SD: Youth ridership on Rapid City buses reaches five-year high in 2024 to 2025 school year
Source Rapid City Journal, S.D. (TNS)
Rapid Transit System (RTS) recorded 56,867 youth passenger trips during the recently-completed 2024 to 2025 school year, more than 10,000 additional youth trips recorded over the previous school year. The school year set a five-year high for youth ridership.
The August through May youth ridership numbers represent an 18% increase from the 2023 to 2024 school year with 46,827 youth trips, a 28% increase from the 2022 to 2023 school year, a 42% jump from the 2021 to 2022 school year and a 51% increase from 2020 to 2021.
RTS averaged more than 6,318 youth riders for each full month schools were in session (September through May). The highest number of monthly youth trips recorded for the school year was tabulated last October with 7,466 youth passenger trips tallied. Ridership in September 2024 and March and April 2025 each surpassed 6,000 youth trips.
By comparison, RTS recorded more than 5,000 youth passenger trips in four of the nine full months of the 2023 to 2024 school calendar period with a high of 5,657 passenger trips recorded in April 2024.
“We saw very big numbers for youth ridership this school year,” said RTS Manager Megan Gould-Stabile. “The trends continue pushing upwards in terms of both youth and overall ridership.”
Gould-Stabile says the ‘Youth Ride Free’ program, which started in 2016, continues to offer free rides for youth during the summer months.
“It’s a great option for our youth to get to their jobs, to the pools, movies, shopping and to their friend’s house,” Gould-Stabile said.
Overall ridership increases
Rapid Transit System recorded nearly 23,342 passenger trips in May, a 6% increase over ridership from the same month a year ago when 21,971 passenger trips were recorded.
A total of 211,725 passenger trips have been recorded on the Rapid Transit System buses – including RapidRide and Dial-A-Ride operations – since September 2024. During the past nine months, overall ridership has averaged more than 23,000 riders per month. For more information about the RTS program, visit www.rapidride.org or call 605-394-6631. In addition, parents and guardians can contact Rapid Transit Service to register for the youth ridership program or go online to rapidride.org and click on the ‘Youth Ride Free’ button.
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