The Curious Case of Dump the Pump 2012

June 21 is National Dump the Pump Day, a rallying cry for transit agencies and advocates to use high gas prices as a way to get non-transit riders to consider taking the bus, train, ferry, etc.

The American Public Transportation Association conceived this day seven years ago and the catchy title, supported by grassroots activities across the country has helped to garner media attention every year. It is a great hook, especially since gas prices tend to rise at the beginning of summer.

Dump the Pump 2012 has presented some interesting concerns. While gas prices spiked earlier this spring, they have really gone down over the past 6-8 weeks. Even in the Northwest, where refinery problems kept the price of gas well above the national average, the last 1-2 weeks has seen a dramatic drop.

The region's transit agencies - those that participate in ORCA plus Intercity Transit in Olympia - rewrote our joint news release several times because of those dropping gas prices. There are some regional calculations in that release, and each time we revised the "current" price of a gallon of gas, those calculations had to be redone.

For Community Transit, our biggest concern over promoting Dump the Pump Day was that our commuter routes are pretty full. Since our latest round of service cuts in February, there are not a lot of empty seats on our peak-hour buses. We didn't want to make a loud call to non-transit users to try transit for this one day only to have them stand the entire ride and not want to come back. Nor did we want to create an even more crowded commute for our loyal riders who have stood with us in these trying times. (The image above is from Dump the Pump 2009.)

So, Community Transit is using Dump the Pump Day to get people to think of their favorite "Summer Destinations" that they can get to on transit. We have a Destinations page on our website with information about bus service to some of the more popular places to go in Snohomish County. We also want to know where frequent or infrequent riders get to on our buses.

Chances are your favorite destination is not work, so we don't think this promotes more riders for those peak-hour trips. But even during our busiest times, not all buses are packed.

Where do you like to take the bus during the summer? What are some trips you didn't think were possible, but have found you can make on our buses?

Electric Vehicles Can Charge Up at Mountlake Terrace Transit Center

Last Saturday, May 5, Community Transit and the City of Mountlake Terrace held an event at the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center to unveil 10 new electric vehicle charging stations. The charging stations were installed by the city thanks to a federal stimulus grant to help complete a goal of creating a network of charging stations along the I-5 corridor. U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen was there to help commemorate the event.

The 10 stations can charge up to 20 electric vehicles at a time. The city charges a fee for the electricity, now 85 cents an hour. At the event, several electric cars were there to get charged up, including a red Tesla roadster electric sports car.

The event was also used to announce that the transit center has received a Green Globes “One Globes” certification by the Green Building Initiative (GBI). This is similar to LEED certification for buildings. It means the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center was built with sustainable principles that create a low impact on the environment, reduce energy consumption and reduce overall maintenance costs.

The transit center was built with concrete using recycled materials, includes a daylighted stream as part of its stormwater runoff filtration system, has 30 solar panels that feed into the regional power grid and uses low-energy lighting in the parking garage.

The transit center earned a One Globes certification out of a possible four globes. The Mountlake Terrace Transit Center is believed to be one of the first non-occupied buildings in the world to be recognized for sustainable construction.

ORCA Reaches Operational Milestone

The multi-party agreement that created the ORCA smart card project was signed in 2003. Community Transit was the first agency to sign on and has been a regional leader in transitioning riders to the ORCA card. Currently, more than 70 percent of all Community Transit bus riders use the ORCA card; the percentage is even higher on commuter service to UW and downtown Seattle.

Although the ORCA system went live more than two years ago, the project just received Full System Acceptance (FSA) last week. That milestone means that ORCA is no longer a “project” for the partner agencies, but is simply the basic fare system.

Nothing changes for the public or our employees with FSA, but it begins a new phase for ORCA. Vix, the company formerly known as ERG which manages the system, begins a contract to operate the system for the next 10 years. All new changes to the system will be charged (up until now changes that made the system work correctly were considered part of the project contract). Most importantly, additions to the system can be made, whether it be new agencies coming on board, new products offered or new functionality for the ORCA cards.

