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Week of Mar. 31, 2008
More Eastsiders leaving cars at home to share the ride
More and more Eastsiders are joining Metro-sponsored carpools and vanpools. | Transit use is growing rapidly among Eastside residents and by those who commute to and from the area for work. It’s not just the 30 percent increase in Eastside bus trips over the past eight years, but also more people using park-and-ride lots, vanpooling, and carpooling.Due to ongoing construction on Interstate 405, King County Metro Transit has been targeting Bellevue and Renton commuters to get them to help reduce traffic congestion along the busy freeway and on local city streets. Metro is partnering in this effort with the Washington State Department of Transportation. “In January, we launched the ‘Fill It Up, Again!’ campaign, and we are seeing great results in just a short time,” said Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond. “In the first three months of 2008, more than 700 vanpoolers have received rewards and more than 300 people in Bellevue and Renton have registered their carpools with Metro.” The ”Fill It Up, Again!” promotion is a continuation of last year’s successful countywide “Fill It Up” campaign. During the 2007 program, Metro formed more than 200 new vanpools and vanshares. The idea is to reward commuters with a gift card to begin vanpooling, knowing that once they get started the ease, convenience, and monetary savings of leaving their own cars at home will hook them. Commuters who work in the cities of Bellevue or Renton can receive rewards for carpooling. It starts by registering your carpool at RideshareOnline to receive a gift card just for signing up. Commuters who carpool at least four times a month can enter a drawing for one of 150 rewards. This is not the only program targeted at commuters along the I-405 corridor. The popular In Motion program has increased awareness of ridesharing travel options among Bellevue residents since 2006. The program continues in 2008 focusing on influencing the home-based trip making decisions of downtown Bellevue residents. Within a few months, Metro will launch In Motion for people who live in the downtown Renton area. Later this year, it will be extended to the Renton Highlands. The In-Motion program reduces drive-alone car trips by promoting transit use, ridesharing, bicycling, and foot-power at the neighborhood level. The Renton program will also include Residential Transportation Coordinators (RTC) to disseminate transit information and help their neighbors navigate new ways of traveling. In Bellevue, Metro will be reaching out to the more than 8,000 hospitality industry workers employed by local hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues. Downtown Bellevue currently has 11 hotels and 100 restaurants along with more than 200 retail stores. Metro’s goal – both with the hospitality industry and other downtown Bellevue businesses – is to work with employers to help with carpool formation and offer subsidized transit passes. Desmond says in this time of rising gas prices and increasing traffic congestion all the different programs should net big results. In 2007, Metro formed 175 new vanpools and 69 new vanshares for more than 1,000 commuter vans in operation at year-end. The Metro VanPool program provided more than 2.6 million rides last year. And, more than 20,000 new participants requested carpool or vanpool assistance through RideshareOnline, a 16-percent increase over 2006. “Throughout the Metro system, it’s already looking great for 2008,” said Desmond. “When you compare the first three months of this year to 2007, we’ve seen an 11 percent increase in the number of new vanpools and a 33 percent increase in new commuters looking to participate in a carpool or vanpool. It shows people really want new travel options.”
Baseball is back 
Starting this week, the Seattle Mariners are back in action for the 2008 baseball season at Safeco Field. Metro is a great way to get to the April home games. For weekday games, there is plenty of regular Metro bus service traveling to and from the stadium area. Use Metro’s convenient online Trip Planner to research which routes provide the best connection from your home or office to the ballpark. For night and weekend games during the three April homestands, there is special service to 13 outlying park-and-ride lots. The fare for special buses is $3 each way. This premium park-and-ride service operates after weeknight games and both before and after weekend games. It is not available for weekday games that begin before 5 p.m. This month, the Mariners will have home games: March 31-April 2 against the Rangers; April 11-15 versus the Angels and Royals; and then April 23-27 with the Orioles and Oakland A’s. See Metro Online for all the Mariners service details. |
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One – hopefully – last blast of winter hit King County late last week and overstayed its welcome into the weekend. It brought along a slushy snowfall in many areas of the county, and more work for the King County Road Services Division. Keeping up with the weather was like “playing a game of tic-tac-toe with snowplows,” said Leo Griffin, the assistant operations manager for the Roads Maintenance Section. On Thursday morning and again mid-day Friday, wet, fat flakes chilled the areas around Black Diamond and Enumclaw. The Roads Division went to 24-hour staffing in southeast King County, and crews geared up in anticipation of more snow countywide on Friday morning. But, the storms paced themselves and continued to churn out snow in different locations at different times. One of the busiest stretches was Saturday night, when most of East King County from the Snohomish County line to Interstate 90 was seeing snowfall. Griffin said crews worked through the night keeping major thoroughfares plowed, and finally wrapped up around 8 a.m. Sunday morning. “The one good thing about this snowfall was that it melted pretty quickly,” he said. “But, we’re all hoping we’re done with snow until next winter.” | Subscribe to DOT DashSign-up to receive an e-mail text version of "Transportation Today," along with other significant DOT news by sending an e-mail to us with subscribe King County DOT Dash in the subject line.
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