Stung at the Pumps, More Hop on a Bus

Bill Powers of Burke, a program manager with the Department of Homeland Security, started looking for transportation alternatives when he began spending $200 a week to gas up his Jeep Commander back in March, up from about $125 in November. He always enjoyed the flexibility of having his own ride, enough even to forgo the transit subsidy his employer offered.

He began calling vanpools and soon realized that he wasn't alone: He called six before finding an opening.

"I finally struck gold about two or three weeks ago," said Powers, who now hops into a van with 14 others about a mile from home at 6:05 a.m. He's at his office building in Northwest Washington by 6:45 a.m.

For people who are not regular transit users, the first hurdle is the biggest. But across the country, enough people are taking that step to increase transit ridership nationwide, said Rob Padgette, director of policy, development and research at the American Public Transportation Association, an industry group. "We haven't seen anything like this in a long time," he said.

Gas prices probably have much to do with that increase, but there is little research that shows a direct correlation.

During the 1970s oil crisis, gasoline shortages pushed national transit ridership up -- 6.7 percent in 1979 over the previous year and 5.4 percent in 1980. By comparison, ridership grew 2.1 percent in 2007, but that was the highest level in 50 years.

Padgette predicts that the number will rise, particularly for rail, because those trips are the longest.

"We're going to see some pretty striking numbers this year, and they will show up later this year if fuel prices remain high," he said.

On Friday, the Transportation Department reported that in March, Americans drove 11 billion fewer miles than in March 2007, a 4.3 percent drop and the first time in nearly three decades that traffic has dropped between one March and the next.

For some local officials, the link between skyrocketing gas prices and the jump in public transportation rides is clear.

Loudoun officials are scrambling to put more commuter buses on the road for the two-hour trips between remote parts of the county and downtown Washington. Average daily ridership in April was 3,281, but already this month, some days have exceeded 4,000 riders, county transit chief Nancy Gourley said.

She said the agency might need to lease more buses, consider running feeder buses to take commuters to transit centers and expand parking at a 750-space lot.