Week of Sept. 25, 2006

What’s buzzing in Bellevue?

It’s the bus, the carpool & the van

A recent study shows a big drop in the number of Bellevue residents and workers who are commuting alone.

Estimates on commuting modes and average travel time to work were released last month from the Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey. In 2000, an estimated 74 percent of working Bellevue residents drove alone on their commutes. By 2005, that number dropped to 68 percent.

City of Bellevue transportation planners credit several factors, including increased use of public transit – almost a three percent increase in five years – and more people who actually are able to walk to work from residential areas in and near Downtown Bellevue and other employment centers.

King County Metro Transit has several programs underway that enhance travel options for Bellevue residents and workers. The goal is to make it easier than ever to leave your car at home – even when you live in the suburbs.

“Convenience is the key,” says Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond. “The bus works best for many Bellevue employees. For others, Metro goes the extra mile to make it easy to access a vanpool, VanShare or carpool.”

Here are some examples of the innovations and successes going on right now in Bellevue:

Downtown Bellevue In Motion

Last week, Metro brought a new program to Downtown Bellevue aimed at increasing the use of transit, carpooling, bicycling and footpower.

Photo: Bellevue Transit CenterMetro teamed up with the City of Bellevue and the Bellevue Downtown Association to encourage people living downtown to use healthier travel options, such as the bus, carpooling, bicycling and walking. They are working together on the “Downtown Bellevue In Motion” program to provide residents with information on driving less to save money, protect the environment, get healthy, and earn rewards. The “In Motion” program has been a success in several Seattle-area neighborhoods and in Bellevue’s Crossroads neighborhood.

Key components of the 10-week “Downtown Bellevue In Motion” program include an informational mailing with a neighborhood map, a Metro Free Ride ticket offer for participants, and details on how to earn a Bellevue Collection gift card.

With all of the businesses, shopping and entertainment outlets now in downtown Bellevue, getting around without a car has never been easier. Residents can earn In Motion rewards just by committing to eliminate two drive-alone trips a week from their regular routine.

Employers kick up their support

More than 120,000 people work at jobs located within Bellevue, about 10 percent of all employees in King County. These businesses range from small mom-and-pop operations to the headquarters for international corporations.

Many of the large employers have been working closely with Metro in recent years to encourage their workers to drive alone less often. These companies support a variety of commuter-friendly programs, such as: subsidizing the cost of transit passes; setting aside free parking for carpoolers; and sponsoring transportation fairs to hand out commuting information.

One of the most active Bellevue employers in this arena has been T-Mobile, a national provider of wireless voice, messaging, and data services. T-Mobile has thousands of employees located in the Eastgate area, and had long supported commute trip reduction programs.

In the coming months, T-Mobile will be relocating many of its employees to a new office building on the south side of Interstate 90. T-Mobile’s own Employee Transportation Coordinators are working in advance to encourage better commuting habits at the new work site. During the month of September, they hosted four transportation fairs, invited Metro staff to hold information sessions, and made it easier than ever for employees to pick up a subsidized transit pass.

On the other side of Interstate 405, a group of employers are working with Metro to smooth out the commute and mid-day errands for people who work at the Bellefields Office Park.

The office park houses many individual businesses and hundreds of workers. Not all of these employers are in a position to offer the transit incentives that larger companies can provide. Instead, they teamed up to promote the transit services available in that location. Four Bellefield employers – AAA, Coinstar, Excell Data and RealEstate.com – recently hosted a transportation fair for all the workers at the office park. And, AAA has already started a VanShare, so its employees can use the van to travel between work and local park-and-ride lots, or even carpool to Bellevue’s retail centers for lunch and errands at noontime.

Improving downtown connections

Since 2002, Metro has seen a 15 percent increase in transit boardings in Downtown Bellevue. Metro managers want to build on that success by improving the connections between downtown and other key Bellevue employment centers such as Overlake and Eastgate, and between Bellevue and other Eastside cities.

Last year, Metro began an extensive outreach process to gather ideas for service improvements in Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond. Those ideas are being refined, and the goal is to put some of them into service as soon as next February. One of the first priorities is to create bus service with trips every 15 minutes all day connecting downtown Bellevue with Redmond, Overlake, and Crossroads. Metro also wants to increase evening and weekend service to the downtown area.

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