The soaring cost of gasoline, digging deeper into pocketbooks and budgets, appears to have contributed to an 8 percent increase in the use of public transportation last month.

"Yeah, I'd say so," said Neal Dela Calzada, a driver of TheBus, as he pulled away from a stop on King Street, en route to Waikiki with a busload of passengers eager to get home for the evening.

Bus ridership dipped in March and early April because of heavy rain, officials at TheBus said, but April 2006 passenger rates — 210,891 riders for the month — were still well above April 2005, which logged 194,579 riders. There were 182,850 riders in April 2004.

The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas in Honolulu was $3.01 in April 2006, $2.42 in April 2005 and $2.06 in April 2004, according to the American Automobile Association.

"Rising fuel costs, particularly post-Katrina, have had an impact on ridership," said Roger Morton, president and general manager of O'ahu Transit Services, the company that operates TheBus. "But there are other elements: Hawai'i has enjoyed a hot economy, which means more people working and taking the bus because they can't park their cars or whatever.

"People think a recession increases bus ridership, but it goes up when more people are working."

Seiha Yamaguchi, a University of Hawai'i student from Hiroshima, Japan, who waited for a bus at Kahala Mall on Friday, nodded fiercely when asked whether climbing gas prices affected his choice of transportation. He has abandoned the car.

"I have a moped and I take the bus," he said.

A new discounted pass for college students has proved popular and helped increase ridership as well, Morton said.

"I'm taking the bus because my wife has the car," said Alexander Beckers, who lives near the convention center but works near the bus stop at Kapi'olani Boulevard and South Street. "There is no place for me to park anyway."

An increase in passengers at least partially prompted by the higher cost of fuel is a two-edged sword for the bus company, Morton said.

"We get two tankers in every day. Some days, more. We use a lot of fuel," he said.

Big rises in passenger numbers, such as the 16,312 more riders last month, put a strain on the bus company's fuel budget. Fuel costs for fiscal year 2005-06 were $16.8 million, Morton said, noting, "That's about $3 million more than we'd planned."

Costs for fiscal year 2004-05 were $12 million. In 2003-04, costs were $7.9 million.

"If fuel stays high," he said, "we'll buy more fuel-efficient vehicles."

Vicki Harris, executive director of Van Pool Hawai'i, a state-financed organization that provides subsidized vans for drivers who organize car pools from their neighborhoods, said gas prices seem to be increasing traffic at her organization.

"We certainly have had a dramatic increase," she said, "and it is ongoing, since the price has increased to $3 and upward. Our database is growing and so is our fleet."

In the past eight months, she said, Van Pool has grown by 50 van pools. Usual annual growth, Harris said, is about 30 van pools.

"We've been here for 12 years," she said. "We have 225 vans now, and our goal is to have 250 by the end of the year. I think we'll exceed that."

Her organization's ultimate goal, Harris said, is to take all single-occupant vehicles off the streets.

Charles McTee, a federal worker at the Marine base at Kane'ohe Bay, started driving a subsidized Van Pool van with five fellow commuters after gas prices started spiraling up last summer.

Reach Karen Blakeman at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.