Published: June 28, 2008 06:52 pm      

Motorists park cars in favor of taxis, buses

DANVILLE — Some local residents have found a way to beat high gas prices — by hitching a ride with someone else.

Mint Thompson, a dispatcher for Mr. Taxi in Danville, said she has been “quite busy” lately sending out taxis to those who want to keep their cars at home.

“It’s the gas prices,” she said. “They don’t want to drive their automobile and use the gas.

“The way they’re thinking is they can pay $40 to $80 to fill up their gas tank or they can just call us for a ride,” she explained.

Thompson said three taxi drivers per 12-hour shift have really been making the rounds lately — even over to Indiana.

“We’ve been going to Catlin, Williamsport (Ind.) and Champaign,” she said.

Because the City of Danville sets the in-town taxi rates, those fares have not increased with the gas prices.

However, Mr. Taxi recently raised the cost of a trip from Danville to Westville by $1, to $11.50 from $10.50.

People also have been turning to the Danville Mass Transit to get around town.

In the last four months, the number of riders has increased on city buses, according to Dick Brazda, DMT director.

“We’ve certainly seen an increase in ridership, but it’s hard to determine all the factors that might be involved,” he said.

“Certainly, gas prices are a significant one,” he said.

Brazda said ridership on Danville buses increased 24 percent in April and 17 percent in May over last year’s numbers.

“We’ve seen a 15 to 20 percent increase (in the number of riders) in the last four months,” he said.

Some might find Danville’s mass transit system an affordable alternative to driving a car.

Riders 65 and older ride the bus for free, a change made in March.

Full-fare riders pay 75 cents, while reduced-fare riders, who include children, students and people with disabilities, pay 35 cents.

Brazda said the Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC) bus route between Danville and Champaign, which the DMT runs, also has increased in popularity, with ridership jumping 76 percent over last year.

“Buying gas to go to Champaign is significantly more than tooling around town,” he said.

CRIS Senior Services also has seen an increase in ridership on its various shuttles it runs in the county.

“On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we run full buses,” said Les Woodrum, CRIS director of transportation.

“We’re really running to the max,” he said.

The nonprofit organization registers at least one new senior citizen a day to ride the bus.

The shuttle transports seniors to the grocery store and doctor and hair dresser appointments.

“We also run regular runs from the senior housing complexes to the grocery stores, as well as shopper runs from the complexes,” he said.

Woodrum said there also has been an increase in ridership on shuttle runs from “suburban areas” into “urban areas.”

Danville, Westville and Georgetown are considered “urban areas.” Areas of the county outside of those three towns are considered suburban.

Seniors are charged $3 per trip from a suburban area into an urban area, or $5 for a round trip.

“We’ve been taking people from Hoopeston down to Westville and from Hoopeston to Danville,” he said.

CRIS hopes to increase its shuttle service soon with expanded hours of operation.

“It’s 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Monday through Friday) now, but we’d like to possibly extend it to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and add Saturday service,” he said.

About a dozen state and federal grants, United Way contributions and contracts with Crosspoint and local nursing homes keep the shuttle fares affordable, especially for seniors on a fixed income.

Woodrum said it takes a couple hundred gallons of diesel fuel to keep the three to four shuttle vans on the road each day.

“The vans drive an equivalent of Danville to Washington, D.C., every day,” he said. “We drive 75 miles in in-town pick ups alone, and 150 one-way trips a day in town and out in the county,” he said.

“It can stretch to 200 trips some days.”