The Joint Board, which is made up of CEOs and general managers from the seven partner agencies, will take time in considering what changes to make to ORCA. The system still has some operational kinks, but the program is a big success. Of the nearly 500,000 people who ride transit daily in the Puget Sound Region, about 300,000 of them use ORCA cards to pay their fare. A big percentage of those are workers and students whose employer or school provides an ORCA card. The number of business institutions has gone up since ORCA replaced the PugetPass system.

Tell us what your experience with ORCA has been, good, bad or in between.

National Recognition for Curb the Congestion

By Tom Pearce, Public Information Specialist

The Curb the Congestion program has taken thousands of trips off busy streets in Snohomish County. Now it has been recognized with a national award. The Association for Commuter Transportation (ACT) presented a second-place Marketing and Outreach: Partnership Award to Community Transit and Snohomish County for their innovative and highly successful Curb the Congestion program.

Curb the Congestion is a community-based approach to reducing traffic congestion on three specific corridors in Snohomish County – 164th Street between Lynnwood and Mill Creek, 128th Street between Everett and Mill Creek, and 20th Street SE between Everett and Lake Stevens. Through financial incentives and a lot of legwork, people who live, work and/or travel on those roads every day are making pledges to change their commuting habits.

The national honor recognized the success of the 2010 Curb the Congestion program. Through the end of last year, 361 people were signed up and participating in the program, removing an estimated 18,000 drive-alone car trips from these three crowded corridors. A follow-up survey reported that 90 percent of those who signed up for the initial three-month incentive vowed to continue to use an alternate commute method.

The program’s strategy has evolved in each of its three years. For 2011, Curb the Congestion offers a $50 monthly incentive to help participants pay for alternative transportation for the first three months they get out of their single-occupant vehicles and take the bus, bike, walk, carpool or vanpool instead. After three months, those who stay with the program are eligible to win a $150 monthly random drawing.

The program started when Snohomish County decided it could not afford to build more infrastructure on 164th Street to handle traffic. The county turned to Community Transit for a solution. The county funds the program through development mitigation feeds and federal grants, and Community Transit does the legwork, like holding community fairs, promoting the program to apartment complexes and businesses and administering the program’s incentives. The county’s original goal was to take 100 trips off the road each day.

UW Husky Cards Get Smart

The region hit another ORCA milestone this week – converting University of Washington U-PASS users to ORCA. Actually, we’re starting small by first enabling ORCA for the staff and faculty U-PASS this summer.

Both students and staff have received new Husky Cards with smart card technology inside and an ORCA logo outside. But we’re not loading the cards with passes all at once.

There are about 60,000 potential U-PASS users on campus each day (staff, faculty and students), the single biggest ORCA account in the region. Last quarter, 64 percent of UW Seattle students purchased a U-PASS. Community Transit has a number of bus routes dedicated to serving campus, for good reason. Last month we had 60,000 boardings on our University routes.

Edmonds Community College began offering an ORCA-powered EdPass this spring. We don't have complete data since the quarter just ended, but it appears the simple, new way of purchasing and using a bus pass has been a success. More than 2,500 students purchased their first ORCA-powered EdPass this spring - and will save $10 if they load it with a bus pass again next quarter. The new EdPass bumped Community Transit’s percentage of boardings using ORCA cards to almost 65 percent last month, well above the first quarter regional average of 51 percent ORCA boardings.

A final bit of good news for ORCA aficionados – in case you hadn’t noticed, the ORCA website got some significant usability improvements earlier this month. Upgrades will continue to be made quarterly. And, of course, there are now many more places to reload your ORCA card throughout the region.

Bus Supervisors Know Routes, Roads and Hills

Dana Osborn knows every road, every hill, every bus stop in Snohomish County.

You think I am exaggerating.

Dana has worked for Community Transit for 19 years. In his current job as transportation supervisor in charge of construction, he devises the reroutes and rider alerts needed when buses must avoid road work or special events.

