Bike Month: Success throughout Snohomish County

May was National Bike Month and Snohomish County had a great turn out for the month long activities. Over 1,114 bicyclists from Snohomish County participated in the Commute Challenge during the month of May. In Snohomish County alone, there were an impressive 818 participants in Bike to Work Day commute station celebrations. Thank you for everyone who geared up to join in the Bike Month festivities including our commute station sponsors: Starbucks and Talking Rain! For more information on biking in your community, additional resources are available at Community Transit bikes and Cascade Bicycle Club.

Bike Month Spotlight: Seattle Genetics We are excited to share the success of one of our local employers, Seattle Genetics, who just wrapped up their most successful Bike to Work campaign in 2014. Their Bike Month events at their Bothell worksite include a Bike Month Challenge team that raised funds for a local non-profit agency. Kelly Davis, Employee Transportation Coordinator for Seattle Genetics, shares their impressive story: In May 2014, employees at Seattle Genetics, the largest Washington-based biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing innovative, empowered antibody-based therapies for the treatment of cancer, beat the company’s previous Bike to Work month records by a wide margin. Fifty-four employees biked 6,000 miles in 576 one way trips during the month of May. Participation and miles biked increased 45 percent on average over previous years. In fact, several new participants mentioned how they started biking to work because of Seattle Genetics’ Bike to Work program and several plan to continue to bike to work through the summer. Seattle Genetics boosted 2014 participation through different incentives. The biggest incentive came through the company matching $1 for every mile biked, resulting in $6,000 donated to Gilda's Club Seattle, a non-profit organization providing a support network for those living with cancer - survivors, their loved-ones and friends. Seattle Genetics also provided company branded bike wind vests, onsite bike tune-ups for Bike to Work day participants and gave out $20 gift certificates from a local bike shop to two lucky winners each week. Every year it is a pleasure to see Bike to Work month participation increase at Seattle Genetics, with this year proving just as spectacular.

State Senate Considers Transit Bill

The Washington Senate Transportation Committee yesterday heard testimony on SB 5773 which would authorize a local motor vehicle excise tax (MVET) to support Community Transit service, if approved by voters. The bill was introduced by Sen. Nick Harper of Everett.

Those testifying in favor of the bill included Joe Marine, Mayor of Mukilteo and chair of the Community Transit Board of Directors, Community Transit CEO Joyce Eleanor, and representatives from United Way, Economic Alliance Snohomish County, Workforce Development Council, Boeing Machinists Union (IAM), UW and Transportation Choices Coalition.

The bill allows Community Transit to seek up to one percent MVET on car registrations within the service district, which is most of Snohomish County excluding Everett. CEO Joyce Eleanor says such funding could be used to bring back Sunday and late-night bus service, and that any specific service plan would go through a public process with input from riders.

In opposition to the bill, Michael Ennis of the Association of Washington Businesses said the AWB wanted the MVET funding source to remain part of a statewide transportation package, and not “peeled off” to benefit one agency.

SB 5773 is the first of several proposals that could fund Community Transit service. A companion “local option” bill has been introduced in the House, while a separate statewide “roads and transit” transportation funding package was announced yesterday by House Transportation Committee Chair Judy Clibborn.

New Cabela's Store Could Boost Transit Revenues

The central element of Community Transit's financial woes the past five years has been the reduced level of sales tax revenue in our service district. It's not rocket science -- when the economy sours and people lose their jobs or fear for losing their jobs, they hold onto to their money and put off purchases, especially big-ticket items like homes, cars, boats, etc. The items that people do keep buying, groceries and food, are exempt from sales tax or generate little tax revenue.

So it's good news when a new major retailer opens in the district, as Cabela's will be doing with its Tulalip store on April 19. Quil Ceda Village, with its Seattle Premium Outlet mall, Tulalip Resort Casino and big boxes like Home Depot and Walmart, has been a strong economic force during the recession. The opening of a large store like Cabela's can help stimulate the economic recovery in Snohomish County.

Customers can also get to Cabela's, and other Quil Ceda destinations, on Community Transit. Route 222 goes through Quil Ceda Village and has its northernmost stop between the casino and outlet mall. Riders can connect with Route 222 in Marysville at State & 88th from Routes 201/202, which serve Smokey Point, Everett and Lynnwood, or plan their trips online.

