The 15 percent ridership increase that the Butler Transit Authority is experiencing this year further confirms that someone's hardship has a gold lining for someone else.

In the case of the transit authority, higher-than-ever gasoline prices apparently are behind much of the ridership increase as more people are trading the comfort of their private vehicles and shorter travel times for the more economical way of getting to their destinations that mass transit offers.

Actually, it's not yet a gold lining that gasoline hovering around $4 a gallon is bestowing upon the local bus service. Ridership well above a 15 percent increase would be necessary to merit such a description.

However, the ridership increase already being recorded plus the prospects of gasoline prices going well above $4 a gallon portends bigger ridership numbers in the future. And, that will provide justification for the authority to expand its service beyond what it already is planning for the Route 68 corridor, including express service to Pittsburgh.

There probably are some people north of the city, such as those residing in Center Township housing plans, that would welcome not having to drive their vehicles into downtown Butler, where many then pay to park.

"More people are finding us, obviously," said John Paul, transit authority executive director. He said, currently, about 35 percent of The Bus' riders commute to or from work.

The Bus is averaging more than 17,000 operating hours per year.

Paul is no doubt correct when he projects huge demand for the bus service to Pittsburgh, where motorists routinely endure congested driving conditions and much higher parking rates than those people who drive their vehicles to Butler for their workday.

The fare for a one-way trip to Pittsburgh, which Paul estimates will be about $4 or $5 — $8 or $10 for a round trip — will be a bargain when compared with the travel costs with which workers in Pittsburgh now contend.

Good advice for people fed up with the increasingly higher gasoline prices is to give The Bus a try — not just one day but, instead, plan for a month-long trial.

During that month, the cost of bus ridership should be tracked, along with the savings realized. Riders should factor in the decreased stress of allowing someone else to do the driving; many mass transit riders use their commute to plan their workday schedules, or to get caught up on the news and other reading.

Mass transit isn't for everyone. Bus schedules have to be built around a plan of serving as many people as possible, not all who have a need for it.

That is what the Butler Transit Authority is trying to accomplish amid its goal of keeping its finances as healthy as possible.

The authority isn't gloating over the challenges that high gasoline prices are posing for everyone who owns a vehicle, but it rightly sees itself as at least a partial remedy for the money headaches that the price of fuel is causing.

Those in the transit authority's service area who don't give the bus service a try will have only themselves to blame for the decreased buying power that that decision entails.