Wed, May 14, 2008 (2:07 a.m.)

Mass transit is in.

The New York Times reported Saturday that as gasoline prices edge toward $4 a gallon, increasing numbers of commuters are turning to mass transit — especially in the West and the South, where the car has been king for decades.

Metropolitan areas in these regions are seeing transit ridership increases of 10 percent to 15 percent, the Times reported, and much of the increase is occurring on commuter rail systems that have recently been built or expanded.

Denver’s transit figures rose 8 percent in the first three months of this year — despite a fare increase, Denver Regional Transportation District officials told the Times. Denver expanded its commuter rail service in late 2006.

In Utah, the 38-mile FrontRunner commuter train between Salt Lake City and Ogden has been seeing about 5,000 riders a day since it opened two weeks ago — 1,100 more than expected in the first months of service. “We didn’t expect to hit 5,000 until September,” Utah Transit Authority spokeswoman Carrie Bonsack-Ware told the Las Vegas Sun on Monday.

Transit systems in Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco and Houston have reported similar increases. William Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association, told the Times that it is “very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”

Unfortunately, Las Vegas Valley commuters don’t have a similar option. The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada covers the valley with its bus system and also offers the Metropolitan Area Express bus, which travels along a special corridor that makes it faster than a conventional bus, in some areas.

Still, MAX is not a commuter train. When the RTC proposed commuter rail service, residents opposed it on the fear that trains might be noisy, smelly or force motorists to wait too long at crossings. Somehow, sitting in freeway traffic seemed less objectionable than waiting a few seconds for a train to pass.

Perhaps it is simply that the Las Vegas Valley hasn’t hit what Denver transit officials called “the tipping point” — the combination of high gas prices, massive congestion and parking difficulties that inspires people to leave their cars at home.

If trends across other parts of the West are any indication, however, that day is coming.