Here's how public transit in Summit, Portage counties is dodging steep fuel costs

It's difficult to imagine fuel-reliant vehicles coasting along these days without the heavy burden of the highest gas prices ever recorded in the region.

But the Akron Metro Regional Transit Authority —Summit County’s public transportation provider — as well as the Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority haven’t seen increases in their own fuel rates.

Metro and PARTA are part of a consortium of local transit authorities that partner to bulk purchase fuel annually, said Metro Chief Operating Officer Jarrod Hampshire and PARTA General Manager Claudia Amrhein. (The other agencies are Western Reserve Transit Authority, Stark Area Regional Transit Authority, Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority, Laketran and Medina County Public Transit.)

The price is locked in for the rest of the year at $2.46 a gallon for diesel and $2.44 a gallon for unleaded, Hampshire said.

Summit County’s agency also said it hasn’t seen a significant increase in the cost of natural gas, which is its primary fuel.

Metro’s fleet includes 231 vehicles: 140 large buses and 91 smaller paratransit vehicles, with 85% of its fixed-route fleet fueled by compressed natural gas. Thirty-one fixed-route buses run on diesel, four of which are hybrid-diesel buses, the agency said.

PARTA also has its own public-private compressed natural gas station in Kent, with Amrhein saying the current price is around $2.39 to $2.49 a gallon.

“We've increased that slightly to try to keep pace, but not nearly I don't think as much as commercial stations have,” she said. “We're trying to stay a little bit competitive, but again not increase it incredibly all at once.”

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No direct correlation between gas prices and ridership at Metro

Metro said at this time, it’s not seeing a direct correlation of rising gas prices and ridership increases.

Metro Director of Public Relations and Marketing Molly Becker said that could change, though as rising fuel prices, passenger incentives and emergence from the pandemic create "the perfect storm to see continued ridership increases and help continue to drive our community forward.”

Becker said the agency did see “an increase in ridership mimicking the increase in gas prices from mid-April to mid-May, but that has since tapered off.”

Becker said that Metro In January had to modify services due to a shortage of bus operators. She also said that ridership is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic but has not fully recovered at this point.

That means that numbers are hard to compare “due to the unprecedented nature of lost ridership for that period of time.”

The general ridership numbers for an average weekday in 2022 included 9,633 in January, 10,501 in February, 10,921 in March, 10,824 in April and 11,037 in May.

“Usually there is a couple month lag between a rise in fuel prices and a rise in ridership," Hampshire said. "Increased fuel prices might not immediately lead to someone changing their transportation habits, but the longer this goes on, the more people may reevaluate how they travel."

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Many PARTA riders are Kent State students

Amrhein said it’s hard to tell if there have been any increases in ridership due to rising gas prices in Portage County, as many of its passengers are Kent State students, and the university is currently on summer break.

She noted that in the past when gas prices have increased, PARTA has seen its ridership increase.

“I think we need to wait a few months to see if that happens here,” Amrhein said. “We know that people every day rely on transit, but then what we call the choice riders…they own a car, sometimes do make that choice when the prices get higher, and there's no relief in sight. So it'll be interesting to watch.”

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Free weekend bus rides in Summit County this summer

Metro is offering fare-free weekends every Saturday and Sunday in June, July and August, with the free rides available on all Metro fixed routes and ADA services, including valid prescheduled ADA Complementary Paratransit trips.

Metro also started its summer schedule June 5, with minor changes on Routes 3, 7, 10 and 18, as well as the temporary suspension of DASH service for the summer sign-up, with plans to resume for the fall sign-up.

“We are offering free weekend service through August, and with gas prices on the rise we are hoping to garner more ridership from our core ridership and have the community continue to see Metro as another viable transportation option now and into the future,” Becker said.

For more information about Metro routes and schedules, call 330-762-0341 or visit akronmetro.org. For more information about PARTA, call 330-676-6701, and for Dial-A-Ride Reservations, call 330-678-1BUS (1287) or visit partaonline.org.

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Contact Beacon Journal reporter Emily Mills at emills@thebeaconjournal.com and on Twitter @EmilyMills818.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron Metro RTA, Portage County's PARTA sidestep steeper fuel costs