said. The commission did not attempt to annualize the quarter’s paratransit numbers; instead members asked staff to provide stop-level boarding and alighting graphs and clarified methodology at the next meeting.

Next steps: staff will provide converted, stop-level visualizations and a short explanation of how the ridership and paratransit counts are produced ahead of the August meeting. The commission intends to use those visuals to prioritize capital requests and evaluate whether increases represent new riders or redistributed usage.