MOSES LAKE - New route efficiencies and higher gas prices led more residents to ride the bus last year, according to officials with the Grant Transit Authority.

Total ridership was up 8.7 percent in 2011, mostly due to a big increase of regular route passengers from 2010.

Total system miles were up 1.9 percent from 2010 levels, resulting largely from longer distances to and from fueling and route starting locations, increased para-transit ridership and more use of a dial-a-ride service in Mattawa.

Last year roughly 237,000 people rode GTA buses, which travelled 1.16 million miles.

"A few little tweaks we were able to make made the system more user friendly," said Transit Operations Supervisor Brandy Heston.

One of those "tweaks" was motivated by recent legislative changes. The GTA saw a significant drop in state funding for auxiliary routes, prompting the agency toward more efficiency to make the dollars they did get last a little longer.

The GTA isn't planning to phase out auxiliary bus services, Heston said, although the agency did see a 10 percent decrease in auxiliary bus use last year.

This is actually good news, according to Moses Lake Councilman Dick Deane, who sits on the GTA board of directors.

"We're encouraging people to make themselves available to our official routes and it's reduced the cost and been very effective," Deane said last week.

Reflecting that shift, about 13 percent more riders used the GTA's para-transit buses last year. Para-transit service - known within GTA as SNAP - is a shared ride program provided by law to eligible individuals whose conditions and/or disabilities make it impossible for them to use fixed-route buses.

A health service shuttle between Moses Lake, Ephrata, Quincy and Wenatchee, saw a 25 percent increase from 2010. GTA's vanpools are gaining in popularity as well, Deane said, noting that there are currently 15 in service with requests for six more. The program is targeted toward groups of five to twelve riders who share the same employment or education commute in Grant County, with the cost divided by the number of riders in the vanpool group.

"It takes the cars off the road and gets people to work at a reduced rate," Deane said.

Looking ahead to 2012, Heston said the contractor that hires and trains GTA drivers is looking at a new tracking database to record driver evaluations and fine tune the training program to better address defensive driving and policies.

The database will reportedly track driving incidents and disciplinary actions to quickly calculate safety statistics, incentive bonuses, identify at-risk behaviors and create vehicle and drivers reports.

While she didn't have the number of collisions GTA drivers have been involved in this past year, Heston said it was about the same as years past. She knew of at least two rear-end collisions at Moses Lake railroad crossings.

"New legislation requires even transit buses stop at all railroad crossings," she said; adding the new policy seems to be taking other drivers by surprise, especially at tracks no longer in service. "The legislature doesn't allow us to pick and choose which ones we're going to stop at. Whether they're active or not active we're still required to stop."

Heston said the GTA has no sales tax rate increases on the table this coming year or anytime in the near future.

When Grant County voters approved the establishment of a Public Transportation Benefit Area (PTBA) 16 years ago, the ballot measure included a two-tenths of one percent sales tax levied to help fund the GTA. While other transit authorities in Washington have raised their sales tax rates multiple times, some nearly to the state limit of nine-tenths of one percent, the GTA has kept their rate the same since it was adopted.

"I think we had a good year," Heston said of 2011. "We're looking forward to moving into 2012 and are hoping we can serve the communities in the most efficient ways possible."