Portland

• Portland City Population: 583,776 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Oregon)
• Weekday Trips on TriMet: 323,900 (http://trimet.org/pdfs/publications/performance-statistics/2012-01.pdf)
• Cost Per Passenger: $2.68 bus, $1.61 for light rail  (http://trimet.org/pdfs/publications/factsheet.pdf)

Seattle

• Seattle City Population: 608,660 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle)
• Weekday Trips on King County Metro: 370,000 (http://www.kingcounty.gov/transportation/kcdot/NewsCenter/NewsReleases/2012/February/nr022412_Ridership.aspx)
• Cost Per Passenger: $3.92 (http://www.kingcounty.gov/transportation/kcdot/MetroTransit/Facts.aspx)

Other interesting facts are the distance people travelled (shorter is generally better for a more sustainable environment and activities), the energy consumed or expended per passenger, etc. Some of these are hard to find, some are a little easier. King County and TriMet do a decent job providing this data, mostly. TriMet has a vastly easier website to find data on vs. King County’s, which seems to have been forced to use the “how not to build a website book”. I’m sure some bureaucrat had some say in the misguided approach, but the data is there, ya just gotta dig for it.  🙂