A QUICK LOOK AT SOME OF THE STATISTICS THAT MAKE YOUR CITIES WORK (OR NOT):
Forecasted average weekday boardings for the Jacksonville Skyway Express in 1995: 42,472
Actual average weekday boardings for the Jacksonville Skyway Express in 2003: 1,925
Number of lost passenger items the Toronto Transit Commission typically sells at auction per year: 44,000
Cost of a single Chicago transit fare in 1865: $.05
Cost of a single Chicago transit fare in 1865, inflated to 2009: $0.68
Cost of a single Chicago transit fare in 2009: $2.25
Cost of a single Chicago transit fare in 2009, deflated to 1865: $0.17
Price for a Seattle South Lake Union Trolley “Ride the S.L.U.T.” t-shirt: $15.00
Length of the Toronto Island Airport Ferry crossing, the shortest such crossing in the world: 400 feet
Length of the Park Pobedy Metro Station escalators in Moscow, Russia: 413 feet
Length of the Zürich Polybahn, the world’s shortest publicly-accessible funicular: 577 feet
Number of Zeppelins manufactured prior to World War I: 21
Number of number one singles released by British rock band Led Zeppelin since World War I: 0
Estimated maximum speed of a Toronto CLRV streetcar: 100 km/hr
Average operating speed of a Toronto CLRV streetcar: 10 – 15 km/hr
Number of letter T’s missing from the name of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s SmarTrip® card: 1
Length of the world’s longest bi-articulated buses: 25 meters
Number of passenger compartments within a bi-articulated bus: 3
Number of fully-integrated public transit gondola lines in Medellin, Colombia: 3
Number of buses operated by Medellin, Colombia’s transit agency: 0
Age – in years – of the Wuppertal Schwebebahn, the world’s oldest monorail: 109
Length of the longest tunnel on Earth, the Seikan Tunnel: 53.85 km
Length of Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel, once completed: 56.978 km
Year construction began on the Gotthard Base Tunnel: 1993
Estimated year of completion: 2017
Date in 2017 when the United States experiences their first visible total solar eclipse since February 26, 1979: August 21st
Time of the eclipse: 16:50 – 20:02 UTC
Number of parking spaces anticipated for usage at the Dubai World Central parking lot, upon opening in 2017: 100,000
Number of parking spaces available at the West Edmonton Mall, currently the Guiness world record holder for the world’s largest parking lot: 20,000
Fastest recorded speed for a train: 581 km/hr
Average cruising speed of a Boeing 747: 910 km/hr
Average operating speed of a Toronto CLRV streetcar: 10 – 15 km/hr
Cheapest day of the week – on average – to fly with a major North American air carrier: Wednesday