When snow falls, a whole team of people come up with the reroutes needed to keep the buses moving. But it is Dana who recently wrote down the entire list of all the regular reroutes used during snow to avoid the known hills and hazards of Snohomish County. Hopefully we won't be needing that list for awhile.

Edmonds Students Join the ORCA Tap Dance

Edmonds Community College has partnered with Community Transit to provide bus pass benefits to students for more than 15 years.

The student government pays Community Transit based on EdPass usage, and the percentage of students getting the transit sticker hit all-time highs in the 2009-2010 academic year – an average of 71% of full-time equivalent students. To keep from breaking the bank and to share the costs a bit, a quarterly fee of $15 per pass was imposed last fall for the first time (the value of the unlimited pass is at least 10 times that). Despite the small cost, 2,828 Edmonds students purchased an EdPass bus sticker last fall.

The popular program takes another new twist this quarter. The EdPass bus benefit is now powered by ORCA.

Mountlake Terrace Freeway Station

The Washington State Department of Transportation is a partner in this Sound Transit construction project - sited in the middle of I-5. So they have a very nice slideshow which illustrates the progress so far. My favorite photo shows the elevator shaft. While most of the other work at the Mountlake Terrace Freeway Station is wrapping up, the elevator may be one of the last items to get a green light.

It's all scheduled to open for buses and business on March 20. The freeway station is connected to Community Transit's Mountlake Terrace Transit Center, and the new service stopping there will more than triple the number of buses operating between Mountlake Terrace and Seattle.

Do the Math and Curb the Congestion

By Debbie Anderson, Curb the Congestion Specialist


Looking at facts, figures and strategies is what Matthew Cail does every day in his job as an analyst. But he didn’t need any of that expertise to figure out the most cost-effective way to get from his home in Lynnwood to Downtown Seattle – it was easy!


Matthew rides Route 413 or 415 almost every day, taking the bus instead of driving his car on 164th Street. “Transit was a major factor in where I bought a house. I intentionally bought on a bus line,” he says. In the last quarter of 2010, Matthew logged more than 260 bus trips totaling more than 5,700 miles and saving him hundreds of dollars in gas alone.


Matthew’s trips are among the thousands removed from Snohomish County roads last year thanks to Curb the Congestion, a program funded by Snohomish County through grants and development feed and operated by Community Transit. “Curb” targets crowded roads in unincorporated Snohomish County with the goal of convincing people to choose alternatives to driving alone.

Curb the Congestion started in 2008 after Snohomish County declared 164th Street SW at “ultimate capacity,” creating a program to invest in transportation demand management and safety improvements rather than halt development or try to widen already built-out roads. In 2009, the county added 128th Street and 20th Street SE to the Curb the Congestion program.

As much as 25 % of Snohomish County’s population lives within the “traffic-shed” of these roads, living in almost 70,000 homes and apartments. Curb the Congestion offers each household personal assistance in finding carpools, planning bus trips and considering other alternatives to driving alone.

Lake Stevens participant Jennifer Dawson makes smarter trips on both 164th Street and 20th Street. In 2009, Jennifer started carpooling with a coworker who lives near Marysville. During the summer, they meet at the Lake Stevens Transit Center and share a ride to Bayer Healthcare in Lynnwood. During the school year, they meet at Everett Station. Jennifer often rides the bus home to Lake Stevens.

“Bus schedules can be confusing sometimes,” she says. “The Curb the Congestion personal assistant helps.”

There’s also an online calendar where participants commit to change and log their trips. It all adds up to behavior changes that make a difference in individual lives as well as on the roads of Snohomish County.

“Sitting in traffic is stressful. Sitting on the bus or chatting in the car with a friend on the way home is easier,” Jennifer says.


If you travel on one of the targeted roads, contact the Curb the Congestion Specialist about your commute options: (425) 438-6136 or curbit@commtrans.org.

It’s Good to Have Backup

Winter rains often bring mudslides down on Washington’s waterfront railroad tracks. Sound Transit’s Northline Sounder train service has been canceled several days in the past month due to slides between Everett and Seattle. For safety reasons, passenger service is not allowed through an area of mudslides for 48 hours, even if the tracks can be cleared before then.

