"Our ridership has been steadily increasing over the last six months," said Steve Dickey, Director of Transportation Development for Salem-Keizer Transit. "But we've definitely seen the biggest increase over the last two months."

In fact, Cherriots ridership has increased 16 percent since November, with 10 percent of the increase occurring between March and May. Cherriots also has seen an increase in applications for carpool matching through its rideshare service.  

"We normally receive 30 applications a month," Dickey said. "We received 60 in April and now we are getting 6-8 a day."

Chemeketa Area Regional Transit System and the Corvallis Transit System have experienced similar increases.

"We've already set a yearly ridership record and we still have the whole month of June to go," Transit Coordinator for the City of Corvallis Tim Bates said.  

The Albany Transit System hasn't seen as significant an increase as other area transit systems, according to Robin Robinson with ATS, but they have been receiving numerous calls from people who live in Lebanon and work in Corvallis looking for a more inexpensive way to travel. Starting August 1, ATS will offer a new route running from Lebanon to Albany to Corvallis.
The likely impetus of these ridership increases and rising gas prices has also affected the budgets of area transit systems. Fuel costs for Cherriots buses have increased by 97 percent in the last year, an increase that wreaks havoc on the system's budget and has led to a proposed fare increase. Riders can expect to pay from 20-40 percent more to ride the bus.

Local governments in the Willamette Valley and across the state are experiencing the unintended effects of these changes: gas tax revenues are down.

According to Mark Bechtel, Transportation Services Manager for the City of Salem Public Works Department, gas tax revenues for the City are down significantly this year, the lowest since 2003. In fact, the City could see a shortfall of as much as $500,000 when they tally the 2007-08 fiscal year receipts, a deficit equal to 6-7 percent of the gas tax revenues the city typically receives from the state every year.

"Our budget was already tight," Bechtel said.
To compensate for the declining revenues, the City may consider cutting programs and personnel, Bechtel said. The shortfall is equal to almost a month's worth of tax revenue. However, declining gas tax revenues is not a new issue in Oregon.     
Most people don't consider the gas tax when they fill up their tanks; they only see the total cost. In Oregon, 24 cents of per-gallon cost is a tax that the state collects to maintain roads and fund transportation programs.

A recent study conducted by the Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based think tank, reveals that over the last decade, as the demand for fuel-efficient cars and hybrids has increased, residents of the Northwest have cut back on gas consumption by 11 percent since 1999.

Policymakers recognize that while the reduction in gas consumption means the air may be cleaner and the environment may be happier, it also means less tax revenue. Oregon residents have not seen an increase in the gas tax since 1993. With this in mind, the legislature created a task force to examine various revenue raising alternatives for replacing Oregon's gas tax as its primary source of revenue for repairing, maintaining, and building Oregon's roads.  They decided to focus on a mileage-based charge as the best alternative. t
It could take years for the state to implement such a system, not to mention there are still those who have concerns about administrative and technical issues, and policy questions about privacy, equity, and the environment.