State Transportation Funding Back in the News

With the announcement this week of a state Senate Majority Coalition Caucus transportation funding proposal, it is once more a possibility that transit could receive new funding this year.

The announcement, by Sen. Curtis King, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, with Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom and other supporters at this side, falls short of the funding level for transit included in a House package. But the good news was the announcement itself. Without Senate support, new state transportation funding appeared dead this year.

Sens. King and Tom both said that they want to re-open negotiations with Senate and House Democrats and that they hope to approve a package during this legislative session, which is scheduled to end on March 18.

The Senate proposal includes a local option that would allow Community Transit to go to voters to seek additional sales tax funding for bus service. Without legislative authority, Community Transit cannot seek any new local funding. This local option is similar to the one included in the House package and could generate enough funding to substantially increase bus service in Snohomish County.

Overall, the Senate proposal does not include significant funding for Community Transit beyond the local option. Frankly, neither does the House package. If a local option does not pass, Community Transit's portion of either funding package will be enough to pay for "schedule maintenance," but not much new bus service.

There are roads projects in both proposals that will benefit transit users, and could help to make transit operations more efficient. But there are enough differences between the House and Senate proposals that it is not time for celebration yet, Differences over the use of sales tax for state road construction projects and policy reforms are among the issues that could prevent adoption this session.

Still, there is hope that a funding package could pass. What is likely the best scenario for Community Transit riders is that a local option will be approved by the Legislature, then the issue of increased transit funding truly becomes a local decision.

What's Going on with BusFinder?

As you know, Community Transit is developing a real-time bus information tool called BusFinder. It utilizes the GPS tracking that was recently installed on all our buses to offer customers a fairly accurate predictive time of when a bus will leave a particular bus stop.

Believe me when I tell you it works pretty well! But not completely, yet.

As we have tested the mobile and desktop versions, we have found problems with how they interpret our stop or bus data. We also want to offer rider alerts through these tools so you can know if there are impacts to the route you will be traveling on. Getting only the route alerts that are relevant to the stop you choose was a little trickier than we anticipated.

The BusFinder by Phone tool is a completely different animal. It uses the same data, but in a different way and will provide stop times for the next five buses, whether they are real-time or scheduled times. There are several issues unique to the phone tool that we are working on.

The biggest problem we have had for all these tools has to do with the complexity of our operations. On any given day, our dispatch may drop a trip, add a trip or reassign a bus. This may be due to traffic, weather conditions, mechanical issues or other operational challenges at that time. In any case, once these changes are made, a bus may disappear, suddenly materialize or turn into another trip from a customer perspective.

We want to make sure BusFinder captures this so it doesn’t show a bus departing in 5 minutes that is not going to be there. Or show no buses departing that stop, then suddenly a bus is there. This is how our buses really operate and what you should expect from a real-time tool.

Last week, we had a major BusFinder operational systems integration test (OSIT). This involved live buses, dummy buses and even our next bus signs at Ash Way, Lynnwood Transit Center and Mountlake Terrace. To our delight, many of the operational changes we were testing showed up correctly! But not all of them.

The best I can say is that we are “getting there!” We won’t give a launch date ahead of time. It is likely that BusFinder will suddenly go live and we will use our website and social media to get the word out. Once we feel confident it works well with many customers using it, we will begin a promotional campaign. Thanks for your patience. Hang in there!

Why is There Limited Commuter Service on "Minor" Holidays?

By Martin Munguia

For transit agencies, figuring out how much service to put on the road on holidays is a guessing game. You might provide more service than necessary and have empty buses. Or, you might constrict service to the point that it inconveniences some riders.

Community Transit offers service on four “minor” holidays: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Friday. These are days when businesses and schools are closed or people take the day off and transit demand is lower than a typical weekday, but there are still a significant number of people riding the bus. A couple other days that sometimes warrant this minor holiday schedule are Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

After years of studying transit use patterns on these days, our planners have come up with a consistent schedule for these days: regular local service (including Boeing routes), and reduced commuter service to Seattle and the UW (Routes 402, 413, 421 and 855).

This way, even if people aren’t working those days, they can still travel by bus to do shopping, run errands or visit family. If people want to go to Seattle, there are some Community Transit options available, but there is also Sound Transit service.