Our Buy Local for Transit campaign encourages residents to keep their shopping dollars in the county. That, in turn, helps the bottom line for Community Transit as well as local cities and businesses.

Local businesses shine at state commute awards

By Tom Pearce, Public Information Specialist

When it comes to commute trip reduction, local companies Amgen and Esterline Control Systems, Korry Electronics are leading the way. They are two Snohomish County businesses that work with Community Transit’s Employer Outreach program, which helps companies throughout the county meet state requirements to reduce the number of single-occupant vehicles on the road.

Their efforts also helped each earn a Governor’s Smart Commute Award last week. Amgen was honored with the Employer Leadership Award for Voluntary Employers while Esterline Korry received the Employer Champion Award for Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) Affected Employers in Snohomish County.

This year marks the 20^th anniversary of the Commute Trip Reduction law, which requires Washington businesses with 100 or more employees to develop programs that encourage their staff to use alternatives to driving alone for their commute. Worksites with fewer than 100 employees can participate in the program voluntarily.

Amgen and Esterline Korry are shining examples of success. Both offer ORCA pass programs that allow their employees unlimited access to buses, trains and vanpools in the Puget Sound region. The also have internal programs to support CTR goals and provide a guaranteed ride home program so employees who choose to use a commute alternative don’t get stranded without a ride home in case of an emergency.

Amgen’s Bothell Campus remains part of the state’s commute trip reduction program even though the company transferred employees to other sites so the Bothell campus has fewer than 100 employees. In addition to the other benefits, Amgen offers a subsidy to employees that walk, bike or carpool to work on a regular basis.

Its transportation program helped Esterline Korry retain almost its entire workforce when it moved from Seattle to Mukilteo two years ago. Thanks to quality transportation benefits, 51 percent of the company’s Mukilteo employees use an alternative to driving alone.

Amgen and Esterline Korry offer two examples of how CTR programs can help businesses attract and retain experienced, well-trained employees. If you or your company is interested in providing an employee transportation program, Community Transit’s Employer Outreach is ready to help.

Sales Tax Revenues Not Recovering

Once upon a time, the economy of Snohomish County was growing along with our population and employment. Sales tax looked like a stable and growing source of revenue. That was a good thing for Community Transit, since sales tax has historically made up 60-70 percent of our budget.

In 2006 we began working on our six-year Transit Development Plan for 2008-2013, and we had all sorts of hopes for the future of public transportation in Snohomish County. Our financial forecasts anticipated a slight slow-down in sales tax growth by the end of the plan, but an average growth of 6.9 percent a year seemed reasonable in Washington’s economy at the time.

Then, along came the Great Recession. Our Transit Development Plan had estimated sales tax collections of $103 million in 2011. We’re now hoping for $62.7 million in sales tax revenue this year, 18 percent less than we collected in 2007 and 40 percent less than we expected to collect before the recession hit.

The recession is supposed to be over now, and revenues are up 2 percent compared to 2010. However, about 2/3 of the increased sales tax is the result of a tax amnesty program by the state Department of Revenue. Adjusting for one-time effects, sales tax revenue is less than 1 percent higher than in 2010.

A report from the Department of Revenue last month indicated taxable retail sales overall in Snohomish County were down by 1.7 percent in the first quarter of 2011 – worst in the state.

While it looks like sales tax collections will be sufficient to balance our budget this year, our future is still uncertain. Major service cuts in 2012 are part of our long term sustainability plan. Earlier this year we had assumed a more favorable economic recovery and projected an average sales tax growth of 4 percent for the next 6 years. The fact that the economy is recovering so slowly could mean the need for more cost cutting in 2012, including the possibility of additional service cuts in the future.

Double Tall Ads Debut

The first Double Tall bus with advertising made its debut in service this week. AAA of Washington bought the ad that occupies the upper half of the double decker bus.

Community Transit made a decision last year to allow advertising on its Double Tall and Swift buses in an effort to raise more revenue. Transit advertising, like other advertising, has taken a nosedive during the recession. Fewer companies are advertising and they are advertising less than before, causing prices to fall for available advertising space.

