Community Transit ridership increased 19% in 2022

Community Transit has released its end-of-the-year ridership numbers for 2022 and the data shows a positive trend in total system boardings. 

The transit agency reported a total of 5.8M boardings in 2022, a significant increase over 4.9M boardings in 2021. Fixed-route bus service experienced a 19% increase. Breaking it down further, average weekday boardings increased by 20%, average Saturday boardings increased 14%, and average Sunday boardings increased 15% .


Swift Bus Rapid Transit
One of the significant contributing factors to the increase in boardings was Swift Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which accounted for almost 36% of total fixed-route boardings. The Swift Blue and Green lines together showed an average increase of 14% on weekdays, 11% on Saturdays, and 10% on Sundays. In comparison to the previous year, Swift BRT service had an increase of 240k total boardings.


DART Paratransit
The DART paratransit service performed well in 2022, with a 24% increase in total boardings. DART ridership was up 23% in average weekday boardings, 22% on Saturdays, and 34% on Sundays. 


Vanpool 
Vanpool total boardings went up 22% in ’22, almost 51k more boardings than the previous year. As of now there is 252 Vanpool vehicles on the road versus 219 at the end of 2021.


Zip
Zip Alderwood Shuttle started service in October 2022 and ridership numbers were not included in this report.


Many factors have contributed to the increase in transit ridership, including the loosening of COVID-19 policies and attitudes, which allowed people to return to office work and other activities. The introduction of the free youth transit pass in September 2022 also had a positive impact on the boardings.