When Northline Sounder service is canceled, Community Transit buses to Seattle help take up the slack. Last week we put 60-foot buses on trips from Edmonds and Mukilteo that usually have 40-footers – and some trips carried 75% more passengers than usual. I heard from a fellow passenger that local buses to Everett Station have also been more crowded when Sounder is canceled - Sound Transit buses from Everett are an obvious backup for train refugees.

Conversely, Sound Transit train service can be a good backup to bus service on I-5. When trains run, they usually don’t get stuck in traffic (not always – sometimes those pesky freight trains get priority). Trains also don’t get stuck in snow.

That’s why I got down to Everett Station the snowy Tuesday before Thanksgiving for my trip home for the holidays. I took Sounder to get to Link Light Rail and SeaTac Airport rather than my usual bus. I guessed correctly that I-5 would be a mess. The train was delayed about 20 minutes to “de-ice,” but it was far more reliable than road transportation that day.

The moral of the story is, our region benefits greatly from a robust transportation network. If one mode fails, we have backup.

The Future of Swift

By June DeVoll
Community Transit Swift Project Manager

One of the benefits of bus rapid transit is the ability to incrementally add to the service to improve it. While Swift is already performing extremely well, there are additional upgrades underway to help ensure speed and reliability.

Additional Everett Stations
In the original partnership agreement between Community Transit and Everett Transit, Everett Transit agreed to fund the construction of all stations within city limits. In 2008, four of the originally identified stations were deferred to a later date to manage the overall project cost for Everett Transit. Everett Transit was subsequently successful in obtaining a State Regional Mobility Grant to build the remaining stations.

The four stations are now underway at Madison (northbound) Pecks (southbound) and 112th Street. Two of the stations are substantially complete, but still need all electronic equipment activated and commissioned. Current projections will have all four stations opened within the first quarter of 2011.

Traffic Signal Priority
Currently, traffic signal priority (TSP) exists on the southern 10.5 miles of the 16.7 mile route. The City of Everett is continuing with their project to install TSP at all intersections within the city limits, but progress has been slow. The city controllers are over 30 years old and are incapable of prioritizing the signal. When activated in the current configuration, the Swift emitters allow signal pre-emption and hold the lights green for Swift coaches (more like the immediate priority given to emergency vehicles than the slightly extended green lights intended for transit).

The city has had many changes on this project, but the current timeline includes possible installation of new equipment by summer 2011. The additional TSP will give Swift coaches priority through the entire corridor and help reduce travel time even more.

Queue Jump at 148th Street
The Swift corridor includes 6.5 miles of "Business Access and Transit" lanes in the southern portion of the route on Highway 99, which give the coaches a priority in the curb lane. However, where the lane ends at 148th Avenue, the coaches must proceed north through the intersection and then merge into the general purpose traffic. Often, coaches get trapped waiting for a safe gap. A “queue jump” signal would give Swift a green light before the general purpose lanes, allowing buses to merge safely. A federal grant was obtained this summer and discussions are underway with the Washington State Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction on the traffic signal. It is estimated the queue jump could be in place by summer 2011.

Advanced Technology
When Community Transit's Advanced Public Transportation Systems (APTS) project comes to fruition, it will have many beneficial impacts on Swift.

With the Automatic Vehicle Locators (AVL), dispatchers will have a real time display of coaches to help manage the “headway performance,” keeping buses consistently 10 minutes apart on weekdays.

With the Automatic Passenger Counters (APC), accurate and reliable passenger counts will be available at all times. APC’s will give robust passenger data about where and when customers board Swift, usage by trip and by time of day, and deboarding locations also.

The Automatic Annunciation System will perhaps be one of the first items that passengers notice. The coaches will automatically announce all stops as they approach the station. Coach operators do this manually now, but the sound quality is not as good as we’d like because buses were design for the automated system.

The Real Time Passenger Information signs will be installed at each station and will show customers precisely when the next coach will arrive – thus reducing stress and worry about catching a bus.

