A bus headed for the south to Nibley and South Walmart leaves the Transit Center.
LOGAN – High fuel prices and inflation are forcing people to look at ways to save money. With transportation costs continuing to rise, Cache County residents might be seeking an alternative to spending money on fuel.
The county’s free bus system may be a great place to look for relief. An immediate answer to the cost of fuel is to drive less. Cache Valley Transit District officials are anticipating a rise in ridership due to the surging price at the pump.
The pandemic has disrupted a lot of transit systems around the world and CVTD is no exception. The two years of COVID have left the local transportation system underutilized. Logan City streets are becoming busier and more congested with private cars making travel more difficult.
The situation is not new to Cache Valley Transit District as they have seen it before and are ready to absorb the increase in ridership.
“We saw the same thing in 2008,” said Todd Beutler, the CEO of Cache Valley Transit District. “We are anticipating there might be the same kind of an impact.”
The transit system has 24 routes from Preston to the north and Hyrum to the south. There are buses that got as far east as 1600 E. and as far west as 1000 West. Each bus is equipped with a bicycle rack.
“Our standpoint is we can save people money from their personal budget by taking free transportation,” he said. “We have seen steady growth in ridership since the pandemic restrictions have lifted.”
Due to the pandemic, ridership of CVTD dropped to about 1,500 riders daily. Currently, the buses are seeing around 3,500 trips or riders daily, far from the 6,000 trips before the pandemic began.
“We created The Loop and changed the way the ridership was calculated,” he said. “We are not having our riders change buses as much, but we are hitting more stops, so The Loop doesn’t lower the ridership.”
The Loop is a route that was made to take the most passengers to the most requested areas from the Utah State University campus to Main Street from North Walmart to South Walmart with stops in between. The Loop has buses going clockwise and the another going counterclockwise to meet the needs of the riders from 5:15 a.m. until 8:45 p.m. during weekdays and 10:15 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. on Saturday with no service on Sundays.
“We try and put our bus stops at no more than a block from the most trafficked destinations,” he said. “Safety is our primary concern when putting in a bus stop.”
When someone from the public calls in and asks them to put in a stop somewhere they evaluate it and, if it is safe, CVTD tries to accommodate the request. The county stops are different. It is impractical to have a lot of stops in the smaller towns in Cache Valley.
The transportation company does periodic studies to make changes to routes to best serve the public.
If someone wants to save money and park their car, CVTD is definitely an option.