Ventura County bus ridership figures have soared to new highs as the average price for regular unleaded gas has surged to more than $4 a gallon, according to area transportation officials.

From January through April, tallies show the following increases:

n 17 percent — VISTA, or Ventura Intercity Service Transit Authority, serving Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Santa Paula, Fillmore and Santa Barbara County.

n 23 percent — Gold Coast Transit (formerly South Coast Area Transit), with routes throughout western Ventura County.

n 23 percent — commuter buses from Ventura County to Los Angeles County, operated by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT).

"I think that it is obvious that the continually increasing cost of gasoline is encouraging commuters to find alternate modes to reach their jobs," said Phil Aker, a supervising transportation planner for the Los Angeles Transportation Department.

"It's been an amazing ridership growth," said Darren Kettle, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

Kettle said VISTA bus routes have been added to meet demand.

"It happened very, very quickly," he said, without any marketing effort on the commission's part.

"It's a lot of word of mouth," he said, people going to work and telling friends about their bus experiences.

Bill Busby, a Ventura engineer who works in Goleta, started taking the VISTA bus in January because of a New Year's resolution.

"In January, there was no problem taking seats," he said. "It was probably 80 percent full. But probably in the last six weeks it's really been packed."

The tremendous shift in bus commuting may be an indicator of things to come, as climbing gas prices continue to empty wallets with no end in sight.

Although some economists theorize that we're experiencing a mini-bubble and prices eventually will drop, no none knows for sure what's going to happen, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

"You've got to operate like gas prices are going to stay high," he said.

By taking the VISTA bus, Busby avoids an 80-mile trip to and from Goleta each day.

"I figure I'm saving $250 a month," he said.

On Tuesday, Ventura County's average price for regular unleaded gas rose to a record $4.25 a gallon, up from $3.38 a year ago, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Busby said he's enjoyed bus commuting, even though it takes him 15 to 20 minutes longer to get to work.

"It's a lot less stress," he said. "You can just sit back and read the paper."

Gold Coast carries the most riders of any bus service in the county, with about 3.5 million boardings a year. Two commuter runs were started this year, from Oxnard to Ojai and Ojai to the County Government Center in Ventura. Gold Coast reported that there were more bus riders in April than in any other one-month period since the line began operating in 1973.

In addition to the growing interest in bus travel, Ventura County transportation officials report, rail travel on Metrolink is also hitting record numbers, with the Ventura line averaging more than 4,200 riders a day. But only about half of those daily riders travel into or out of Ventura County because the line includes a stretch that runs through the San Fernando Valley.

"Likely because of gas prices, the Metrolink system is experiencing ridership increases on all lines," a Transportation Commission report says. "During the month of April, the system hit a new record, breaking the 1 million mark with boardings of 1,034,896."

— Staff writer Scott Hadly contributed to this report.