Swift by the Numbers

6.3% of Swift passengers bring a bike on board, more than five times higher than our system average of 1.1% bike boardings. The Swift racks hold 50% more bikes than average, too (three bikes vs. two).

9-12% of Swift passengers are students at Edmonds Community College using their EdPass transit benefit.

12 seconds is how long buses spend at each station for passengers to board and deboard.

15 hybrid diesel vehicles are used to operate Swift.

20% less time than local buses to travel the 17 miles from Everett to Shoreline - about 50 minutes.

43 seats per bus – less than usual to leave room for three doors, wider aisles, interior bike racks and easier wheelchair boarding.

44% of Swift riders use an ORCA card for faster boarding and transfer credit.

62-feet long articulated buses, the longest in our fleet

90% of Swift operating costs for its first three years are paid for by grants, fares and our partnership with Everett Transit.

200 or more boardings an hour from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.. on weekdays. That’s a long peak period.

Community Transit CAN Support Food Banks

Staff from Volunteers of America and the Everett Food Bank stopped by the Community Transit board meeting last week to thank Community Transit employees for their commitment to helping others in hard times.

Every year Community Transit has an internal food drive in the summer time, when county food bank shelves are running low. This year’s drive raised the equivalent of 29,764.42 pounds of food – double what Volunteers of America had hoped for and more than last year’s drive at Community Transit.

Learn more about the Everett Food Bank and Volunteers of America services here.

Take Transit to the Fair

Community Transit has provided special service to the Evergreen State Fair for more than a decade. While our budget challenges mean we won’t be adding extra trips at night as we have in the past (and don’t run on Sunday or Labor Day) transit is still a good option for sitting out Highway 2 fair traffic and getting to the fair without a car.

Routes 270, 271 and 275 provide service between Everett and Monroe every 30 to 60 minutes and we have a stop near the fairgrounds year-round. During the Evergreen State Fair , traffic on Highway 2 is so bad that buses are rerouted – right by the fair entrance.

The bus is a great option for 4-H kids whose moms don’t want to drive to Monroe every day, for fair employees, for seniors and for people who don’t have a car or can’t drive. In past years we’ve carried hundreds of extra people a day on our Monroe routes during the fair.

Saturdays are the worst day for parking and traffic at the fair – and a good day to take the family for a bus ride.

Community Transit’ regular bus routes get visitors to many other events as well. We’re working with the Mukilteo Lighthouse Festival this year to promote Route 113 service to that event, with free ride tickets supported by Providence Physician Group Harbour Point.
Taking transit to a community event can be a great way to launch a family outing. I can guarantee you the bus fare will be cheaper than the fair food. An ORCA card will save you money if you take multiple buses, and can make paying for the bus easier all-around.

See you at the Grandstand!

For emergency transportation, who do you call?

The terrible fire at the Lynnview Apartments in Lynnwood was all over the news last night. Everyone who lived there lost their homes – and had to find a place to sleep after watching their belongings burn. The Red Cross arranged for a church nearby to act as a shelter. Firefighters needed help getting people there.

Who did they call? Community Transit. We sent two buses to the scene and transported 30 people to the Trinity Lutheran Church. Some families will be staying there until other accommodations can be arranged.

The Lynnview Apartments are just blocks away from the Lynnwood Transit Center, and I expect many of the residents are regular Community Transit riders. I’m glad we could help them last night. If you’d like to help as well, consider a donation to the local Red Cross.

Proposed 2011 service changes impact south county

Affected Routes include Routes 110, 112, 116, 130, 408, 413, 414, 415, 416 and 477


Community Transit is seeking public input on several proposed service changes that would take effect in 2011.

The proposed changes affect service in south Snohomish County to coincide with two new Sound Transit projects on the Edmonds waterfront and at the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center.

With Community Transit sales tax income still low, the agency does not plan to restore Sunday or major holiday bus service in 2011.

