Fiscal Year 2015/16 set a new record for trips taken on public transit in the City of San Luis Obispo. Over 1,209,701 rides were given on the City’s SLO Transit system, representing a 5.8% increase in ridership over the previous record set in 2014 (1,142,748 rides).
The City of San Luis Obispo tracks its ridership via electronic fareboxes located on every bus. With each swipe of a bus pass or paid fare, the farebox records a ride. This ridership data is tracked daily for monitoring trends and demand levels. The start of the 2015/16 academic school year quickly indicated a surge in the use of local public transit.
Transit officials responded to the increasing demand by introducing additional bus service, such as the Kennedy Library Tripper, to help ensure that no passengers were left behind. This “Tripper” service makes three short trips on weekday mornings from known stops in the Ramona Drive neighborhood, which were experiencing overcrowding and the potential for “left-behinds”, straight to Kennedy Library located on the Cal Poly campus. It is believed that the closure of the Grand Ave campus parking lot has contributed to the growing demand for the use of public transit. Transit officials are looking to the final development of the City’s Short Range Transit Plan for additional future service enhancements to address passenger travel patterns over the long term.
