By Camas Frank ~
A small city transit system carrying capacity equal to a small town is a good way to describe SLO Transit.
With the Cal Poly crowd back in town, three of the bus company’s routes are experiencing overcrowding but, said Gamaliel Anguiano, the City of SLO’s transit manager, they’re doing their best to give riders more elbow room. In an announcement of service changes he added, “In efforts to meet this increased demand we will be scheduling most, if not all, of our available fleet, to help alleviate the stresses on the system.”
A check of ridership numbers has revealed that the system has once again set a record for riders this fiscal year. FY 2015-16 is shaping up better than even 2012-13.
There was a slight lull in between but ridership in October was up more than 8% from this time last year.
For the federal government, which provides a solid amount of the subsidies that go into local transit systems, SLO is considered “small urban,” but Anguiano thinks of it another way. “Our daily ridership numbers are equivalent to transporting the entire population of a small town, which is significant, considering that we are a small town,” he said. “We wanted to make sure people know we’re aware of their experience riding with us and are taking action.”
On Oct. 5, a new ridership record was set, as 7,744 people counted in a single day. That broke the old record — set just the week before.
Overcrowding is keenly felt on the routes that primarily service Cal Poly – Routes 4, 5 and 6.
That presents a small problem as the system has been reaching out to increase use in general but only receives a fixed amount from the University to allow the students to ride free.
There’s no such thing as a free ride, but the expense isn’t based on actual student use, therefore, Anguiano said, only the fares from increased use by other community members are making a difference in the revenues.