Mountlake Terrace Transit Center
In February 2011, Sound Transit is scheduled to open the Mountlake Terrace Freeway Station on I-5. This will add bi-directional Sound Transit bus service to the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center and will increase the number of bus trips at the transit center from 62 to 201.

Community Transit is proposing to move its downtown Seattle commuter service through Mountlake Terrace to the freeway station and to realign local service on city streets. With these changes, residents of Mountlake Terrace and surrounding communities will have more transit options.

A few of the proposals have multiple options and we are asking for public input to help determine which options are selected by the board of directors.

Edmonds Station
Sound Transit’s new improved Edmonds Station is scheduled to open in mid-2011 and will provide an easy location to transfer between Community Transit bus, Sounder rail and Washington State Ferries service. When Edmonds Station opens, Community Transit proposes to move most of its service in that area to new bus stops east of the railroad tracks, eliminating potential delays and facilitating transfers to Sounder trains.

Details on the various route proposals are available online and in a brochure that will be placed on buses the week of Aug. 16. Public comment on these proposals will be accepted through September 6.

A public hearing before the Community Transit Board of Directors will take place at 3 p.m. September 2 at the Community Transit Board Room, 7100 Hardeson Rd., Everett (accessed by Everett Transit Route 8).

A community meeting will take place at the Mountlake Terrace Library (23300 58th Ave. W., accessed by Routes 112 and 130) on Thursday, Aug. 19 from 5-7 p.m. In addition, staff will be at park & rides and will ride on affected routes to help get the word out and solicit feedback.

Comments also will be accepted
via email: 2011changes@commtrans.org
via regular mail: Community Transit Service Change, 7100 Hardeson Road, Everett, WA 98203
via phone: (425) 353-7433

Bikes and Buses, Part 1: Bike Racks

If you travel by bike and bus, you know what it means to “get bumped.” That’s what happens when you’re waiting at the bus stop with everybody else, the bus arrives with a full bike rack, and everybody gets on board but you. You are left standing there with your bike waiting for the next bus or wishing you’d just ridden home to begin with.

This doesn’t happen to me as much as it used to, thanks to Community Transit’s policy to allow bikes inside the bus if it is not too crowded. In the past week I have had my bike both inside and outside of buses. It is not as care-free to hold your bike inside a bus as to have it in a rack, but it is far better than wondering if you’re going to get to work in the morning.

If you’d like to see how easy it is to use a bike rack, the fun way, see this bike rack rap.  Most of Community Transit’s racks work just like this (without the dancing).

Community Transit has had bike racks on all of our buses since 1996, and people have grown to rely upon them. Passengers with bikes make up about 1.3 percent of our boardings overall, but some routes have much higher usage.

• We had six bikes on a Swift bus recently out of 34 passengers.
• Routes 201/202 and Route 275 had 4.5 percent of customers board with bikes in April.
• My former Route 207 had 9 percent of boardings with bikes that month.

Starting in 2005, Community Transit put 3-bike racks (the Trilogy model) on 24 new articulated commuter buses. Prepared to outfit our entire fleet, we purchased our first 12 VeloPorter 3 racks in 2008.

What happens when Sunday bus service goes away?

A central component to Community Transit’s June 2010 service change plan is the suspension of all Sunday and major holiday service. This means no local buses, no Swift and no DART paratransit service beginning June 13.

The idea behind this is that, by shutting operations completely on one day, the agency saves more money and impacts fewer riders than by cutting more routes and trips every day of the week. One way to look at it is that the Sunday/holiday suspension cuts 28,000 hours of service for the year; if the base remained open on these days it would take 48,000 hours of cuts to get the same dollar savings.

While Sundays and holidays have lower ridership than other days, there will still be many people impacted by this move. In particular, people who use the bus or DART to get to church or work on Sundays are going to be impacted more than those who might use the bus for discretionary travel.

To help lessen the impact of the loss of Sunday service, Community Transit is working closely with SNOTRAC, the Snohomish County Transportation Coalition, and Volunteers of America (which runs the county’s 2-1-1 social services hotline) to provide resources for those who need transportation on Sundays.

