James De Boer’s six-cylinder Jeep gets about 18 miles per gallon. So he chooses to use his pre-paid bus pass to ride between Western Washington University and his Birchwood area home.

The 22-year-old student from Olympia isn’t alone.

WWU students armed with pre-paid passes drove ridership on public buses to a record increase in February. Whatcom Transportation Authority gave nearly 131,000 more rides in February than it did in February 2007, a 46 percent increase. That’s the largest increase in the agency’s history.

More than 95,000 rides were students using their new universal bus passes, paid for by a $25-a-term fee for students taking six or more credits, said Rick Nicholson, WTA’s director of service development. The fee began in the fall.

For De Boer, it makes financial sense to ride from his Birchwood neighborhood home to campus.

“After one month, my bus pass pays for itself,” he said. “After that, it’s free riding.”

Non-WWU routes also saw February ridership boosts. Routes serving Kendall, Mount Vernon and the Everson/Nooksack/ Sumas area saw increases of 32 percent, 35 percent and 40 percent, respectively, according to WTA.

“What is happening more is people standing coming in from rural routes,” he said, something most riders here aren’t used to. “We know a lot of the routes are a lot more crowded than they used to be.”

WTA won’t have extra vehicles to help relieve crowding until it receives three new buses this summer, WTA spokeswoman Maureen McCarthy said.

Nicholson said the agency’s 10 percent increase in bus service starting in January (it included adding the Plum and extending the Gold Go Lines) and high gas prices contributed to the ridership increase. Gas in Bellingham hit a record $3.66 a gallon late last month.

Also, February had an extra day because it’s a leap year, Nicholson said.

Surveys of riders on the Green and Gold Go Lines indicate more people are riding because they want to, not because they have to, a major goal for WTA, Nicholson said. But he doesn’t have data on what students would have done, he said.

“If they would have otherwise biked, then that’s not necessarily a huge improvement for society,” he said.

Freshman Kalin Karich, an environmental science student from Walla Walla, is one of those. She doesn’t own a car, so she rides the bus seven days a week. Without the bus, her options would be walking, biking or asking friends for rides, she said.

“I have a bike that I might ride,” she said. “But it’s so hilly I get scared.”