Ridership on the new route peaked during the first Saturday of the Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 21) with 335 cars parked at the lot and 882 total passengers. The lot can hold 750 cars.
Heather Wilk lives at Black Rock Ridge, which is about a 5-minute drive from the Richardson Flat lot. She works from home, but when traveling into Park City, she typically drives.
“Using Richardson Flat was shockingly easy," Wilk said. "It was so nice to be able to park just a few steps away from where the bus actually picks up.”
She used the park and ride for the first time during Sundance, and said she would have likely had to use more expensive options if the service wasn’t there.
“Probably by Uber or Lyft, and then regretted that decision after I paid for it,” Wilk said.
A common criticism of the Richardson Flat service has been that it only goes to the Old Town Transit, and does not provide a direct route to Park City Mountain or Deer Valley. Wilk agreed that it should service the resort bases.
For the Park City Council meeting Feb. 16, the transit department is proposing running a year-round route to Richardson Flat; however, that would only run during morning and evening rush hour (6:45 a.m. - 8:45 a.m. inbound, and 3:05 p.m. - 5:05 p.m. outbound).
The Richardson Flat route is set to end on April 16.
The report prepared for the upcoming city council meeting also sheds light on Park City’s micro transit pilot program. The program, which essentially operates like a free Uber or Lyft, currently serves just Thaynes Canyon, Park Meadows, and Royal Street in Deer Valley.
Ridership has gradually increased since the pilot began in November. Since the week of Dec. 18, there has been an average of 158 passengers per week.
Overall, transit ridership is approaching pre-pandemic levels. Park City Transit ridership was up 57% from 2021, marking it 16% below pre-COVID 2019 data. The staff report, produced by the transit department, said it expects 2023 ridership to match and possibly exceed 2019 numbers.