Community Transit is assisting SNOTRAC with an effort to contact churches in the service area to see if the churches are willing to provide transportation assistance to their members, and possibly people who attend nearby churches. This transportation might be through a church van or a coordinated effort by church members. If many churches can take care of the need for their own members, great; if they can also handle some of the need for other churchgoers, that is even better.

Community Transit also is contacting local employers to let them know of the loss of Sunday service and asking if they will help coordinate transportation for their employees.

VOA will use any information that churches or employers provide to add to their list of Sunday transportation resources. The way the 2-1-1 Hotline works is people who need transportation call 2-1-1, say where they are and where they need to go and VOA tells them if there is an existing transportation option that can help them. In some cases there will be; in other cases there won’t be. The unfortunate thing about the loss of Sunday bus service is that there will be people who either cannot get around or will have to scramble to find a ride themselves. A great resource for these people is Rideshareonline, which allows people to find carpools or vanpools in their area.

Community Transit also is in the process of granting 12 vehicles to local nonprofit agencies through the Van GO program. This program awards surplus agency vehicles, including some with wheelchair lifts, to groups that will use them to provide transportation in the community. This year there is an emphasis on groups that could help provide transportation on Sundays.

We received 34 Van GO applications by the April 30 deadline, and the vehicles will be awarded at the June 3 Community Transit Board of Directors meetings. Van GO winners will be included in the 2-1-1 database.

Finally, for those DART-eligible riders who have no other option, Community Transit is using $50,000 to bolster the “Pay Your Pal” program. This is a program in which a customer finds someone (friend, neighbor, family member) to give them a ride, and SNOTRAC reimburses that driver the federal mileage rate. This way the driver is not simply volunteering, and may have an incentive to provide the ride.

DART-eligible riders who contact the 2-1-1 Hotline will be referred to this service if no other option exists for Sunday transportation. Again, because even “Pay You Pal” depends on a driver willing to provide a ride, it is not a guarantee.

Community Transit is seeking new state and federal funding to restore Sunday service. While the current level of service costs about $5 million a year, the agency would need to be sure there is enough funding to restore service indefinitely before bringing it back. We do not want to restore service based on a one-time grant, then have to cancel service again when the grant runs out. Stay tuned.

ORCA Turns One Year Old

Besides the 40th anniversary of Earth Day today there is another local birthday this week. One Regional Card for All, the regional transit smart card turns one year old!

Last year on April 20 I hosted a press conference in Seattle with Candace Carlson, the Regional Fare Coordination System Program Administrator, to introduce ORCA to customers. We discussed the “limited rollout” that lasted into September, when early adopters were invited to get a card, try it out and let us know their experience.

The limited rollout concept was proposed because we didn’t want to overwhelm the system with too many transactions off the bat, and we didn’t know what the extent of customer assistance new ORCA users would need. It was more than a Beta test, since we were using customers’ money, but we knew there were bugs that only a good supply of transit users could help us find.

In July 2009, Microsoft became one of the first business accounts to convert from FlexPass to ORCA, and the number of cards being used in the system grew tremendously. Business Accounts are employers who supply all employees with a transit pass, even those who may not use them. Hundreds of businesses have used FlexPass for years, and their conversion to ORCA is now almost complete.

On September 15, Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl and general managers from the other transportation agencies heralded ORCA’s “Big Splash” with a call for all transit users to switch to ORCA.

(Remember Steve the ORCA greeting attendees then mysteriously disappearing for awhile? It was a hot day for mascots!)

A couple of key milestones have occurred since then. December 2009 was the last month that paper Puget Passes were sold to the public. This was an important move since some other agencies around the country that have implemented smart card systems continued to sell their regular passes and, as a result, had low conversion rates. Eliminating the paper passes is good for the environment and saves the agencies money, which is one of the goals of ORCA.

Also, at the end of the year Community Transit and Sound Transit joined Everett Transit and Kitsap Transit in eliminating all paper transfers. This meant it was cash or ORCA, and ORCA was the only way to get a two-hour transfer on those systems. King County Metro Transit and Pierce Transit still offer paper transfers that are good on their systems only.