Titan, our transit advertising vendor, was eager to make available advertising space on our Swift and Double Tall buses.

Swift buses have a unique look and paint scheme that draws attention to those buses, plus they travel frequently up and down the dense Highway 99 corridor for 20 hours a day. That’s a lot of moving billboard time to a high residential, business and auto-driven population.

The Double Talls are another bus type that draw attention because of their look and size. The ad placement on the upper half of the bus is visible above traffic, a desirable commodity. Plus these buses run through downtown Seattle as well as up and down I-5 during morning and evening rush hours, catching the eyes of stuck motorists.

Some of these same factors help Community Transit. People see these buses and want to ride them because they look different, and the characteristics of their service are different. To help keep brand integrity, Community Transit is not allowing advertising on all its Swift or Double Tall buses. At least not yet. We allow advertising on 10 of our 15 Swift buses and 18 of our 23 Double Tall buses.

So far, there have been five ads sold for the Double Talls. You will see the other ad-equipped buses coming out soon. As part of the Buy Local for Transit promotion, Titan is offering a buy one, get one deal on Community Transit bus ad space. Just in case you’re considering…

By the way, speaking of Double Talls, the heating/air conditioning problem we were experiencing on these buses has been fixed. Because the separate HVAC systems on each floor of the buses were not working together, customers were complaining about it being either too hot or too cold on the buses, depending on where they were sitting. We stopped putting new buses on the road until the problem was fixed. The fix came last weekend and this week another three Double Talls have been put into service, bringing to total 18 on the road. The last five of these replacement buses should be out soon.

Commute Alternatives Help Business Move

Note: Korry Electronics was named Employer of the Year at the Community Transit Smart Commuter Awards earlier this month. Below is a portion of the remarks presented at the event by Korry Director of Human Resources Victoria Lindsey.

By Victoria Lindsey
Esterline Control Systems, Korry Electronics

A bit of background - Korry had been Seattle-based employer since it was first established in 1937. We were at our South Lake Union address for 25 years. That was our home, our neighborhood. So moving was – like it would be for many companies – an emotional, traumatic occasion for many employees.

About three years ago, it became inevitable that we had to move locations. The decision to move to the Paine Field area near Mukilteo really raised an outcry. We had employees from all over Puget Sound , and moving 20 miles away was going to really disrupt lifestyles. So we were faced with a real challenge to persuade and motivate employees to come with us!

A committee was formed to survey employees, meet in small groups, and really dive into people’s fears and concerns. The top concern was, “How am I going to get there (new location) and how long will it take?”

Buy Local for Transit Kickoff

This morning at the Alderwood Mall, Community Transit CEO Joyce Eleanor was joined by Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon and business owners to kickoff the Buy Local for Transit program.

Flanked by the Santa display in the back and Made in Washington store on the side, it was a great beginning to what will hopefully be a long-term effort to convince our riders and all county residents to keep their shopping dollars local. That alone can help our local economy, and help Community Transit.

Reardon made the point that this decade Snohomish County has been one of the fastest growing local economies in the nation. We have attracted new industries, and our housing market remains higher than the national average. It will be great if residents now respond to this call to action with their wallets!

To answer a question from the last post on this issue, in 2007 Community Transit collected about $76.5 million from sales taxes; in 2010 we're on track to collect about $62 million. Our forecast for 2011 is not much better as we expect to bring in just under $63 million.

Will Buy Local for Transit make a difference? We can't predict that, but we're hopeful. And if we didn't try we would not be doing the best for our customers.

Buy Local for Transit

On Thursday, Community Transit will kick off its Buy Local for Transit program to educate riders and the public about how the local economy impacts transit funding, and to involve them in turning things around.

A news conference will take place at 10 a.m. at Alderwood Mall to announce the program. Community Transit CEO Joyce Eleanor will be joined by Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon and local business owners to tout the benefits of the program. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

The concept is simple. Encouraging transit users and everyone else to do their shopping in Community Transit’s service district can bring more money to the agency. Community Transit’s primary source of funding is a 0.9 percent share of sales tax generated in the communities it serves (9 cents on a $10 purchase). It was the decline in sales tax revenue during the recession that led to the agency's service cut this past June.

