Park City Transit recorded 8,360 riders July 4, that’s 3.5 times more than a normal Tuesday.
296 riders boarded at the Richardson Flat Park and Ride, and 562 boarded at Park City High School over the course of the day.
High Valley Transit had about 3200 people on buses and 952 riders use microtransit, compared to about 1000 and 550 on a normal Tuesday.
The bump in ridership delayed some passengers, including Maura McKendrick who told KPCW she and her family waited at the Canyons Village Transit Hub longer than anticipated.
She said they arrived about 10 minutes after 10 a.m. and got a bus around 10:45 a.m., 15 minutes before the Fourth of July parade began. There were still some revelers in line when they left.
Canyons is serviced by PC Transit’s 10 White Express and High Valley Transit’s 101, each scheduled every 15 minutes, and McKendrick said the buses were rolling in close to capacity, taking on only a few passengers at a time.
When buses arrived, she noticed some riders had wagons, coolers and chairs with them that took up extra space but are allowed on buses.
McKendrick did say she and her family enjoy using Park City and High Valley Transit’s free services.
“A lot of the people that were coming in line were not local,” she said. “They were staying for the weekend; they were coming from the activities at the base area of Canyons or one of the lodging properties.”
She said she thought they may not have known buses would get so crowded.
PC Transit said July Fourth ridership was higher than at Park Silly Sunday Market. On Sunday, June 25, about 5,700 riders boarded its buses.
In anticipation of the spike in ridership July 4, PC Transit upped the frequency of the 2 Green and 6 Silver buses from 30 to 15 minutes and 40 to 10 minutes, respectively. Those buses serve Park Meadows and the Richardson Flat Park and Ride. PC Transit also had two additional buses on call with extra drivers.
High Valley Transit doesn't usually adjust it's fixed route buses, but it did activate more microtransit vans Tuesday.
McKendrick also said some people at Canyons hopped on Summit Bike Share instead.
After arriving late to this year’s Fourth of July parade, she has a simple recommendation to would-be bus riders on busy days.
“Just go early,” McKendrick said.
