Blue Water Area Transit started this year with the busiest January in its 40-year history. An all-time ridership record of 76,602 riders travelled on fixed route buses during the month. The agency’s record for January fixed-route ridership was last broken in 2015, with 74,656 riders.
BWAT operates seven regularly scheduled bus routes in the City of Port Huron and Fort Gratiot Township. They all start from the agency’s new transfer center in downtown Port Huron. Bus riders can catch a bus anywhere in the system every 45 minutes.
“Maybe lots of people made New Years resolutions to save money and help the environment by riding the bus,” said Jim Wilson, general manager, BWAT. “Or maybe January was unseasonably warm this year.”
This new milestone joins many others that have been set since 2008 when BWAT broke its monthly ridership record for the first time in 27 years.
“It’s great to see more people riding the bus. Everyone benefits with cleaner air and less traffic congestion,” said Linda Bruckner, Blue Water Area Transportation Commission Board vice chair and Fort Gratiot Township trustee.
Traffic congestion costs the average American driver $1,399 per year, according to the recently released INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard. The study reported that traffic congestion cost American drivers more than $295 billion in 2016. The Scorecard analyzes and ranks the impact of traffic congestion in 1,064 cities across 38 countries worldwide — the largest ever study of its kind.
