Transit ridership in Seattle sets record, growth leads nation

29. Austin, Texas

Transit ridership 2016: 28,893,986 Change from 2015: -11.9 percent 29. Austin, Texas

Transit ridership 2016: 28,893,986 Change from 2015: -11.9 percent Photo: Gavin Hellier/Getty Images/Robert Harding World Imagery Photo: Gavin Hellier/Getty Images/Robert Harding World Imagery Image 1 of / 44 Caption Close Transit ridership in Seattle sets record, growth leads nation 1 / 44 Back to Gallery

Public transit in the Seattle region grew by leaps and bounds in 2016.

In fact, the 4.1 percent growth was the most growth among major metro regions in the U.S. last year, according to an analysis by King County Metro.

Between Metro and Sound Transit, people took more than 150 million rides in 2016. Link light rail saw ridership hit 19.1 million, and Metro ticked off more than 122 million rides, according to figures from a King County news release last week.

The boost comes in large part thanks to added bus service and the opening of two major light rail extensions -- to Capitol Hill and the University of Washington and to Angle Lake, south of Sea-Tac -- that saw major gains in ridership that far surpassed even optimistic expectations.

A recent survey by Commute Seattle found that 70 percent of downtown commuters used transit to get there, and solo car drivers had increased in the last five years, but only by a fraction of the number of downtown workers that have been added in the same time.

In the slideshow above, we broke down the growth of transit ridership in 30 major metro regions. The numbers are an analysis of Federal Transit Administration data, and include annual trips (not necessarily riders, but single trips) and the percent change from 2015.