The results are in and the Bay Area Transportation Authority (BATA) set a single day ridership record on Saturday, July 4, providing 7,126 rides across all BATA services (Bayline, Loop and Link).
BATA provided 26,876 free rides to residents and visitors during the 2026 National Cherry Festival. Part of the 26,000+ ride total included 2,197 rides to the Coast Guard Open Ramp event on July 3 and 424 rides to the MSU Orchard Tours at the Leelanau County Horticulture Station.
This year the first day of the Cherry Festival was Independence Day and included the Air Show and the 4th of July fireworks providing the perfect combination for people to use BATA’s free Bayline Cherry Festival transportation. Thousands of riders were able to avoid parking congestion while enjoying a safe, convenient ride to festival events and utilizing BATA’s Park-n-Ride lots at Meijer on US-31, NMC’s Maple Lot and BATA’s new LaFranier Park-n-Ride.
“We are grateful so many residents and visitors chose BATA during this year’s Cherry Festival,” said Patrick Preusser, BATA executive director. “Providing more than 26,000 rides during the festival helped reduce the traffic congestion and allowed attendees to spend more time enjoying the festival and less time sitting in traffic or searching for parking. This success reflects the teamwork across our entire organization. Our drivers, dispatchers, maintenance staff, supervisors, and administrative employees all came together to safely deliver exceptional service during one of the busiest weeks of the year.
“ Events like the National Cherry Festival demonstrate how public transportation strengthens our community by supporting our local economy, improving mobility, and enhancing the quality of life throughout our region. We heard many positive comments from customers throughout the festival about how easy it was to park and hop on BATA to get to all the festivities.”
This year’s festival ridership total is a 24% increase compared to 2025 (21,625) and is second highest total only to BATA’s record setting Cherry Festival ridership in 2019 of 29,019 rides. BATA’s previous single day ridership record of 4,847 rides was also set during the 2019 Cherry Festival.
The Bayline is free year-round, runs seven days a week and BATA encourages people to consider riding anytime to explore the Village at Grand Traverse Commons, Downtown Traverse City, Northwestern Michigan College or the East Bay Beach District.
