From: "Friends of Transit" To: Subject: AZ Republic Article - Bus ridership increases in Phoenix metro area Date: Tuesday, August 03, 2004 9:18 AM Bus ridership increases in Phoenix metro area Bob Golfen The Arizona Republic Aug. 2, 2004 12:00 AM More people are riding the bus in the Phoenix metropolitan area than ever before, with a 7.34 percent increase in ridership compared with last year. Valley buses tallied more than 54 million boardings during the 2003-04 fiscal year ending in July, according to Valley Metro's annual ridership report. Since 2000, bus ridership has grown 35 percent, the report shows. "Those are pretty huge numbers," said Bryan Jungwirth, deputy executive director of the transit authority. "If you compare us with most urban transit systems, they're happy with something like a 2 percent increase." Valley Metro credits population growth, gas price increases, and transit-service enhancements for the ridership gain. Most of the service improvements have come through funding from Phoenix, Tempe, Glendale and Mesa, including Phoenix's popular RAPID peak-hour bus service. In the previous fiscal year, there were 50,319,083 boardings, the report shows, with the current year's total coming to 54,013,410. Among cities showing the strongest gains in ridership in a single year were Avondale, 97.4 percent; Gilbert, 24.24 percent; Chandler, 19.19 percent and Glendale, 15.75 percent. Ridership in Phoenix went from 36,079,666 in 2002-2003 to 38,740,664 in 2003-2004, a 7.38 percent gain. "There's a pent-up demand for transit," Jungwirth said. "People are trying out the system, and they're finding out they like it and sticking in there." Some cities showed declines in ridership, with Sun City dropping 27.39 percent; Fountain Hills losing 23 percent; Paradise Valley, off 20.82 percent; Scottsdale, down 4.6 percent; and Peoria, down 4.16 percent.