Rising gas prices drive more Spokane residents to public transit

SPOKANE, Wash. — Gas prices hit an all-time high in Spokane this week, with the average price hitting $5.37 a gallon, according to AAA. As the cost at the pump continues to increase, some drivers are finding other ways to get around.

As people hit the road to head to work or to school, the Spokane Transit Authority says more of them are getting to where they need to go by bus, instead of car.

“So over the last two months, we’ve seen about a 2% growth on our ridership over last year,” said Carly Cortright of Spokane Transit Authority.

STA says in both March and April, they have seen an average of 562 more people riding the bus each day, compared to this time last year. They credit that to the cost of a bus pass being significantly cheaper than filling up your tank.

“When we were first tracking this in March, when the war in Iran first kind of broke out, it was a lot of variables, it was a lot of variables with spring break at eastern that caused our ridership to go down. Weather can certainly be an impact,” Cortright said. “But the fact that we are seeing an end over end trend, and continuing to grow, we’re pretty sure it’s related to gas prices going up. So anecdotally talking to people, they’re riding the bus more and that’s what they attribute it to.”

Spokane Transit Authority says the place where ridership has increased the most is in Spokane Valley. In both March and April STA says there was a 5.8% increase in ridership.

“I made it three times this week on the bus, and I can tell you that my route is definitely busier than it normally is with more people, that are commuting down here to the plaza and a great big bunch of us get off,” Cortright said.

As reporter Madeleine Mullins spoke to people at the bus stop, even those riders that have been taking the bus long before gas prices significantly increased said they’re glad to take the bus rather than pay the price at the gas pump.

While the price of gas continues to rise, STA says they don’t plan on increasing fare prices anytime soon.