Sept. showed big increases in weekday fares

Bus ridership boomed in September as gas prices soared, with Valley Metro reporting Thursday its highest ever monthly ridership and its highest average weekday ridership.

The Phoenix area transit authority also released the results of a recent survey in which 67 percent of respondents said gas prices impacted their local travel. In September, when the price-per-gallon hit $3 for the first time, bus ridership reached 5,349,647 compared with 4,996,948 in September 2004, Valley Metro reported.

Average daily weekday ridership, which measures how many bus trips are taken Monday through Friday, rose 6.46 percent last month to 221,404 compared with September 2004, when 207,966 trips were taken by bus. Weekday ridership has posted monthly increases of 3 percent to 4 percent since January, so September’s figures showed a marked rise.

"What we’re seeing is that typically, ridership has been increasing, but it took a jump in September,” said Valley Metro spokeswoman Susan Tierney.

Although Valley Metro could not positively say that the price of gas caused the ridership rise, Tierney said, “it would be natural to assume that people are riding the bus more because of gas-price increases.”

In a random telephone survey, conducted by WestTrack in September, more than twice as many respondents said gas prices influenced their Valley travel than the 31 percent who said it had no effect. Of the 402 people who responded to the question, 271 answered yes, 125 said no and six had no opinion.

In another question, people were asked what they had done personally to change their travel habits because of gas prices. Of those people who gave more than one response to the question, 13 percent said they started taking the bus or rode the bus more often, and 12 percent said they started or increased carpooling. The boost in bus ridership will not immediately translate to more buses or routes, Tierney said.

"At this time, we do not have the resources to add bus service,” she said. “But we can look forward to additional bus service as revenues from Proposition 400 (the regional transportation plan) start in 2006."

Proposition 400, approved by voters in November, is a 20-year plan that extends a half-cent sales tax to build and improve freeways and highways, expand light rail and add bus service and other transit. Despite crowded rush-hour buses, Valley Metro will have to wait for the money before it can add to the fleet, she said. “The revenue probably won’t start coming in until March,” she said. “It will trickle in, so we can’t add new service all at once.”

Bob Golfen
The Arizona Republic