Local businesses also benefit as this program drives more customers into their stores. Cities and the county will benefit from the increased taxes and activity this business creates in their jurisdictions.

Community Transit’s service district includes 19 cities and towns as well as much of unincorporated Snohomish County. Notably, it does not include Everett, which has its own transit agency.

While shopping at any store or restaurant in the service district will help Community Transit, a number of businesses will partner with the agency by offering special discounts to Buy Local for Transit customers. A list of those businesses and their offers will be available online. To get the discount, shoppers will need to show either an ORCA regional fare card or an “I Buy Local for Transit” card that can be downloaded at www.communitytransit.org/BuyLocal.

At the news conference on Thursday, 100 I Buy Local for Transit cards will be handed out. The more people who get these cards, the more likely they will be to seek out BLT discounts and shop locally.

Also, Buy Local for Transit offers one of the first non-transit benefits for ORCA card users. Just show your ORCA card at a participating business and you can get a discount that others can’t. If you ride transit and don’t yet have an ORCA card (which saves you money on transfers), here’s one more reason to get your card now!

If you know of a business that would be interested in participating, refer them to www.communitytransit.org/BuyLocal to sign up.

Riders Talk About Transit’s Benefits

By Karen Will Johnson,

Community Transit Creative Manager

She looked me straight in the eye and said, “If Community Transit doesn’t go there, then neither do I.”

I couldn’t have scripted it any better.

Her simple statement may have been my first unsolicited storytelling testimonial.  It was Thursday,

July 31, 2007 at a ribbon-cutting event for The Double Tall, our double decker bus. She was wearing a festive sunhat and white gloves. The elegant senior who never learned to drive and has used public transit for her entire life expressed in her own words what Community Transit meant to her.  She was sharing her story.

Storytelling is society’s way of communicating between people. The histories, the hopes, the personal details. We know that people’s lives are affected by what we do, and we’ve asked them to share their stories, in their own words. Unscripted. Unrehearsed. Unaltered.

Storytelling testimonial videos are now an ongoing project at Community Transit. We find storytellers at outreach events, transit centers and at our own children’s birthday parties. They are your co-workers and your neighbors. They wear festive sunhats and white gloves. They have a connection to Community Transit in common, but their stories are as varied and compelling as they are.

And in the process, we’re discovering not only our riders’ stories, but those of business and community leaders whose companies and organizations are enhanced by the services Community Transit provides.

You can hear their stories too. Visit our Storytelling Testimonial page on our website at www.communitytransit.org/storytelling

On a larger scale, the American Public Transit Association  has just launched their own initiative, Telling Our Story/The Wall, which captures video testimonials from hundreds of people across the country who benefit from public transit. Watching those videos reminded me how grateful I am to work for an industry that performs the important job of connecting people and building communities. 

I imagine there are compelling stories out there just waiting to be shared. If you or someone you know uses Community Transit local or commuter service and would like to tell your story on camera, we’d like to hear from you. Email storytelling@commtrans.org and tell us how Community Transit helps you connect with work, friends and family. Do you ride public transit for the cost savings or for environmental reasons?  Do you benefit from more personal time or the pleasure of a relaxing commute?

Let us hear from you. Because telling your story is the best way to tell our own.

Transit is Popular at Seattle Premium Outlets

Even though I live just across I-5 from the Seattle Premium Outlets, I’m not much of a shopper so I don’t go there very much. However, we did make a foray across the freeway on Labor Day afternoon.

Wow! The parking lot was so full, cars were parked in the aisles and it felt like Christmas-time, driving slowly to follow people with bags who might be pulling out of a real parking spot soon.

I started to understand why the Seattle Premium Outlets website does such a good job promoting public transportation, and why their link to the Community Transit site is so popular - we got 521 hits from them last month - the most of any non-transit website. I’m sure most of the web traffic is from out of town visitors trying to get around without a car. But I see now that smart locals might also leave their cars at home.

In June I met a woman from Hong Kong heading to the outlets from Seattle. Although it takes three buses to get to Tulalip from Seattle, she was happy enough with the service. She just wished she’d bought an ORCA card before she started her trip (the free transfers would have saved her $7 on the roundtrip, which more than covers the $5 fee to buy the card).

