Free bus rides could be a reality within five years in North Lake Tahoe.
The Placer County Board Of Supervisors has approved a Tahoe Area Regional Transit plan that would increase hours of operation. It could also provide for free rides if the board approves larger subsidies.
Will Garner is the Transit Manager for Placer County. He says phase one of the new plan includes increasing the number of buses in operation from 10 to 13.
"That would happen winter of 2016-17," he says. "After that, we'll begin to implement some of the evening service in the off-seasons. Right now we end our service at about 6:30 p.m. We're going to expand that to 9 or 9:30 at night."
The goal behind the increase in hours and free fares is to mitigate the effects of increased development near the Lake.
"This would help us address the impacts of increased traffic by increased development in the Tahoe area by encouraging more people to use the bus," Garner says.
Existing service connects Sugar Pine with Incline Village and North Lake Tahoe to Truckee.
The plan for new service has a cost of $8.7 million over five years.
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