Taking a pass at the pump
Gas prices have locals turning to bikes, buses

Molly May, sitting, and Kendra Johnson, both sophomores at Durango High School, display their main mode of transportation Tuesday outside the school. The two are organizing the school?s first-ever ?Bike-to-School Day? next Wednesday in an effort to get more students out of their cars and biking to school./Photo by Todd Newcomer

by Missy Votel

As gas prices hover near the $3 mark, an increasing number of Durangoans are turning from the pump to the pedal and public transit as a means of getting around.

According to Hope Bleeker, transit and parking manager with the City of Durango, ridership on the Durango T was up 2.5 percent last month over August of 2004, an increase of more than 600 riders. But what is more noteworthy, she said, is the total increase in ridership this year over 2004.

?Year to date, ridership is up 14 percent over 2004 numbers,? she said. ?I?d be very surprised if fuel prices didn?t have something to do with that.?

Bleeker said the most popular transit routes have been the one to Wal-Mart and the ?Blue Route,? which goes to Fort Lewis College.  ?We?re having a good fall semester so far,? she said of FLC student ridership. ?When you?ve only got $400 or $500 a month in spending money to begin with, every dollar counts.?

Trips on the Main Avenue Trolley, which runs from the Days Inn north of town to College and Main Avenue, cost 50 cents one way, with trips on the ?T? (formerly The Lift) costing $1 per way. The city offers monthly passes on the T and Trolley for $20 as well as discounts for FLC and 9-R students. With a sticker on their college ID, FLC students can ride the T for free Monday through Saturday (it does not run on Sundays in the fall and winter), and for $60, 9-R students can ride all school year.

Bleeker said more 9-R students have been taking advantage of the T, something she credits to economics as well as the system?s recently spiffed-up image. ?Ridership seems to have gotten better since we?ve painted them red ? a lot more high school students are into it,? she said.

Aside from public transportation, Durango High School students also are taking an increased interest in pedal power, with the school?s first-ever ?Bike-to-School Day? planned for next Wednesday.

Event co-organizer Molly May, a sophomore who rides her bike to school regularly, said the idea was borne of high gas prices as well as the city?s ?Bike-to-Work Day,? held each June. ?We thought, ?Why isn?t this happening already??? she said.

May and classmate Kendra Johnson have been organizing the event since August. The school?s Pro Start culinary arts program will be making cookies for participants using donated ingredients from local grocery stores and local bike shops will be donating prizes, she said. A recent tally of the school?s bike rack totaled about 50 bikes, a number May said she would like to quadruple next week. ?It?d be great if we could see 200 kids show up,? she said. ?That?d be amazing.?

May said the goal is to get kids to ride now, while the weather is nice, to show them how easy and convenient it can be. ?It?s really nice to get out in the morning and it doesn?t take much longer,? she said.

She also extolled the health and environmental virtues of bike commuting, noting that getting a driver?s license is not a ?big priority? for her.

Durangoan Dora Taleanu waits for the Trolley to arrive Tuesday afternoon along Main Avenue. She is among a growing number of local residents taking advantage of public transportation and bicycling in response to high gas prices. The city reports a 14 percent increase in T ridership so far this year over 2004./Photo by Todd Newcomer

?The main reason I ride my bike is for the environment and for exercise, because teens don?t get a lot of exercise these days.?

For kids who live outside of town, she is encouraging them to carpool with their parents who work in town and then ride from there. She also is hopeful that the event will turn into an annual thing.  ?We?re hoping to do it for the next three years and get others involved who will carry on the idea,? she said.

Local students are not the only ones taking advantage of pedal power. Durango bike shops report a marked increased in sales of commuter bikes, accessories and retrofits to people across the board.

?We?ve definitely seen an increase in bike sales to everybody,? said Durango Cyclery owner Russell Zimmermann. ?Not only are we selling new bikes, but we?re seeing a lot of people turning old bikes into commuters. You?ll sell somebody a mountain bike and even before they leave the store they?re talking about how to make their old one into a commuter.?

Andy Langefels, general manager of Hassle Free Sports, reports a similar trend, with increases in sales of cruisers, low-end mountain bikes and hybrids, as well as bike accessories such as panniers and baskets.

?I?ve had people tell me they?ve sold their cars,? he said, adding that that the clientele has run the gamut from students to working professionals.  ?I had one woman who does ad sales come in and buy a bike, and now she rides her bike around town on sales calls instead of driving.?

Nancy Stoffer, program manager at FLC?s KDUR radio station, is another local who has recently taken up the two-wheeled commute.

?Gas hit $3 a gallon and my butt was in that seat,? she said of her recent conversion from motorist to bicyclist. ?I bought a Lift pass and started riding my bike.?

Stoffer, who lives near North City Market and commutes via Florida and North College Hill, said the move to bike power was one she had been mulling for some time.

?I loved the idea of being able to bitch about global warming but never could because I was contributing to it,? she said. However, when Hurricane Katrina hit, she had an epiphany. ?I heard about oil spills and the rest of the damage, and then gas prices shot up and I said, ?It?s ridiculous that the rest of the world is suffering, and here I can at least do something about it.??

She said her goal is to fill up her car no more than once a month. And although the hill to the college is daunting, she considers it daily ?therapy? and hopes to stick it out through the mean months of winter.

?So far, it?s been easy because the weather?s been nice,? she said. ?But I have no idea what my fortitude will be like when my hands actually freeze.?

But for those who crack under the pressure of those cold, dark, grueling mornings, Zimmermann has another option. He said he is heading to a bike show next week, with commuting on the brain, particularly with an eye out for electric bikes that run on small, rechargeable batteries. Called ?pedal assist? bikes because the rider actually does some pedaling, such bikes can cruise at a comfortable 18 mph with a 20-mile range between charges.

?I?m kind of one of those guys who wishes gas would go up to $5 a gallon, because people need to get a clue,? he said ?They need to start thinking about alternatives.? ?