The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
It’s a good problem to have
The Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority aims to give everyone who wants to ride the free bus between Gunnison and Crested Butte a seat, but recent increases in ridership have occasionally made that difficult.
Several times this winter the bus has been packed beyond its acceptable number of 55 riders, as people commute up and down the valley. In some cases demand for seats has so outstripped supply that RTA drivers have had to ask riders to give priority to people heading to work.
RTA executive director Scott Truex told the RTA board that while drivers want everyone, including skiers and visitors, to have easy access to the bus, it sometimes comes down to a matter of space, and hearts go out to the working man and woman.
“The hard part is, the overcrowding is pretty random,” said Truex. “We can’t really predict when the buses will be full, which makes planning for it very difficult.”
In an effort to help drivers and passengers get up and down the valley in the busy weeks ahead, the RTA approved a series of guidelines drivers can fall back on when dealing with overcrowded buses.
These guidelines include asking for volunteers who are willing to wait for another bus, and opting to stop accepting passengers within the city of Gunnison once ridership has reached 51, to allow for a few more people to get picked up along Highway 135.
“These are temporary guidelines for drivers to use during the next six weeks,” said Truex. “Before next winter we will be looking at other options that will better address issues of overcrowding.”
Truex said these options may include increasing the number of trips made each day by buses, or increasing the number of buses running. Charging for a ride in an effort to decrease the number of people on the bus is not something the RTA is likely to consider.
“Having the bus be this popular is a good problem to have,” said Truex.
