Hats Off, Austin: Nearly 700,000 Off The Road So Far!

As gas prices continue to rise and with no urban-commuter rail available (yet), Austinites are left with the option of riding Capital Metro buses. An occasional nuisance for some and a necessity for most, Cap Metro has a love-hate relationship with the City of Austin and its drivers. Whatever your thoughts of the bus system in our city, they did have some good news to report this month: ridership is up!

Over 675,000 more people rode Cap Metro buses this year than in 2007—that's an increase of over 6%. The amount of people who choose to park-and-ride went up as well, over 13%. Reports of full buses and long waits have filled Cap Metro inboxes and, in response, the company hopes to add between 10 to 15 more buses to its fleet. Additionally, Cap Metro says they hope to use these to create new, more rider-friendly routes.

While we're listing changes, how about more bike racks on buses? With this much increased ridership, surely Cap Metro would add more racks to accommodate its pedaling constituency? As many times as we've seen full buses, we've seen full bike racks.

One unwelcome change: expect a 75-cent increase in local fares after the summer. For more information on buses, routes, future plans and even to toy around with a nifty Commute Calculator or Trip Planner, visit their website.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By patrickdentler in News on June 6, 2008 10:34 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

rlcauvin

For more information on buses, routes, future plans and even to toy around with a nifty Commute Calculator or Trip Planner, visit their website.

You can also plan your trips on the go via text messaging from your mobile phone. Just send a text message to austin@dadnab.com with your origin, destination, and optional arrival or departure time (e.g. "5th & lavaca to barton springs & kinney"), and Dadnab reply with an itinerary telling you which bus to take, at which location, at what time.

BTW, I created and currently operate the service.

ducknutz

I love and use public transportation as much as the next duck, but this is a little deceiving:

Over 675,000 more people rode Cap Metro buses this year than in 2007

The population of Austin is under a million, and I see more cars on the road than ever before. A better use of words would be: "Cap Metro use is up by 675,000 this year than in 2007"... or something like that...

If I didn't have to use a car all day, I'd go back to taking the bus. I'd pay a higher fare, too, especially if they increased the routes or amount of buses on the road.

mdahmus

The buses don't go down 360 mainly because Westlake and Rollingwood decided they weren't happy with the fact that Austin subsidizes their streets enough already; they also needed to put their thumb in our eye by not funding Capital Metro.

To say nothing of Round Rock - who's starting their own private bus service to drop people off at a CM P&R, at which point we get to subsidize their transit users in addition to their motorists.

CamronR

I'd take the bus if they went down 360.

Anthony C.

One unwelcome change: expect a 75-cent increase in local fares after the summer.

But they haven't raised fares in 25 years...I think it's a fair increase. (pun intended)