This week, Kitsap Transit reinstated paper transfers for the rest of this year because it is having a difficult time converting its low income fare customers. This is a fare category unique to KT and requires registration like an RRFP card, so those riders must get the card in person.

Community Transit is happy with the “ORCA is your transfer” policy, and we have seen many cash customers switch to ORCA in 2010. We did a lot of outreach, including having our drivers hand out 4,000 blank ORCA cards to cash customers last December. Also, when we launched Swift – which does not take paper transfers – last November, many of our riders on that corridor made the decision to get a card. This year we’re continuing to push for more converts to ORCA.

So, what’s there to celebrate on ORCA’s first birthday?

Well, there are about 150,000 active ORCA cards out there, and many more in circulation. Also, there are nearly 200,000 average daily transactions on the ORCA system. That’s pretty good for the first year!

ORCA is meant to be a convenience. Transit riders no longer have to carry exact change and can use the same card to transfer between different transportation systems, whether you have a pass or not. Riders can load their ORCA card with a variety of period passes, like a monthly pass, or put cash value in an E-purse and draw down with each trip. Our drivers love ORCA because fare payment is quicker and simpler than before.

So, does ORCA work perfectly for every user all the time? No. And my Blackberry service goes out from time to time too. But for such a complex system with so many users there have been a lot of fixes in this first year, and the vast majority of regular users are finding success.

You can get more information about ORCA at http://www.orcacard.com/ or by visiting www.communitytransit.org/orca.

What do you think of ORCA?

Open Government 2.0

Warning: This blog post is about technology. That means: it is way over my head, and maybe yours, too. But really, we’re 10 years into the 21st Century. Guess we gotta go techie sometimes.

I spent two days last week in Seattle at a conference called “Open Government 2.0.” The concept is that governments at all levels have all sorts of data and information that the public could use to participate in, influence and understand government. Beyond that, idealists in the room hope that technology might help create a whole new way of governing in the 21st Century.

The West Coast has many leaders in this effort. For city government trying to make data available, see Seattle's data port. Portland just launched an “apps contest” so local developers can help put city data to use. Check out their new iPhone app, which helped increase reports of graffiti from 10 to 228.. British Columbia officials are still excited about the success of their Facebook “You Gotta Be Here” campaign for the Olympics.

Like many conferences, the real value was in meeting and speaking with the people in attendance. Mukilteo City Councilwoman Jennifer Greggerson was there, and took Community Transit service to the event. See her Tweets about the conference (with link to her blog), here.

As is often the case, the lawyer in the room was a bit of a wet blanket – no offense to the very informative Ramsey Ramerman, Everett’s assistant city attorney. He pointed out that social media can create important public records and even public meeting issues that must be considered by governments and elected officials.

For those of you who know enough to be fans of One Bus Away – which provides access to King County Metro (and now Pierce Transit) bus information, you’ll be jealous to hear that I met the mastermind himself, Brian Ferris. Even though Community Transit doesn’t have real-time bus information (yet), he’d like us in the fold.

But everything is complicated when your data is not standardized. That was a big message of the conference, and one that drives home the value of Google Transit – not the application itself, but the fact that it uses standardized schedule data (General Transit Feed Specification) which can be reused in so many ways, by so many people. Michael Keating of the Open Planning Project is working to use GFTS data and open source programming to create an “open trip planner” for transit. Not surprisingly, one of his partners in that effort is the trailblazing Bibiana McHugh and Portland TriMet (which worked with Google to develop the GTFS).

I also talked to Linda Thielke of King County Metro. She seemed a little disappointed not to have any snow events this winter after Metro developed all sorts of new communication plans to improve on last year’s efforts. They have an “Eye on Your Metro Commute” blog to post peak-hour rider information. They also added an email/text alerts system similar to what we have had at Community Transit for almost three years.

My take-away from the conference is this: Technology is a powerful tool, but not an end in itself. Both are important to remember.