Chart: Route 17 ridership is growing

There will be a meeting at Cunha on Thursday to discuss cuts in the Coastside’s online bus service, Route 17.

You should care about this even if you never set foot on a bus, because many of these riders would the on Highway 1 in rush hour traffic.

The route is a real success story and shows the impact of decent service on ridership. After a grant allowed adding service to Montara, extending hours to 9pm, adding Sunday service, and additional service for children in 2007, daily ridership went from a 5% decline to a 65% increase. After stop was added at Main St and Lewis Foster Drive near the high school in 2008, ridership increased another 10%.

There’s a map of Route 17 after the jump.