Mike Murray is seeing some new faces these days on the Rapid Ride bus he takes to get around town and to his job as a hotel custodian.

"Everybody is squeezed in the pocketbook," he said.

Rapid Ride is so convenient, Murray said. He doesn't have a car and doesn't regret it.

"I don't think I'd be driving it anyway, with the price of gas," he said.

The price of gas has caused the number of passengers who use Rapid Ride to take "a dramatic hike" this spring and early summer, said Rich Sagen, manager of the city's Rapid Transit division.

Ridership is up about 16 percent this year compared with this time last year, Sagen said, with about 16,000 more "trips" taken through May this year than last.

Benita Hume gave up her car a few years ago and said she notices more people doing the same.

She lives off Mount Rushmore Road and works at the Hotel Alex Johnson, so it's an easy bus ride into downtown for work.

"I think people are so used to driving their car, they don't realize all the places they can go" on the bus, Hume said.

Murray, the custodian, also wonders why riding the bus hasn't grown even more popular. Riding public transportation in cities this size still doesn't have the commuter ambiance or environmentalist cache it does in a metropolis.

He says any inconvenience of waiting for the bus is offset by the savings of not having to operate and insure a car and the ease of not dealing with traffic. In fact, he describes his trip home at the end of his shift at the Days Inn as "stress-free."

"I think everybody should ride this bus in town and see where it goes," he said. "Look at how many cars are out here right now. I look around and think, 'Why do these people drive?'"

Interviews with bus passengers indicate, although some may be trying to save on gas, many people who take Rapid Ride are people who have no other option.

Passengers on a recent trip on the Route 1A bus included a man who had crashed his van and needed to get to work at an electronics manufacturer, a woman coming home from the mall on her day off from work, a man who had been drinking and didn't want to get a DUI, and a prep cook who doesn't have a driver's license.

Reggie Chase Alone, who was waiting for his bus one night after work, credits the bus service with helping him turn over a new leaf.

After he was released from prison and completed a halfway house program, Chase Alone said he wanted to work to give his children the life he never had. Now he delivers office furniture for a company in downtown Rapid City and is able to pay his child support and raise his son.

"I wouldn't have no job if it weren't for the bus," he said.

But whether it's the gas prices, an increased awareness of Rapid Ride, or a growing number of people without access to other transportation, Rapid Ride has been gaining in popularity for several years.

Sagen thinks ridership will jump again in the fall as students head back to school and don't want to pay to fill their own cars, or their parents can't afford the time or money to drive them.

"We're looking at a 41 percent increase since 2005," Sagen said. "People know it's a service they can trust. It's efficient, it's affordable, it's safe."

Rapid Ride needs subsidies

The recent increase in passengers is nice, but fares, which are expected to bring in about $325,000 this year, don't come close to paying for the cost of operating the Rapid Ride system. It's subsidized by the federal, state and local government.

The cost of diesel fuel has doubled in the last year and a half, while ridership has not doubled, manager Rich Sagen said.

Fares pay about 25 percent of the cost of operating Rapid Ride, and Sagen said that's not bad compared with other cities' systems.

"For a transit property our size that's really a good return," he said.

Some cities have only a 10 percent to 12 percent return. He aims to increase the return here to 30 percent or more.

A consulting firm is halfway through a study of the bus system, looking to improve the routes, fare structure and service hours. There will be a public hearing in July where people will be able to comment on the finished study.

Rapid Ride by the numbers

340,000: projected number of 2008 trips

28,000: average number of trips per month in 2008

251: number of days a year Rapid Ride operates

1,360: number of trips per day in the last few months

$1,054,000: federal transportation administration subsidy in 2008

$680,000: local government subsidy in 2008

$28,000: state government subsidy in 2008

$325,000: expected fares in 2008

$1: price of a one-way ticket

$0.50: price of a senior ticket

On the Web: www.rapidride.org/