LOGAN — Turning 16 usually means you get to start driving. But what about when that's all you've ever done?

Hey, everyone loves a party, not excluding the Cache Valley Transit District, which is throwing a birthday bash today at the district's Transit Center, located at 150 E. 500 North in Logan.

The all-day event will include refreshments inside the Transit Center, and prizes will be awarded to passengers riding on randomly picked routes. Patrons who fill out a comment card at the Transit Center will be entered into a drawing to win fun prizes.

It's nice to have a little fun, but Mark Daines, a CVTD board member, says the fare-free transit district has a challenging time ahead.

Decisions need to be made, he said, regarding the district's entire operation.

Among the issues, Daines said, are the following: The district is outgrowing its administration and maintenance facility built in 1999, and office workers have moved into converted closets. Will fares have to be implemented? Should the district connect to the Utah Transit Authority? How can the district extend service to other cities? Could the district buy more efficient buses?

"Air quality continues to plague the valley," Daines said. "The bus system is not going to solve that problem."

But Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, whose district includes Cache Valley, said mass transit provides a great benefit to Cache Valley residents.

"Mass transit has the potential to be part of the solution in Cache County," Bishop said.

For about half of the past century, Cache County didn't have a transit district. In the early 1900s, a trolley system operated up and down Main Street, and a transit service operated from Preston, Idaho, to Ogden, but after World War II, people began to buy more cars, and the trolley cars were removed.

Then, in the late 1980s, residents began pushing for a return to mass transit.

A measure to impose a .25-cent sales tax for transit was defeated in 1989, but when it was placed on the 1990 ballot, it passed, and the Logan Transit District was formed.

About a year passed before the district had collected enough revenue to buy equipment.

On April 27, 1992, service began with seven buses in Logan.

Since that time, more buses were added, and eventually, other cities in Cache County decided they wanted similar service. Residents in Richmond, Smithfield, Hyde Park, North Logan, River Heights, Providence, Nibley, Millville and Hyrum voted in 2000 to create the Cache Valley Transit District, which merged with the Logan district in 2007.

In 2007, the combined district made 1.7 million rider trips. Service now includes Preston, thanks to an agreement between Cache Valley Transit, the Utah Department of Transportation and the state of Idaho.

"We don't expect everyone to ride the bus every day," says Todd Beutler, CVTD's general manager.

But when people do ride the bus, he says, they'll find out that mass transit is more than just getting people around.

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E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com