Can you clarify on why not? If you get interest and a big news hit, isn't it important to you to capitalize on that as much as possible and leave a good impression so people come back to use your service?
If you don't have the funds that's one thing and I get it, but seems like spikes are exactly the kind of thing worth spending on.
The website a weekend project, not something I care for whether people use it. On average it has five to ten visitors a day unless linked to from somewhere big which only happens like twice a year.
From my impression, I don't think it's any kind of for-profit service he's running where people are paying for and expecting uptime. He's taken a public data source and make it very easy for people to peruse it, and sees that as his reward.
If you don't have the funds that's one thing and I get it, but seems like spikes are exactly the kind of thing worth spending on.