GLENDALE — Maria Bispo doesn't own a car, but she wants one. Or at least she did.
That was before gas prices started their steady climb upward in February to an all-time regional high of $3.48 per gallon of regular-grade gasoline earlier this month.
"Gas is just way too much," Bispo said as she stood on the corner of Broadway and Brand Boulevard Monday waiting for a Metro bus to take her home.
But the bus line she rides every day is also struggling under the weight of high fuel prices, transit officials say. As a result, a significant increase in fares may be just around the corner.
Even though ridership on Metro buses increased from 1.22 million weekday boardings in January to more than 1.32 million in March, fares need to be raised in order to cover budget shortfalls that continue to expand, according to the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
"I think a good chunk of that ridership was because of the gas prices," MTA spokesman Marc Tillman said.
Over the same period, the average price of regular-grade gasoline in the Los Angeles region increased from $2.63 on Feb. 20 to $3.07 on March 15 before setting the May record, according the Automobile Club of Southern California.
For the MTA, it's been bittersweet, Tillman said.
An increase in ridership has come alongside rising fuel costs. Last year, the agency spent $50 million to fuel its fleet of more than 2,100 buses — $15 million more than the year before, he said.
That increase is a major component behind a possible Thursday vote by the agency's board of directors on a series of proposed rate hikes to cover operating expenses, he said.
If approved, Bispo's monthly transit pass will go from $52 to $75 and basic bus fare would increase to $2 from $1.25.
"Now they're putting us in a rough spot," Bispo said.
MTA is also straining under expensive improvement costs, including multimillion-dollar changes to service lines and the addition of dozens of so-called "rapid" corridors, where buses are streamlined and synced with traffic signals for faster routes.
The agency is also spending $1.5 billion on two major rail projects — a line into Culver City and extension of the Metro Gold Line from Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles.
