More residents take the bus

By Cathy Spaulding
Phoenix Staff Writer

May 15, 2008 09:46 pm

— High gas prices are putting more Muskogee residents and their school children on the bus.
“People may have a car, but they can’t afford to fill it up,” said Roger Bartlett, director of Muskogee County Transit Authority.
The cost of regular gas at selected Muskogee stations Thursday ranged from $3.59 to $3.79, according to the Web site Autoguide.com.
The price hike has made a major change in the type of people riding Muskogee County transit buses and trolleys, Bartlett said.
“You pay $5 per gallon to get to work in the car, and you pay 50 cents for the bus to get you to work,” he said.
Bartlett said ridership has increased from 34,610 passenger trips for first quarter of 2007 to 42,491 for first quarter of 2008, an increase of 18.5 percent. That marks the second year in a row for such major increases. Ridership for first quarter of 2007 was 24 percent higher than the 26,299 passenger trips logged for first quarter of 2006.
Muskogee County Transit bus driver James Rackley said he has seen more people on his west Muskogee route.
“It’s increasing,” he said. “A lot of people living at Port City Apartments rely on the bus. They ride the bus because they can’t afford cab prices.”
More car owners also are riding the bus, he said.
“It’s picked up, especially at the end of the month,” Rackley said.
Rackley said he had 10 riders on one morning route, including three who went to the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center, one to Muskogee Regional Medical Center to visit her husband, two went to the Department of Human Services, one went to Workforce Oklahoma.
Elnora Snead, who Rackley said retired from Oklahoma School for the Blind, is a regular on the bus route.
“I ride on the bus all the time,” she said.
Costs have risen along with ridership, Bartlett said. Muskogee County Transit spent $40,559 for the first quarter of 2008, a 23 percent increase from the same period in 2008.
“Muskogee probably does a better job of supporting public transit” than most Oklahoma communities, he said. “We’re a one-county system, probably the largest in the state.”
Garfield, Pontotoc and Texas counties also have county transit systems, he said.
Muskogee Public Schools buses also carry more passengers, said MPS Transportation Director Anne Henry.
“We’ve got 300-400 more riders spread out all over the district,” she said. “When I go to the schools, I see parents picking up their kids less often.”
She said she also has seen fewer student cars in the Muskogee High School parking lot.
Henry said high gas prices haven’t forced any cutbacks on field trips. She said teachers, organizations and students raise money to pay for the field trips.
However, Hilldale School Assistant Superintendent Randy Goodsell said he hasn’t seen more kids riding Hilldale buses.
“But, I know it’s a big issue, and we’re just at the beginning of it,” he said.
Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.