Mike Trujillo clung to the bar overhead as the city bus jostled through rush-hour traffic.

He stood for the beginning of his ride because every seat on the Cerrillos Road bus was occupied by hip-to-hip passengers, and six others also surfed the bus aisle that afternoon.

Full buses used to be an oddity for Santa Fe's public transportation system, but as the price of fuel climbs toward
$4 per gallon, more people are using the system than ever.

Last month, ridership on Santa Fe Trails increased about 14 percent over April 2007, and, although numbers are not compiled for May, both bus drivers and riders say buses get more crowded by the day.

"I hear people all the time, constantly, talking about how the prices of gas are going up and they are going to start riding the bus," said driver Sonya Lopez.

Friday's national gas-price averages continued at record highs of $3.96 per gallon, with a state average at $3.90 and a Santa Fe average of $3.89 per gallon.

Lopez has been a driver for three years, but during the last three weeks she's started to notice more passengers on her Route 6, which serves the southeastern edge of town. Instead of two or three passengers heading home on a recent afternoon, her bus had nearly a dozen.

Back on the Cerrillos Road Route 2, Trujillo began his ride around Fifth Street at about
5 p.m., heading home Friday from work to an apartment along Airport Road. A broken starter on his car was the impetus for his sojourn into public transit, but now that he's gotten used to the idea, Trujillo said he might just sell the junker.

"It's a lot cheaper now to ride the bus," he said. "It's the gas. It's going way up. It's too too much."

Another bonus of riding, he said after nabbing the seat of a departing passenger, is that he avoids the frustration of piloting past construction on Cerrillos Road. Instead, the 36-year-old was striking up conversations with the driver and running into an old Capital High School classmate he hadn't seen in years.

Retiree Gerry Arnold seemed glad to have a seat across the aisle on his trip home from volunteering at a Plaza tourist information booth. Arnold has been riding the bus downtown two times a week for about three weeks since he got fed up with both gas costs and downtown parking. For seniors who pay 50-cent fares, it's a much cheaper alternative.

"I probably will go downtown a lot more now," he said.

Arnold drives from his home in Park Plazas to the Santa Fe Place mall to catch the bus, a trick several teenagers also used last week. Teens also get the
50-cent fare, while adults pay $1.

Increases in transit ridership are good for the city and its residents, said Santa Fe Transit Division Director Jon Bulthuis, who said gas-price hikes have had an obvious correlation with ridership.

"What I see as a good value out of this is that people are becoming aware of an asset that was already in the community and they are starting to make choices that are both good for their personal budgets, but are also good for reducing traffic congestion and all the positive environmental things that go along with public transportation."

Although one gripe about the system is that lesser-used routes are not as frequent as the Cerrillos Road spine, Bulthuis said greater ridership could change that. "The more we see people taking advantage of the system, the more likely it will be that the council will look to add services," he said.

Other public transit systems are also seeing more riders, including services to rural communities such as Española and Taos provided by the North Central Regional Transit District, and the Northern New Mexico Park and Ride commuter buses provided by the state.

Ridership between Santa Fe and Los Alamos jumped by
13 percent between April 2007 and last month, and about
44 percent more workers than last year are riding those buses between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, a figure that takes into a account that bus service became more frequent on the route during that time.

The state has also invested $400 million in a commuter train that is already running in the Albuquerque area and will link to Santa Fe by the end of the year. Additional services are planned toward the end the year including later service on Route 2 and greater frequency on Route 4.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.