More Guamanians are using public transportation now the pandemic has eased up. The increase in riders comes as the Guam Regional Transit Authority added ten new buses to its fleet. As COVID-19-era cases started to wind down, ridership buses and vans have reportedly doubled.

That's according to GRTA executive director Richard Ybanez, who told KUAM News simply, "we needed more buses." He added, "It was about 4,000 to 5,000, now we have 8,000 and then paratransit was probably about 3,000, now, we're up to almost 5,000, so it shows that people utilize our transit system."

In response, the company used $1.6 million from the Federal Transit Administration funds to buy ten more buses. Ybanez says the increase to its fleet would allow for more efficient scheduling and pickups, as well as their supervisors being equipped to pickup passengers from their fixed and paratransit routes.

He adds the new buses are also compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Despite the increase in ridership, Ybanez admits there is still a high number of those in the community that do not use public transportation, citing the stigma around it.

"If you take the transit system, you don't have a car, but we want to, we want to definitely know that using the transit system can alleviate traffic, save you some gas and...when people want to get back on their feet, because they...lost their job during the pandemic and they don't have a vehicle. We have a public transit system that goes, we run out we have buses that are going around the island with our bus stops and in areas where they could get picked-up," he explained.

GRTA and its board members are working on a marketing strategy in hopes to entice more residents to use the public transit system. The agency also plans on using more federal funding to build a new park-and-ride hub and bus facility in Dededo and Yigo with plans to have six more buses and five ten-passenger vans, all ADA-compliant through the Accelerated Innovated Mobility (AIMS) program.

There's no word yet how soon all that could become a reality.