Transit Ridership Sees Increase
Prince George, B.C. – The Pave the Way project has turned out to be a great success.
Ridership on public transit in Prince George is up significantly.
Over the course of the first 6 days of the Canada Winter Games, ridership is up “In 2014, over the course of the same days, we had 21,267 riders on public transit” says Dave Bradshaw, Manager of Parks, Transit and Solid Waste for the City of Prince George . “Over the same six days this year, we’ve had 28,711 riders on the buses, that’s a 35% increase.”
Bradshaw says the #55 route, from the Pine Centre to CN Centre, to Spruceland and on to downtown has seen the biggest increase, “We actually put on an extra bus, Tuesday we were at capacity, the driver would radio ahead to one of the change points, and a relief driver would come with another bus.”
Bradshaw says there has been an increase in ridership on most routes, but the #55 has seen the most significant boost in passenger numbers.
Pave the Way was a project launched by a group of students at UNBC. They raised dollars to offset the usual daily bus fares so transit in Prince George would be free during the 18 days of the Canada Winter Games.
Bradshaw says the hike in user numbers is no surprise “Given the campaign, the advertising that went out for that and certainly the number of people who are in town, I think a lot of athletes are using transit in between their scheduled events.”
The challenge that lies ahead says Bradshaw, will be to get people to continue to use transit once the Games are over, “Just keep it going, that would be great.”
Comments
They should probably try and determine what is driving the numbers up.
1. Are the regular users now using the bus two or three times per day because it is free??? If so then once the fares come back, they will probably go back to less usage.
2. Are the athletes the cause of some of the increase?? If so then once they are gone, there would also be a drop in usage.
3. Is there an increase in the use by the public at large, and if so why, and will they continue to use the bus.
Those are the questions to be answered. Pretty hard to determine a long term use considering the circumstances under which the increase in usage took place.
Why are the numbers up.. Here’s a few reasons.. Winter games events during the day and entertainment at night, the beautiful weather, kids not in school..
Who cares..it’s paid for by donations.
Way to go for the people at UNBC for making it free for the winter games. Thank you
I am sure there being no cost to ride had a little something something to do with it….
but since we are not going to have another set of Winter games again next month were we can charge a fare to compare we will never really know.
this is the same as the housing starts increase look at why it happened
It is great to know that transit use has increased during the time of the Canada Winter Games.
Hopefully some of the folks that often complain about seeing empty buses have taken the opportunity to try out transit during this promotional period that only happened due of the hard work of a group of UNBC students….. students with absolutely nothing to gain from this initiative.
The increased use of route 55, or perhaps it should be route 5, is good news.
The last time I rode the bus was on Thursday and it is route 5 not 55 that goes from Pine Centre to CN Centre and then Spruceland and on to downtown.
Route 55 travels in the reverse direction.
Caper… increase in ridership is the same as saying housing starts are up…. its the same ?? Not sure how they are remotely connected but whatever…lol
Soooooo…
Can we expect another article like this in a couple of weeks with a headline “Transit Ridership Sees Decrease”? With the games and free transit happening this is a non event.
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