Summer and winter breaks aren’t usually a strong time for youth bus ridership. After all, it’s vacation and students generally aren’t relying on the bus to get to school or even around town. Not in Riverside County!
A popular promotion that offers quarter rides during summer and winter breaks is pushing youth ridership to new levels.
A new report shows Riverside Transit Agency buses carried a record 214,000 youth boardings during Fiscal Year 19, which was July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019. That’s a 10 percent increase compared to last year, and 25 percent higher than two years ago.
As part of the promotion, RTA is encouraging youths in grades 1-12 to ride the bus to popular places like the beach, shopping centers, Disneyland, Angel Stadium and a spectrum of entertainment destinations. This summer, RTA’s quarter-ride promotion is off to a fast start with 51,000 youth boardings during the first month. The special rate continues through September 2.
The increased youth ridership is reflective of RTA’s overall ridership, which grew to 8.7 million boardings in FY19, up 1.4 percent compared to the previous year.
