LANTA reports ridership surge

By Ben Slivnick

The Morning Call

July 09, 2008

Rising gas prices are driving some Lehigh Valley residents to leave their cars at home and hop on the bus.

Officials from the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority Tuesday reported bus ridership has increased steadily since March and in June spiked with a 14.7 percent increase. About 470,000 riders used LANTA last month.

Ridership had declined earlier in the year in what the authority's Executive Director Armando Greco said he thought was a reaction to a fare hike from the year before. But after gas prices started picking up in March, he said ridership numbers started picking up too.

And now that gas has eclipsed $4 a gallon, Greco said he doesn't see that trend stopping.

''This is just so dramatic a turnaround that it's very clear that prices are affecting people's habits,'' he said. ''We always like to say four months doesn't make a trend, but I think we can expect strong growth over the year.''

Giselle Rodriguez, a 17-year-old Allentown woman, said she sees more riders when she takes the bus to her job in North Whitehall.

When Rodriguez started her job four months ago, the G Bus she rode was silent, with only a handful of passengers on the average day. On Tuesday, it was standing room only by the time she got off.

And the quiet bus ride she once enjoyed?

''It's hectic, she said. ''It's like being at school, or a job. A Everybody talks so much you can't even hear yourself.''

Greco said Allentown is one of the stops that's seen the highest ridership increase. Stops at the industrial park in Fogelsville, the Lehigh Valley Airport and the Route 512 Corridor in Bethlehem have also seen high ridership upturns, he said.

Greco said there were a total of 5.2 million riders from July 2007 through June.

ben.slivnick@mcall.com 610-820-6735

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