Gainesville’s Regional Transit System topped a new record in the amount of riders on its buses in fiscal year 2013, which ended Monday.
RTS spokesman Chip Skinner said he attributes the record-breaking ridership of 10.8 million rides during the past year to the fact that UF has not expanded any of its parking garages recently and because gas prices remain high.
“Between UF and Santa Fe College, they comprise 77 percent of our ridership,” he said. “So as the student base grows, ridership is now proven to grow.”
The single-day ridership record was also broken. It had been set in August 2012 with 64,835 riders. But on Aug. 26 — the first Monday of UF classes — 65,667 people took RTS buses.
Skinner said due to this increase in ridership, some of the buses have been more crowded.
“We have been keeping a more watchful eye this Fall on the number of full buses we have on particular routes,” he said. “And we are adjusting those as needed.”
Skinner said one way RTS has been compensating for this increase is by sending buses on unscheduled trips to pick up overflow passengers.
“If we have an available driver and an available bus, we will send that out there to do a mop-up duty,” he said.
Steven Saumell, 19, a Santa Fe College political science sophomore, said the record ridership is possibly related to the free rides for SFC students.
“It’s a very convenient way to go from point A to point B,” he said. “Especially when traffic is ridiculous and gas is insane these days.”
A version of this story ran on page 5 on 10/3/2013 under the headline "The wheels on the bus go round and round — and round"
Students wait in line to board a bus Wednesday afternoon. Gainesville RTS set new ridership records for this fiscal year, which ran through Sept. 30.