I wish every business and destination did as good a job promoting transit options as Seattle Premium Outlets. Let the places you go know that their online “directions” should do more than tell people how to drive and park there.

Transit Advertising Helps with Bottom Line

Community Transit’s Swift bus rapid transit vehicles are intentionally different from the rest of our fleet. They are longer than most buses (62 vs. 60 feet), quieter because they are hybrid electric and they have a unique graphic design.

That carefully-crafted look changed a little this month with the advent of advertising on Swift. We kept Swift vehicles free of ads for the first six months to help people recognize our new service. That moratorium is over, and 10 of 15 Swift buses are available for advertising, both outside and in. So far, Titan Outdoor has placed ads on four Swift buses.

Titan just won Community Transit’s bus ad contract this spring.  They are excited about reaching new markets in Snohomish County, and we are hopeful of increasing the revenue we get to help support our service. Ads on Swift buses will be very targeted, for instance, since Swift travels the Highway 99 corridor from 5 a.m. to midnight six days a week. With more than 75,000 residents and 30,000 jobs with 1/4 mile of Highway 99, that’s a good place to be.

Our Double Tall buses, expected to hit the streets this fall, will also become rolling billboards. They provide extra value to advertisers because they provide an especially large canvas, so to speak, and those images will roll through Seattle and up and down I-5 easily seen above traffic.

Bus advertising done right can be very striking and memorable. I especially like ads designed specifically for their application on transit vehicles – like the one that showed a smoker’s mouth positioned around the bus tailpipe. A more pleasant image was the “Lifesaver bus” on articulated coaches. Someone on Facebook recently recalled Community Transit’s blue Orca Run bus that served Tulalip as part of a Route 222 promotion in 2003. Those community-themed bus wraps wore out years ago, but they were fun while they lasted.

Bottom line – we’re hoping transit advertising can make a difference in our bottom line, as it does for other agencies. With these new additions to our fleet on top of existing ad opportunities, our contract with Titan could provide us with an estimated $2.4 million in revenue over the next three years.

Curb the Congestion wins Governor’s Award

OLYMPIA— Did you know that there are 28,000 fewer vehicles on the road every weekday thanks to employers and communities across the state who support commute trip reduction programs? That’s enough vehicles to stretch single file, bumper to bumper, from Olympia to Everett.

Governor Chris Gregoire recognized the efforts of these employers and communities this week by announcing the winners of the 2010 Governor’s Commute Smart Awards at a ceremony hosted at the Governor’s Mansion in Olympia on April 13.
Local employers Tetra Tech of Bothell and The Everett Clinic were honored, as well as employee transportation coordinators Sabrina Combs of the City of Bothell and KC McNeil of Romac Industries of Bothell.
Community Transit’s Curb the Congestion partnership with Snohomish County earned recognition as a “Commute Smart Community Champion.”

The Curb the Congestion program was designed to reduce traffic congestion on three specific corridors in Snohomish County by promoting alternatives to driving. The concept started with 164th Street. Snohomish County completed a major road improvement project there in 2004, but despite widening the road from five to seven lanes and installing bike lanes and sidewalks, by July 2005 the road was again failing adopted congestion standards.

Snohomish County determined that widening the road further was not feasible, and redirected its efforts from infrastructure improvements to establishing and implementing a program to change transportation behavior. Community Transit was brought in as a partner in late 2007 to create and manage the program. Two other corridors, 128th Street in south Everett and 20th Street in Lake Stevens, have been added to the joint effort, named “Curb the Congestion.”

Service to Boeing Important to the Region

By Kristin Kinnamon, Community Transit

The Community Transit Board of Directors approved the final pieces of a painful service reduction plan at its April 1 meeting. A financial report earlier in the meeting underlined the reason for the cuts. Sales tax collections for the first quarter of 2010 are 21 percent lower than they were in 2007, before the recession began.

