Local transportation services cope with high gas prices

As about 30 percent more students are riding IU campus buses and 12 percent more are riding Bloomington city buses than at the same time last year, Bloomington's transportation services are trying to cope with the price of fueling their fleets.\nThe University decided how much money to spend on fuel based on the average gas prices months ago -- before Hurricane Katrina and the summer's escalating prices at the pump. Now that gasoline prices are anchored in the University's annual budget, there's not much the bus services can do, officials said.\n"We eat it" when gas prices go up, said Lewis May, general manager of Bloomington Transit, which will negotiate a new gasoline contract with the University when its 3-year-old contract runs out at the end of the academic year.\n"In the fuel market, it's so volatile, it's a guessing game," said James Hosler, director of the IU Campus Bus Service. "You just front a deficit if it's higher than what you budgeted."\nBoth May and Hosler were hesitant to guess whether this year's gasoline spikes will translate into a higher transportation fee for students.\n"The way prices are going now, there's no way to know what prices will be by the end of the year," Hosler said.\nAnd they won't know until the University begins its budgeting process in March, he said. Money to spend on gasoline is based on the average price of gas at the time, expected student enrollment and salary and wage increases, among other criteria, Hosler said.\n"It's not a science at all," he said. "It's basically guessing what prices will be." \nAn increase or decrease in student enrollment is important, he added, because the student-paid transportation fee constitutes 99 percent of the IU Campus Bus Service's income.\nSince the transportation fee began in the 2000-01 academic year, it has risen from $21.20 per semester to this year's $49.40. \nThe switch to the Universal Bus Pass is likely part of the reason why 5,000 more students each day are riding the University's 28 campus buses, Hosler said. Also known as U-Pass, it allows all IU students to ride the red and white campus buses without paying a fare before boarding with their student ID cards, a change from spring 2005.\nAn extra $19.40 added to the student transportation fee -- the largest single-year hike in the fee's price -- paid its way, but the bump in price didn't bring the University a profit, Hosler said.\n"We're set up as a break-even business," he said. "It was an income-neutral shift."\nThe board of trustees approved U-Pass, an IU Student Association-backed initiative, during the summer 2005, according to a May 16 Indiana Daily Student article.\nMay said the 12-percent increase in ridership on Bloomington Transit buses can be attributed to growth of downtown apartment complexes.\n"More and more (students) are living out there, and more and more are using them," May said. "We're picking up more riders from Smallwood and from the downtown area than we did before." \nAbout 650 more people live in the downtown Smallwood Plaza apartments, 455 N. College Ave., a Smallwood spokeswoman said.\nBloomington Transit's 35 green and white buses serve the entire city and drive about 800,000 miles a year total. Each bus gets four miles per gallon using soy diesel fuel, a less polluting form of regular diesel.\nThough off-campus riders comprise most of Bloomington Transit's passengers, routes that wind through campus have seen the biggest increases. Ten percent more passengers are riding the C Route bus and 25 percent more are catching the 6 Campus Shuttle bus, which passes many apartments on 10th Street.\nStudent drivers -- reluctant to pay gas prices hovering around $3 a gallon and then hunt down elusive, empty parking spots on campus -- have also turned to the bus services, May said.\nHigher gas prices haven't convinced the Bloomington Shuttle Service to slash the number or scope of the services it offers, said company CEO Chris Gourley, although the shuttle service raised the cost of its airport shuttle Sept. 1 from $22 to $25 each way.\n"We really can't cut back the service. People have an expectation, and we're there to fill that expectation," he said. "But we are investigating alternative fuels like soy diesel and ethanol-based fuels."\nRidership on the company's shuttles has remained stable, but Gourley said he anticipates more people will use its airport shuttles, charter buses and vans because they don't want to pay higher gas prices, which affect more than the cost to fuel its fleet.\n"Aside from the direct cost of the fuel expense to the buses, there's an indirect cost, too," he said. "Unfortunately, when that happens we just have to pass on at least some of that financial burden to the customers."\nMeanwhile, gas prices are also taking their toll on Bloomington taxi services. \n"They're killing me," said Les Gyger, manager at Yellow Cab Taxi Co. "Gas has gotten ridiculous."\nYellow Cab has increased its prices only modestly, he said. \n"You can't throw that off on the public," he said. "People just can't afford to do that." The in-town rate of a cab ride is $6 for two people, with $1 added for each additional passenger. Previously the cost had been $6 for four people.\nThe company added several new Toyota Scions to absorb some of the costs of gas, Gyger said. \n"I'm keeping my lights off in the building -- doing everything I can to try to offset the gas (prices)," he said. "But anybody in transportation right now is taking a bad hit."\nThe highest gas prices during Hurricane Katrina have subsided in Bloomington. \nGas prices at local stations reflected typical prices found in the United States at $2.73 to $2.79 Sunday, according to www.gaspricewatch.com, and the country seems to have avoided a surge in oil prices from Hurricane Rita. But expect steep prices from here on out, Hosler said.\n"I think we're going to stay at the higher gas prices," he said. "China, and Asia in general, is using more of the fuel ... I don't think we're going to see the below-$2-a-gallon fuel anytime in the future"