Intercity Transit bigger & better than ever

Intercity Transit, Thurston County’s 32-year old public transportation agency, recently announced that it set a new all-time record for total ridership. IT buses and vanpools together provided nearly 5.5 million rides in 2012, a 2.3 percent increase over 2011 ridership – itself a record-setting year.

To put that in perspective, there are about 260,000 people total in Thurston County. That means there were 21 rides on IT for every person in the county, even averaging in the many people who never ride transit at all as well as people who live in the most rural portions of the county that do not receive (and do not pay taxes for) transit service.

Over the past decade (2002-2012), IT’s ridership increased by a stupendous 85 percent. The beginning of that period came in the midst of a decline in ridership, mostly due to service cutbacks resulting from statewide anti-tax initiatives. Thankfully, local voters have largely reversed those cutbacks by supporting recent tax measures.

The increase in ridership seems to be in response to rising fuel prices, improved transit services, consumer sensitivity to household budgets, and more people returning to work as the economy gradually recovers.

“We are pleased to provide valuable transportation services to the residents and commuters throughout the region,” said Ann Freeman-Manzanares, interim general manager for Intercity Transit. “Transit services provide an effective and efficient way for people to get to jobs, school, and many other activities.”

Freeman-Manzanares deserves credit, along with all the other IT employees, for keeping things moving in the right direction after the departure of IT’s general manager, Mike Harbour, last year.

According to the American Public Transportation Association, public transportation use nationally last year was the second highest ridership since 1957 with 10.5 billion trips. Every mode of public transportation (bus, light rail, heavy rail, paratransit) showed an increase, and ridership gains occurred in all areas of the country and in communities of all sizes.Transit ridership rose twice as fast as the nation’s population growth (31 percent compared to 16 percent, respectively) between 1995 and 2010, and transit use grew more than the growth rate of vehicle miles traveled on our nation’s roads and highways (24 percent) over the same period.

Transit users save an average of about $900 a month by owning one less vehicle and using public transportation instead. Public transportation across America saves 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline every year and reduces our nation’s carbon emissions by 37 million metric tons – the equivalent of 900,000 automobile fill-ups each day.

We have previously praised public transportation generally and Intercity Transit specifically. And we’ll do it again, for one simple reason: IT is an excellent example of a public agency that provides an essential public services that impacts a large portion of the population, and benefits even people who do not use the service directly, and does it very well at a reasonable cost. With the many complaints sometimes aimed at government, justified or otherwise, it is important to also recognize  the many things it does right.

Thanks, IT! And thanks to all hardworking government employees out there! ◙