Arlington Transit (ART) bus service is riding a post-Covid bump up in customer satisfaction.
A survey of 2,000 riders conducted on buses late last year found a 92% overall satisfaction rate, according to data presented March 10 to the county’s Transit Advisory Committee.
That’s up from 86% in the last survey, conducted in 2019.
“That’s really satisfying to us,” said Joshua Riebe, transit-services coordinator for the county government.
The satisfaction survey is typically undertaken every three years, but was postponed in 2022 due to the pandemic.
Of those who took the 2025 survey, 73% said they use ART to commute to work, down from 81% in 2019. The decline could be due to more work-from-home opportunities and/or to the larger number of local students using ART service to get to classes.
Of those who responded, 93% use ART service at least once a week, with 70% using it at least five days per week.
As with the 2019 survey, respondents were asked what service improvements they would like to see. Riebe said the latest aspirational responses tracked with the previous ones: more frequent service, better on-time performance, elimination of fares and more accurate real-time service information.
County officials conducted a separate online survey that drew about 500 participants. Among those who said they had used ART service in the past, the satisfaction rate was 85%.
Surveys were conducted from October to December. In addition, 10 focus groups were paneled: eight for riders and two for bus operators.
Engaging the operators was “a really good idea,” said committee vice chair James Davenport.
Like nearly all public transit, ART’s ridership totals cratered during Covid. But they have rebounded since. About 2.62 million passengers rode the local service in fiscal 2025, on par with the fiscal year running between July 2019 and June 2020.
Service is funded by the county government but operated by a private contractor.
