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September, reports the Sun today, saw the highest daily MTA ridership of any month since June 1971. There are several general trends responsible for this — job growth in the city, the subway system's ever-increasing cleanliness and safety since the 70s — but there was also, interestingly, a sort of perfect storm in September that made it uniquely capable of setting this 7.5-million-per-day record:

[U]nseasonably warm weather; the shock of exorbitant gasoline prices that kept people's cars in their garages; [and] a Jewish New Year that fell in October instead of September and kept people in school and at work.

See, at the Sun, it's always thanks to the Jews.

Transit Ridership Reaches Highest Since June of 1971 [NY Sun]