"People are trying to avoid the high cost of gasoline by using public transportation," said William Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.
LOS ANGELES: Dale Birdsong has been happily commuting by train to downtown Los Angeles for nearly a decade, since freeway congestion drove her off the highway.
Now, with near-record gasoline prices, Birdsong is not sure she wants to pay even to drive to the train. "Look at the gas prices," Birdsong said at Union Station in Los Angeles.
"I just got a new bike. I'm thinking of riding it to the train station instead of driving my car there." All around the United States, drivers are sticker-shocked by the price of gasoline, which is up 42 cents in the past month nationally to more than $3 per gallon in much of the country, transportation officials said on Monday.
"People are trying to avoid the high cost of gasoline by using public transportation," said William Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.
The higher number of riders on mass transit has persisted since gas topped $3 a gallon last fall and increased steadily since then, he added.
"Apparently, Americans are figuring out the quickest way to beat the high prices is to get on board a bus or train," Millar said. The average US price for regular gasoline hit a record $3.07 last September after Hurricane Katrina disrupted fuel supplies.
At the time, national ridership on public transportation rose 3.3 percent from a base of about 32 million riders per day, Millar said.
The price dipped to $2.12 in December, but the US average for self-serve regular hit $2.91 per gallon in a federal report issued on Monday, up 42 cents from a month ago.
Drivers, however, are proving difficult to dislodge from their cars, according to recent government figures that show US gasoline demand is 0.8 percent higher this year than in 2005, despite gasoline prices averaging 60 cents higher.
Some mass transit advocates hesitate to say the price spike has forced drivers onto public transportation, including Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black.
But in some cities where the car is undisputed king of transportation such as Houston and Los Angeles, public transportation ridership is up. In Houston, home to many oil refineries, ridership was up 10.2 percent in the most recent fiscal year, said Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority, which has a large bus fleet.
In Los Angeles, Metro Rail ridership rose 11.4 percent and the number of bus passengers increased 7 percent in the first quarter of 2006. About 1.4 million ride Los Angeles County buses and trains daily. It's difficult to say how many are on board because of gasoline prices, said Dave Sotero of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
"When gas prices go up, we do see spikes in ridership," said Sotero. "We're hopeful people who haven't used public transit, they will carry on riding even if gasoline prices drop." Last week, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in the nation's capital had the two highest ridership days in the Metrorail's 30-year history that were not linked to a special event.
The highest day was April 20, with 780,820 riders, up 6.2 percent from a year ago. But WMATA spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said it's hard to peg that on gasoline prices -- nice weather last week may have had more to do with it, he said.
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