Nearly 1,000 Ride the Bus on First Day of BAT Service

Sep 29,2006 00:00 by Bend Weekly News Sources

The City’s new Bend Area Transit (BAT) service got off to a good start on Wednesday, September 27. Bus drivers counted 986 riders. The ridership count was probably higher, due to missed counts during some busy bus driver shifts. Riders rode free yesterday and will continue to do so during BAT’s inaugural week of service (through October 3).

What the counted rides mean is that for every vehicle hour the buses transported 81.9 riders per hour on six buses, or 12.72 riders per hour on each bus. The City’s original draft plan called for ten riders per hour. Yesterday’s most used route was Route 3 to Central Oregon Community College (COCC). However, Routes 2 (Brookswood), Route 5 (Wells Acres), and Route 6 (Bear Creek) were only a few riders behind the COCC ridership count. Route 1 (South 3rd) had the fewest rides per hour at 7.91/hr and Route 4 (North 3rd) had 107 riders (8.91/hr).

The new transit system’s routes will run throughout the city six days a week (Monday-Friday) on half-hour intervals and will run every hour on Saturdays. All routes are timed to meet at the Hawthorne Transit Center where routes connect to allow riders to easily transfer between routes without delays.

Route maps and schedules are available at City Hall, located at 710 NW Wall Street or the Public Works Building at 575 NE 15th Street. The public should call 322-5870 for schedule information or go to www.bendareatransit.com