Earth Bytes: Get on the Bus

Picture: A 15 passenger van is one of the many transportation alternatives offered by Mountain Rides.

Safe routes teaches parents and kids how to walk or bike to school safely.

For just a couple of dollars you can travel up and down the Valley without buying a gallon of gas.

Have you heard about the hottest wheels in the Wood River Valley? Mountain Rides has them, and they’re willing to share. Mountain Rides is the new umbrella organization (replacing KART, PEAK, and Wood River Rideshare) charged with providing “transportation alternatives,” i.e., rides, to everyone visiting, living in, or working in the Wood River Valley. And we mean everyone: skiers who want a free lift to the mountain, locals who need a ride from downtown Ketchum to Warm Springs after a night on the town, commuters from south Valley to north Valley, and even Sun Valley workers who live as far away as Twin Falls and Shoshone.

Plum recently chatted with Jason Miller, the executive director of Mountain Rides, who says the main goal of Mountain Rides is to reduce single occupancy vehicles in the Valley. They do this a number of ways, most obviously, with buses, some free and others just a couple of dollars for a round trip. They also organize commuter vanpools bringing commuters together to share the cost of a car and gas (a whopping $500-plus per month in savings) and to cut down fuel emissions and traffic.

To date Mountain Rides’ total annual rider-ship is an impressive 320,000, most of them skiers and boarders in Sun Valley and Ketchum, with the down valley commuters tallying nearly 6,000 a month, and the around town riders averaging 3,000 a month during slack and up to 40,000 a month during peak seasons.

As the traffic any weekday afternoon on highway 75 demonstrates, there are plenty more potential riders. According to Miller, Mountain Rides is always expanding and keep in mind, it’s their goal to take those single occupancy vehicles off the road. In addition to providing buses and vans, Mountain Rides also offers online and phone ride matching, consults employers and commuters on transportation alternatives, and promotes walk and bike initiatives including a safe routes program so kids can get to and from school safely without using a car.

To find out more visit Mountain Rides or email Jason Miller.