SPOT sets new ridership record

SANDPOINT — The good numbers just keep on coming for the Selkirks-Pend Oreille Transit system management.

A mere six weeks after setting a record of 1,000 riders in a week, the SPOT bus system has topped itself again with a new record.

More than 1,200 people hit the road on a SPOT bus this week, according to manager Marion Johnson.

“I don’t know whether it’s the gas prices right now, or people are realizing that SPOT is going to be there for them, but they just keep coming,” Johnson said.

Indeed, with gas prices on the rise, Johnson said her drivers are reporting increasing numbers of professionals regularly taking the bus from home to work and back again.

In addition, students in town who don’t fall along one of Lake Pend Oreille School District’s bus routes have used SPOT to hit their classes rather than walking or biking to school.

In the recent past, winter sports enthusiasts have also played a role in boosting ridership numbers, Johnson said. Locals and out-of-towners alike particularly enjoyed the Schweitzer connection added at the beginning of winter.

The convenient stop at the base of the mountain, connecting skiers and snowboarders with a resort bus that took them to the slopes, was popular among winter sports fans of all varieties.

“We saw a lot of adults as well as young people using SPOT to get to Schweitzer,” Johnson said.

The bus system was so popular among one large group of tourists that they took the time to contact the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce, according to chamber president Kate McAlister. They said they wouldn’t consider vacationing in a town with no public transportation option.

SPOT debuted its services in June to a modest 250 riders in a week. In the second week, that number increased to 500, and as the summer progressed, the rides stabilized around the 800 range. That changed this winter, when the bus system finally hit the key goal of more than 1,000 rides per week.

According to district 1 mobility manager Clif Warren, system planners couldn’t have anticipated numbers like 1,200 rides a week. In fact, before Dover had even acquired the ARRA grant funding that seeded the system, a 2007 transportation study indicated a likely service potential of 500 riders a week for the Sandpoint area. To have more than doubled that expected number in less than a year is remarkable, Warren said.

“I think this goes way beyond expectations,” he added.