The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) released its annual overview of transit ridership in the United States today, and by and large the news across the country was good. According to the report:

In 2013 Americans took 10.7 billion trips on public transportation, which is the highest annual public transit ridership number in 57 years[…]This was the eighth year in a row that more than 10 billion trips were taken on public transportation systems nationwide. While vehicle miles traveled on roads (VMT) went up 0.3 percent, public transportation use in 2013 increased by 1.1 percent.

In New York, annual transit ridership growth largely mirrored national patterns. The Long Island Rail Road saw annual growth of over 2 percent, and even Metro-North, which had a year that Connecticut General Assembly Transportation Chair Representative Tony Guerrera aptly described as “appalling,” still saw growth of .6 percent.

Ridership grew by 3.6 percent in New York City; in Westchester County, ridership on the County’s Bee-Line bus system grew by over 1.5 percent.

In New Jersey, ridership on the Port Authority’s transit systems grew by .47 percent and ridership on NJ Transit grew by 1.54 percent.

The lone blemish on the region’s widespread transit ridership growth was Long Island’s bus systems, with both Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) and Suffolk County Transit (SCT) experiencing ridership drops in 2013. With a ridership drop of almost 2.4 percent, NICE ridership fell to its lowest level since 1998. In Suffolk County, ridership fell by just over 3 percent, resulting in the system’s lowest annual ridership since 2005.

The addition of Sunday service in Suffolk County that began last January, along with the restoration of service to some routes in Nassau that began last fall, could help ridership rebound. But until funding these transit systems  becomes a greater priority for State and County leaders, it’s hard not to think ridership will continue to fall on Long Island. Governor Cuomo’s proposed budget only increases bus funding to Nassau County by $1.2 million, while Suffolk County will receive less than $500,000 in additional funding. These minor increases don’t allow service providers to even keep up with inflation, let alone improve service. At the same time, Nassau County continues to contribute just $2.5 million a year to NICE — a level of funding that has kept service levels 10 percent lower than the levels that preceded 2012 service reductions.

Long Island advocates traveled to Albany to make the case for greater transit funding last week, but it remains to be seen if the New York State Assembly and the State Senate will provide additional funds in their final budgets (due this Wednesday). In addition, the Long Island Bus Riders Union will be holding a ‘People’s Hearing’ tonight, March 10, 2014, from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. at the Ethical Humanist Society in Garden City, to ensure Nassau County’s elected officials understand the importance of NICE to riders, businesses and workers. If Long Island is going to stay competitive with the rest of the region and country, elected officials at both the County and State levels will need to find a way to give transit the priority it deserves.