Gainesville Regional Transit System saw a decline in passengers last year, and so far, expects this year to look the same.
RTS ridership decreased to fewer than 10 million in 2016, said Chip Skinner, the RTS marketing and communications supervisor. The agency is on track to see another year of ridership under 10 million.
“It’s a phenomenon that not just RTS is experiencing, but transit agencies all across the country,” he said.
The decrease isn’t due to one factor, Skinner said. Lower gas prices have incentivized driving a personal vehicle, apartment complexes have opened within walking distance of UF and Uber and scooters have become more popular among students.
UF students account for about 70 to 75 percent of RTS ridership, and many undergraduate students are unaware that they pay for the bus system in their transportation fees, Skinner said.
“I always tell them, ‘Oh, you’re paying for it. You might as well use it,’” he said. “However, it hasn’t stopped the number of scooter parking passes and things like that to escalate.”
Kat Lewandowska, a UF materials science and engineering junior, said this is the first semester she’s used RTS.
“Last semester I would just kind of walk, and I guess maybe the bus wasn’t as accessible,” the 21-year-old said.
Megan Clary, a UF history sophomore, said that while she’s a frequent bus rider, she thinks scooters are the system’s biggest rival.
“There’s like a million people riding scooters all the time,” the 19-year-old said. “That’s a quicker way because you don’t have to worry as much about all the stops.”
Skinner said the Gainesville City Commission is looking to implement “express routes,” which will be routes with about two or three stops to help travelers get to places faster. RTS is also working on syncing its bus routes with hospital workers’ shifts at UF Health Shands Hospital and North Florida Regional Medical Center, as well as adding a route that will run from Haile Plantation to UF in the Spring.
For people who have access to a car, the stigma of public transportation is one of the biggest challenges to overcome, Skinner said.
“Public transportation does have a stigma about it,” he said. “People think it’s just the indigent, the homeless people in town, that are using the system, and that’s not true.”
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