I see several of you making sound, logical, and coherent arguments, based on actual experience and knowledge, with the original thesis of this thread. And, these numbers aren't really that bad considering the really poor midday service levels, and a number of large and small service disruption issues.

Weekend levels of ridership vary considerably through out the year on many urban systems, depending often of special attractions, events, or even the length of daylight. And, the weekend service levels are also limited, limiting the utility of the system. So I would expect weekend traffic to fall this time of year, rise again during the run up to the holidays, fall again when it gets really rainy, and rise again when the Spring comes......

Consistent with observed special event based (County Fairs, concerts, football games, and the like), that can create these weekday and weekend transit ridership "surges", I expect to see a "surge" in ridership next Thursday, Friday, and over the weekend, when the SPHTS annual Convention rolls into town.

I have not been uncritical of SMART, as there have been many questionable decisions and choices made in trying to "cobble" this project together, that clearly warrant criticism. Inadequate resources and inadequately experienced management, combined with a divided Board, without a permanent consensus, and several member trying to outright sabotage the project didn't help much either.

Current service levels are bare bones minimal compared to the optimal level of service that would be necessary to achieve maximum ridership, and would be an argument for higher service levels and coverage, not less.

Hopefully, with some of the now available SB1 funds, some of these deficiencies can be corrected, as these issues are not project dooming (as is the thesis of the original post), nor unfixable.

That being said, and all of these other good points taken, by some of you, it doesn't really matter to the hard core train haters.......does it?