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Driven By Gas Prices, People Overcome Public Transit Phobia

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Natalie Cerrito, right, of Wesley Chapel talks with Janet Stephenson while riding into downtown Tampa last Friday.

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By KEITH MORELLI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 16, 2008

TAMPA - Hesitant to get on the bus because you don't know who will be nuzzling up next to you?

You're not alone. The people who run Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority have set up a program to help walk you through that and other concerns that might keep you from joining the growing number of people who are turning to the bus as gas prices pass $3.50 a gallon.

"Before, I thought the bus was for people who didn't have cars or were strapped for cash," said Nell Penny of Wesley Chapel, a downtown office worker who helped boost HART ridership by more than 8 percent in the past year.

Penny moved to the trendy suburb, about 25 miles north of downtown Tampa, and started driving to work. That lasted about three days. Now she's a regular bus rider - one of about two dozen passengers riding the downtown express route from as far away as Quail Hollow.

"I fill up my car once every two weeks," she said. "If I drove to work, I would be filling it up every four days."

The rising price of gas coincides with a spike in bus ridership, especially among commuters to business centers. HART spokeswoman Kathy Karalekas said ridership in April is 8.5 percent higher than April of last year. This year, ridership is 7.4 percent higher than over the same period last year, she said.

Karalekas said last year's ridership broke the record set the prior year, which had broken the record set the year before that.

"We're on track to reach 12 million rides this year," she said.

Tweaking the bus schedule by adding night, weekend and express routes brings in more business. Still, she said, behind it all is gas prices.

"Last spring, when gas started spiking, we did start breaking monthly riding records. We broke records three times within the past year."

When regular unleaded gas prices hit $3 per gallon, HART started seeing record months. Ridership in March 2007 was 967,739, she said, a record at the time.

"We broke that in August," she said, "with our first million-ride month."

Two months later, that record fell.

"Since those million-ride months," she said, "we've been consistently in the 900,000-plus range."

Karalekas said the biggest obstacle to more people riding the bus is fear.

"You have to get past that initial fear, the fear of the unknown," she said.

Commissioner Rides Express Bus

That's where HART's travel buddy comes in, she said. A live person will accompany the first-time rider and even pay for the ride, someone who "will come to you, figure out your route, where your bus stop is and what time the bus comes and how to read bus schedule."

Information on the program is available on the HART Web site, www.hartline.org, or by calling (813) 254-4278, the service's customer service line.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Al Higginbotham has started taking an express bus into town from his Plant City home. Now, he said, he swears by it.

"Four weeks ago, I said, 'I'm not going to pay $60 for a tank of gas as often as I am,'" Higginbotham said.

"The veteran riders, well over half of them, came from somewhere in the country where there was a well-developed transit system. New riders are skeptical because of what they thought they would find on the bus. That's where they are sadly wrong."

'Stress-Free Way To Get To Work'

U.S attorney's office spokesman Steve Cole started riding the bus from Temple Terrace downtown about two years ago, when gas prices hit an earlier spike.

"I was paying $85 a month to park in the Poe garage," Cole said, "plus the driving back and forth, the gas."

When gas prices began to drop, he remained loyal to the bus.

"From day one," he said, "I loved it. What a lot of people don't realize, is along with the price of gas, you don't have to drive. You can chat with other people, read the newspaper, read a book or just zone out. You can sleep on the way in if you want.

"It's a very stress-free way to get to work."

Cole takes an express that makes three stops in Temple Terrace and then, "It's like a rocket into downtown."

He said that when he started, there were a dozen or so riders on the bus. Now there are as many as 35. All know each other because they ride every day. All work downtown. They signed a petition within the past week or so asking HART to provide a bigger bus.

"I would say that within the past couple of weeks, every third day or so, somebody new comes aboard. It's not right for everybody, but I'm thrilled with it and you see that from a lot of people. It's not a chore to ride the bus. It really isn't."

Daily commuters taking the bus to and from work are a growing portion of the market.

Natalia Cerrito, who lives in Wesley Chapel and takes the bus every day to work downtown, said she rides for the convenience and savings, working on her laptop for most of the hourlong trip. Five of HART's commuter buses are equipped with free wireless Internet availability.

"I would pay $400 a month in gas and parking fees," she said. "So, I'm saving a good amount."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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