Friendly Rider
Demand Response at Friendly Rider
Friendly Rider carried 50,963 demand response boardings in FY2025 at $17.92 per ride. Ten years of National Transit Database figures for this service, with safety, reliability and the national comparison.
Demand Response
Wadena, MN
FY2025 boardings
51K
-7.8%
vs FY2024
Cost per ride
$17.92
-0%
nationwide $52.35
Subsidy per ride
$15.16
-1%
operating cost less fares
Fare recovery
15.4%
+5.6%
nationwide 6.7%
Passenger miles
—
average trip — miles
Operating cost
$913K
Vehicles in service
8
at maximum service
Rides per revenue hour
4.02
12.7K hours operated
Ridership
This service reports annually.
Monthly boardings
NTD publishes monthly figures for full reporters only, so this service has annual data alone.
Annual boardings
Ten-year series
Cost
This service against every demand response operator in the country.
Cost per ride
This agency against the national figure for the same mode
Fare recovery
Share of operating cost covered by fares
Directly operated and purchased service, FY2025
NTD reports these separately. An agency that contracts a service out reports the contract price, which bundles costs a directly operating agency reports line by line.
| Service | Boardings | Passenger miles | Revenue hours | Operating cost | Cost / ride | Subsidy / ride | Fare recovery | Vehicles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Directly operated | 50,963 | — | 12,675 | $913,017 | $17.92 | $15.16 | 15.4% | 8 |
Full series
Every year Friendly Rider reported this service.
| Year | Boardings | Passenger miles | Revenue miles | Revenue hours | Operating cost | Fares | Cost / ride | Subsidy / ride | Fare recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 50,963 | — | 198,018 | 12,675 | $913,017 | $140,465 | $17.92 | $15.16 | 15.4% |
| 2024 | 55,260 | — | 199,696 | 12,876 | $990,425 | $144,318 | $17.92 | $15.31 | 14.6% |
| 2023 | 55,238 | — | 197,808 | 11,997 | $959,910 | $136,737 | $17.38 | $14.90 | 14.2% |
| 2022 | 53,028 | — | 189,053 | 11,883 | $885,563 | $124,704 | $16.70 | $14.35 | 14.1% |
| 2021 | 46,513 | — | 176,613 | 11,916 | $788,170 | $113,663 | $16.95 | $14.50 | 14.4% |
| 2020 | 43,852 | — | 128,499 | 11,779 | $711,486 | $45,235 | $16.22 | $15.19 | 6.4% |
| 2019 | 52,074 | — | 142,480 | 13,011 | $791,026 | $46,169 | $15.19 | $14.30 | 5.8% |
| 2018 | 57,367 | — | 160,642 | 14,751 | $758,731 | $49,396 | $13.23 | $12.36 | 6.5% |
| 2017 | 51,345 | — | 132,669 | 11,519 | $611,246 | $50,585 | $11.90 | $10.92 | 8.3% |
| 2016 | 47,950 | — | 104,859 | 9,525 | $562,981 | $24,472 | $11.74 | $11.23 | 4.3% |
| 2015 | 44,274 | — | 71,859 | 7,955 | $496,728 | $45,192 | $11.22 | $10.20 | 9.1% |