Week of June 19, 2006

Transit Now moves to council for review, approval

King County residents will have more opportunities to offer their opinion on a proposal to increase transit service countywide, as the King County Council begins to review Executive Ron Sims’ Transit Now proposal.

Last week, Sims transmitted the transit service initiative to the council and urged it to move quickly to place the measure before voters. Councilmember Julia Patterson agreed swift action is needed, and has already set up a special meeting this week of the Council’s Transportation Committee to begin discussing the initiative.

If approved by the voters, Transit Now will add more frequent and faster bus service to the county's busiest and most congested roads and highways. The goal is to attract more than 50,000 new daily bus riders to the system, reducing the number of vehicles on our congested roadways.

Overall, the Sims initiative contains four key strategies for delivering improved service across the county:

• Bus Rapid Transit in five of the most congested travel corridors in Seattle, East, and South King County where the goal is to have buses running every 10-minutes most of the time.
• More frequent buses – every 15 minutes where possible – and running more hours of the day where needed on 35 high-ridership routes, cutting the wait time for thousands of passengers.
• New service in rapidly growing neighborhoods.
• Partnerships with other agencies or businesses to target transit investments to maximize ridership and better serve expanding employment centers.

The plan will also expand paratransit and rideshare services, and add more environmentally friendly hybrid and clean diesel buses. The cleanest burning fuels available will power the entire transit fleet. Metro will buy 75 hybrid (diesel/electric) buses and 100 buses that will run on ultra low sulfur diesel with a biodiesel blend.

When combined with current resources, Transit Now expands Metro bus service by more than 20 percent with funding from the proposed one-tenth of one percent sales tax increase. The increase would cost the average family about $25 a year, less than a tank of gas. It would allow Metro to keep pace with regional growth and use the final tenth of one percent sales tax authorized by the state legislature after Initiative 695 cut transit funding statewide.

Sims said that unlike major construction projects, Metro Transit could begin adding new bus service within months of voter approval. He said more people choosing to ride the bus is critical to keeping pace with growing congestion, especially as the economy grows and major construction projects like the Alaskan Way Viaduct disrupt regional traffic.

Since Sims unveiled the plan in April, the King County Department of Transportation (KCDOT) has carried out an extensive public outreach process to gather input on the proposal. More than 5,000 King County residents weighed in, and expressed strong support for the ideas in the initiative.

"We received an amazingly large and positive response to Transit Now,” said Sims. “People want to keep the region moving and reap the environmental benefits of adding more clean fuel buses to our fleet."

During the outreach, staff found 79 to 90 percent support for major service improvements included in Transit Now. KCDOT staff connected with more than 80 stakeholder groups, including employers, community organizations and local government agencies. Information and feedback forms were mailed to more than 20,000 people on transit's mailing lists. More than 3,700 community members completed the feedback form, a very high 18 percent return rate.

A separate random survey of 633 households commissioned by Metro in May revealed 77 percent support for a sales tax increase to pay for the service expansion. Most of those responding thought proposed services such as Bus Rapid Transit and frequent all-day service in heavily traveled corridors were important. There was also significant support for improving services and facilities for seniors and people with disabilities. Nearly 80 percent said they supported more Metro service in growing residential neighborhoods and all-day service in areas where there is the potential for high ridership.

Over the past several weeks, the Transit Now proposal was adjusted to reflect some of the public feedback before it was sent to the council.

"The public's input was particularly valuable in helping us fine-tune the service partnership element of the proposal," Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond said. "Our more detailed proposal will permit both suburban and Seattle employers and governments that have expressed interest in this program to qualify. Residents also told us they support expansion of our Access service serving persons with disabilities and our commuter Vanpool program."

Sims is recommending that the council place Transit Now on the November ballot. During the council review over the summer months, there will be several opportunities for the public to offer testimony either in person or in writing.

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