Where Should We Add New Bus Service?

Card game helps to identify service priorities

Snohomish County, Wash. – Community Transit, Snohomish County’s public transit provider, is preparing to add new service for the first time in years. The agency will be hosting several Transit Values Exercises to invite the public to give input on where that new service should go.

During the recession, Community Transit cut 37 percent of its bus service, which runs throughout Snohomish County and into Seattle. One of the major cuts was the elimination of all service on Sundays and major holidays.

At the Transit Values Exercise, participants are seated at several small tables to play a card game that adds bus service to the transit system. The challenge is to get your tablemates to agree which service to add, for example, commuter service, late-night trips, Sunday service or a new route. Your table also must be under the budget given for that round of play.

Input from these sessions will be passed along to the Community Transit Board of Directors as it decides where to invest new service dollars. The agency expects to add some service this fall, plus a significant level of new service in 2015. The new service is possible because of rising sales tax revenues due to local economic growth.

Even with the new sales tax revenue, the bus service Community Transit expects to add in 2014-15 will be only about a fifth of the amount of service that was cut during the recession. Long-term economic growth or a new funding source is needed to get service to the same level it was in 2009.

To sign up for one of the three Transit Values Exercises, go to www.communitytransit.org/transitvalues [link archived] or call Community Transit at (425) 348-7136. A limited number of spaces are available for each session. The dates are:

Tuesday, March 4
6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Everett Station, Mount Baker Room
3201 Smith Ave., Everett

Saturday, March 8
9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Everett Station, Mount Baker Room
3201 Smith Ave., Everett

Thursday, March 13
6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Volunteers of America Learning Center
16300 Motor Place, Lynnwood

Community Transit is responsible for providing transportation options for Snohomish County residents, including bus and paratransit service, vanpool and ridesharing options. Call Community Transit at (425) 353-7433 or (800) 562-1375 for bus information, or (888) 814-1300 for carpool or vanpool information, or go to www.communitytransit.org. You can also read our blog at www.communitytransit.blogspot.com, visit our Facebook page or watch our videos on YouTube. Support local businesses and Community Transit when you Buy Local for Transit; read more at www.communitytransit.org/buylocal [link archived].