News

August 3, 2008

More in Northeastern Pennsylvania leaving the driving to someone else.

More in Northeastern Pennsylvania leaving the driving to someone else.

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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Northeastern Pennsylvania has gotten a shade greener in recent months as commuters seek more efficient transportation in response to skyrocketing fuel prices.

Two avenues more commuters have taken are mass transportation and ride sharing.

The region will get even greener next year when the Luzerne County Transportation Authority puts three hybrid buses on the road.

The agency’s bus ridership showed a 16 percent annual increase in data released this spring, when gasoline crossed the $4-a-gallon threshold.

LCTA director Stan Strelish has attributed the rise in passengers – from 1.44 million between May 2006 and April 2007 to 1.67 million between May 2007 and April 2008 – to high gas prices.

But recent ridership information shows the numbers leveling off, he said.

“It looks like most everybody who was going to start riding the bus because of gas prices already has,” Strelish said.

The authority was recently awarded state funding to buy diesel-electric hybrid buses, which get 40 percent to 50 percent better fuel mileage than traditional diesel buses and reduce pollution emissions by 30 percent to 40 percent.

Because the LCTA already had funding in place for the purchase of five new buses next year, Strelish said the authority will use the new funding to cover the additional cost of making three of those buses hybrid purchases.

The federal government provides 80 percent of the funding for traditional diesel-engine buses, which cost about $340,000 each, and 83 percent of the funding for hybrid models, which cost about $520,000. The state provides up to 17 percent of the funding needed for either.

Because taking the bus isn’t for everyone, especially because bus routes don’t always cover everyone’s destination route, other travelers have turned to ride sharing.

Steven Schoeffler, executive director of the Web site eRideShare.com, said the site has seen “a long, steady increase” in the number of users since the site was started in 1999. He saw a “sharp spike” in use around the time of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This year, Web site traffic has tripled since February.

Last week, there were about 14 listings from people in the Wilkes-Barre, Scranton and Hazleton areas seeking others interested in carpooling.

Schoeffler said carpooling not only cuts down on ozone-harming emissions, fuel and auto maintenance expenses, it can help companies with retention of employees who “are questioning whether they should be working closer to home” because of fuel costs.

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