Ridership on mass transit breaks records By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY
More people are riding the nation's buses and trains, breaking records for the first quarter of the year. Transit operators expect the increase to be greater in the second quarter as gasoline prices soar.
A report set for release today by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) shows trips on public transit January-March rose 3% over the same period last year to 2.6 billion rides. Light rails saw the biggest jump: 10% to 110 million trips.
Early figures for April show ridership going even higher as gas hovers near $4 a gallon, says APTA president William Millar.
In 2007, he says, "we had higher numbers than we've seen in 50 years, and the trend is continuing in 2008."
Still, only 5% of workers commute by public transit, according to a U.S. Census survey in 2006. Millar says no more than 20% of households have easy access to buses or trains.
Rising gas prices present an opportunity for the transit industry to beef up service, says Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, chairwoman of the Urban Planning Department at UCLA. She says cities have not provided an alternative for people to leave their cars at home: safe, reliable, convenient service.
"In many places, they are not reaching capacity," she says. "But if gas prices keep rising, we'll see it more and more."
Transit managers say systems are underfunded.
The South Florida rail system, which runs from Miami to Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, had a 13% increase in riders during the first quarter. In April, travel jumped 28%, says Joe Giulietti of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority. ......(more)
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-06-01-mass-transit_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
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