HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) -- Simple math, looking at U.S. Census and public transportation ridership figures, indicates most central Pennsylvanians rarely or ever use public transportation.
With local gas prices surging toward and in some cases beyond $4.50 per gallon, could that change?
Not for Rena Knarr, pumping gas at a Speedway station in Newberry Township, York County. And not because she doesn't believe in the bus.
"I wish people would consider taking public transportation," Knarr said. "If you can take a train or the bus into Harrisburg or you can carpool, do it."
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The reason she doesn't? Public transportation doesn't go where she does. The impact of that? "We're actually just trying to get by," she said, referring to her husband and herself, "and the gas takes a big chunk out of our income."
Carol Jackson, waiting in downtown Harrisburg for a bus toward Hershey, started taking the bus as gas prices were soaring toward $4 per gallon -- last time they were soaring toward $4 per gallon, that is, in the mid-2000s. She said gas prices weren't the only reason she became a transit rider then, when she lived in Gettysburg, but she has depended on transit since back then.
When she moved a few years ago to Harrisburg, she figured she could do it without a car as long as she lived centrally. It started with a brief visit.
"I had to spend some time in town and walked around the riverfront, the ballpark -- the bus station being close," she said -- and concluded she could do it. Plus "I didn't want to bring the car to Harrisburg and get a ticket every other morning."
In sprawling central Pennsylvania, not many people could manage to do without a car entirely. Still, back in 2008, more did say "I'm just going to ride the bus and leave my car," whether at home or at a park-and-ride lot where they could catch a bus to somewhere else, said Richard Farr, executive director of rabbittransit, which now includes Capital Area Transit (CAT).
National studies have found a correlation between gas prices and public transportation ridership.
So is it happening here this time? Not yet -- which Farr said is how things went too back in 2008.
"It took a few paychecks before they realized my discretionary income is being eroded by fuel," Farr said. "And so that's when ... maybe a month into it, we started getting phone calls about, 'How do I use transit?'"
The answer to that question nowadays is available at the "new rider" section on the top left, right next to the agency logos, of the rabbittransit and CAT websites.
How committed is Farr to getting people to try transit?
"We can come meet with them and ride with them if they want to," he said. "We will do whatever it takes to help them make that transition."
He says he remembers watching the evolution during the last gas price spike when you could spot the first-time riders.
"You could see the discomfort of passengers," he said. "They would sit on the bus clutching their purse and their bag. Then two weeks later, I run into them, and they are just completely comfortable with the transition they've made."
Most people who have a choice, and choose public transportation over other options, do so because of some combination of convenience and cost-effectiveness. But Farr noted other benefits.
"Transit has always been a greener alternative," he said. "And so there are folks who choose to ride because they're actively finding ways to reduce their carbon footprint."
And with the U.S. begging countries like Saudi Arabia to pump more oil, while wrestling with the morality of buying oil from Venezuela -- despite long-time sanctions related to misgivings about that country's government -- if that helps avoid purchasing Russian oil?
"I think in some strange way, riding public transportation could also help support the people of Ukraine," Farr said. "You know, so we're removing ourselves from the dependency upon Russian oil."
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