CLEARLAKE >> Transit Manager Mark Wall presented the Lake Transit Authority (LTA) with its 2013-14 annual report Wednesday.
“It was kind of a dismal year,” Wall said.
Ridership has decreased significantly, primarily because of labor strikes in July and August 2013, Wall said. The LTA saw a 66-percent fall off in August 2013.
“Even going into that period ridership began to decline, because of fare increase and gas prices being low at that point,” Wall added.
Overall, in the 2013-14 fiscal year, ridership totaled a little less than 295,000, a decrease of approximately 67,000 from last year. Each fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.
Over the past five years, the 2011-12 fiscal year reported the highest number of bus riders, which totaled a little more than 395,000.
However, Wall said “things are getting better ? all we can do is try to make the system better and build from where we are.”
In September of last year, new route designs were introduced with expanded service hours in Clearlake and Lower Lake.
Additionally, in April, the LTA started the NiteRider service in Lakeport, which is an on-call evening service.
According to Wall, bus routes in Clearlake account for the majority of annual ridership, with Route 1 in North Shore, Route 4 in South Shore and Route 8 in Lakeport following.
Clearlake routes account for a little more than 127,000 of the total annual ridership. Approximately 60,000 people rode Route 1 over the course of the year. Route 4 accounts for a little more than 34,000 and Route 8 recorded just over 21,000 riders, according to the report.
Riders per hour also decreased, averaging approximately 7.2 passengers. Last year, an average of approximately 9.4 passengers each hour.
However, Clearlake routes averaged 11.1 passengers per hour, while Routes 1, 4 and 8 tallied approximately 9, 8.4 and 9.8, respectively.
“We are still recovering from the strike in July and August ? but there are good things on the horizon,” Wall said.”
Contact J. W. Burch, IV at 900-2022.