Part of the plan to save $11 million a year involves shortening Community Transit’s operating day to reduce costs. That has a particular impact on bus service to the Everett’s Boeing plant, the county’s largest employer, no matter the state of the economy or its own boom and bust cycle. Boeing has 27,000 workers in Everett. Neither roads nor factory could accommodate all those people at once, so Boeing has three shifts with staggered start times throughout the day.

Boeing also has a strong transportation incentive program that encourages carpools, vanpool and transit use.

Community Transit buses to Boeing currently leave the bus yard at 3 a.m. to get to Gold Bar and Stanwood to bring workers in for the 5:30 a.m. shift. The board accepted the original staff recommendation to stop serving that early shift, but modified the staff proposal by having buses go out at 4 .m.l rather than 4:30 a.m. This will get riders to work for the 6 a.m. shift, the largest of the morning.

Workers on the earlier shift are encouraged to consider finding fellow bus riders to form a vanpool. Community Transit has 80 current vanpools serving the Everett’s Boeing plant. Vans also come from Island, Skagit, Kitsap, King and Whatcom counties.

Stanwood Mayor Dianne White, who joined the Community Transit board just weeks before the first vote on the service changes, said cutting Boeing service to Stanwood all together was not acceptable. “That’s 200 cars a day on I-5, five days a week,” she said.

The four roundtrips on Route 247 from Stanwood to Boeing averaged 240 boardings a day - roughly 120 people - in 2009.

Board member and Sultan Councilman Steve Slawson fought to retain Boeing service to Gold Bar on Route 277. Slawson is a Community Transit rider himself and argued that the early-morning service is extremely important to the handful of riders who take it, not just to get to Boeing but also to connections with Route 424 to Seattle.

With the operating day starting at 4 a.m. , the first Route 277 trip can get as far as Monroe to serve the 6 a.m. shift start. A second trip on Route 277 will extend to Gold Bar.

“This sends a political message to Boeing - we want you here,” White said after the revised plans were adopted unanimously.

More than just buses; a look at CTR

Many people think of Community Transit as a bus company, but our role in giving the people of Snohomish County transportation options extends far beyond buses.

We work with some of the largest employers in the region to help reduce congestion on our roadways. Each year we honor the businesses and the people who make Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) effective in Snohomish County and Bothell. There are 74 businesses in our jurisdiction with more than 100 employees, representing about 26,000 people. Our shared task, according to state CTR law, is to reduce the number of people who drive alone to the worksite, and to reduce the total number of miles traveled by employees .

Most businesses use the carrot approach: preferred parking for carpools, vanpool and bus pass subsidies, support for Bike to Work and other fun events like the state’s current Wheel Options campaign –share the ride and win!

It’s surprising how just a little support for changing our habits and saving money can make a big difference. According to the state Department of Transportation (WSDOT): “At worksites that have participated in the CTR Program since 1993, the drive-alone rate dropped from 70.9 percent in 1993 to 65.5 percent in 2007. This is a larger drop than for the state as a whole and is also larger than the drop at other worksites in the same areas that have the same access to commute options.”

Cypress Semiconductor in unincorporated Lynnwood was honored as Community Transit’s Employer of the Year for 2009. The company considered ending its free bus pass program, but instead decided to try the new ORCA pass at a bulk rate. Now 10 percent fewer people drive alone to the business park off 164th Street. The ORCA card makes it easier for Cypress to pay for actual transit use while making bus passes available for all employees.

CTR programs don’t just benefit bigger businesses and the employees who participate. WSDOT says: “In the central Puget Sound, the CTR program plays an especially important role. Many of the trips reduced by participants in the CTR program would otherwise have passed through the region's major traffic chokepoints during peak travel periods. The absence of 19,200 vehicle trips every morning reduced peak travel delay by an estimated 18 percent on average mornings in the region.”

Read between the lines. This shows that alternative transportation helps those people who still drive! And it saves dollars! The program saved $35 in wasted time and resources for every $1 the state invested in 2009. For more proof of the value of CTR, see the 2007 state performance audit of the Department of Transportation that calls for more state investment in Commute Trip Reduction.

What do you think the state DOT’s priorities should be in this tight economy?
Building major road projects that create jobs?

Investing in efficient use of our existing infrastructure through programs like CTR and transit?

Keeping the roads and bridges well-maintained and safe?