More people are riding the nation’s buses and trains, breaking records for the first quarter of the year. A report released Monday by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) shows the number of trips on public transit from January through March rose 3% to 2.6 billion rides compared with the same period last year. Travel on light rail systems saw the biggest jump: 10% to 110 million trips.
Early figures for April show ridership going even higher with gas at $4 a gallon. Still, only 5% of workers commute by public transit, according to a U.S. Census survey in 2006.
The biggest increases in rail travel occured in Oceanside, Calif., Seattle, and Harrisburg, Pa. Gainesville, Ga., and Pompano Beach, Fla., saw some of the biggest gains in bus ridership.