Seats on Lowell buses are filling up
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High gas prices may have drivers banging on their steering wheels in disgust, but these are boom times for the Lowell Regional Transit Authority.
"Over the last six months, from February through July, we had an increase of 94,060 bus trips versus the corresponding six months in 2007 - a 14.2 percent increase," said LRTA Administrator James Scanlon.
The figures are even higher for the month of July. "We had 102,990 bus trips," said Scanlan, "that's a 23.5 percent increase over last year."
The reason? "It had to be the higher gas prices," he said.
The LRTA runs 17 bus routes six days a week. Buses go to the Dracut Council on Aging, the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, and the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority in Lawrence. A downtown shuttle bus runs every 15 minutes to Gallagher Terminal, where it connects with commuter rail and interstate bus lines.
From late fall to the end of January, buses also run to the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua several times a day.
The LRTA has a fleet of 47 large buses that hold up to 41 passengers and run on diesel fuel and five small buses that hold 18 passengers and run on regular gas.
The large buses get from 3 to 4 miles per gallon and the smaller get about 13 miles per gallon.
Since assuming his post four years ago, Scanlan has been able to replace 37 of the 47 buses in the fleet more than 10 years old. He is expecting eight more in the next year; two will be hybrid vehicles paid for with federal money.
Scanlan said he isn't worried about the price of fuel . . . yet. The LRTA now pays $2.49 a gallon for diesel under a one-year fixed-rate contract that will expire at the end of October. "I know the price will go up," he said, "but I don't know how much."
Hamstrung by a tight word limit, the signs announce a new state law that went into effect on Aug. 5.
The so-called "Move Over Law," approved by the Legislature earlier this year with little fanfare, is intended to protect emergency personnel on state highways. Under the legislation, motorists must give "a wide berth" to stationary emergency vehicles displaying blue, red, or amber emergency warning lights - the colors used by ambulances, fire, police, New Hampshire Department of Transportation vehicles, and tow trucks.
Before this week, the state's three-year-old law only covered vehicles with red and blue lights. The new law adds amber lights, which are affixed to vehicles used by N.H. Department of Transportation workers and town trucks. "It can be scary out there. When our workers respond to an emergency, cars can be passing by at 70 miles per hour 5 feet over their shoulders," N. H. Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Boynton said. "We've had some close calls and this will protect our workers."
According to Move Over, America, a partnership between the National Safety Commission, the National Sheriff's Association, and the National Association of Police Organizations, 43 states have adopted such a law, but Massachusetts in not among them.
Starts & Stops appears every other Sunday in Globe Northwest. Send transportation comments and questions to starts@globe.com.