On these days, ridership to Seattle is as low as 20 percent of a regular weekday, so the reduced commuter service makes good business sense. Local ridership is typically lower than usual, but not as drastic.

In the coming year, we will be evaluating whether to bring back service on major holidays, as well as Sundays. But we want to be cost-effective whatever decision we make. So on days we know ridership is going to be low, we may continue to offer reduced service to still serve our riders, but in a fiscally responsible way.

Where's My Bus: The Conclusion

When last we left Jeff, he and his family waited for hours at the Lynnwood Transit Center in hopes of spotting one of the two buses that had his Smart Commute bus ad. It seemed their adventure was for naught, but this story concludes with a happy ending-- as you can see below. Take it away, Jeff!

"We huddled at bus bay where our route was to arrive and waited.  The drivers were all courteous and kind, but they were wondering why we didn’t get on the bus!  We let them know we were waiting for “Jeff’s bus” and showed them the poster as evidence.  The third bus driver let us know the total route time and figured there were a total of 9 or 10 buses that we may have to wait through to check them all out.  We got through about 5 buses and the kids were getting pretty cold.  We were also running out of daylight for a good quality photo, so we decided to leave. 

Just then—right on our way out of the Transit center--our youngest yelled, “Dad! – There you are!”

My wife quickly parked. We ran over to the driver and let him know he was carrying my poster around on his bus board and that we wanted a photo.  Luckily he was staying put for about 4 minutes and we finally got our long awaited photo opportunity!  

Miraculously, out of 200+ buses running in Snohomish County, we ended up spotting a different bus number on a different route and it happened to be parked at the Lynnwood Transit Center as we were leaving! Thanks to Community Transit and their kind staff who helped make our Christmas picture one of the best ever!" - Jeff Miller

Photo courtesy of Jeff Miler

Photo courtesy of Jeff Miller

Photo courtesy of Jeff Miller

Editor's Note:  Thanks, Jeff, for sharing your bus adventure with us! Our Smart Commuter Rewards Program encourages employees to find alternative ways to get to work besides driving alone. To participate, employees must work at worksites in Snohomish County or City of Bothell receiving Commute Trip Reduction services from Community Transit. Refer to this list of participating worksites to see if you are eligible.

Questions? Contact our Transportation Demand Management Specialists for additional information:

• Stacey Gunnerson, (425) 348-2304
• Debbie Anderson, (425) 438-6136  

Where's My Bus: A Holiday Bus Hunt Adventure

Jeff Miller commutes year-round and tracks his miles through Community Transit's Smart Commuter Rewards Program. He was awarded "Smart Commuter of 2nd Quarter," honors last year for his efforts, which included his likeness on one of our Community Transit bus board ads. The following is Jeff's account of trying to track down "his" bus.

I commute by bike year-round, and I track all my miles on Community Transit's website.  As long as I cycle into work, my company, Esterline Controls and Communication Systems, pays me a monthly incentive to reduce congestion.  Cycling 4.5 miles each way to and from work gives me two good cardio workouts a workday, which is great for me physically and mentally—it’s my personal gym on wheels!  Because Esterline provides indoor bicycle parking and showers, my bike commute is very convenient.  And believe it or not, it’s just about as fast to ride my bike to work as it is to drive a car.  Biking just makes sense for me.     

One day, I received an email from Community Transit saying I was eligible for the Commuter of the Quarter because I cycled so many consecutive days.  I filled out the questionnaire and was surprised to hear back that I had won!  Eventually, a friend of ours who regularly rides Community Transit took a cell phone picture of my poster on the side of a bus she’d ridden and emailed it to us.  Aha!  Evidence that the poster had made the bus!  My wife decided it would make a great family Christmas picture if she and the kids posed with me in the background on the bus. 

I kept a watchful eye as I commuted by bike and searched for ‘My Bus’, but never saw it myself. If it weren’t for our friend’s picture, we wouldn’t have believed it was actually out there!  Finally I called Community Transit's Marketing Department during the holidays and asked if they could track my picture down.   I thankfully got a call from Community Transit with a few bus numbers that had my picture. Now, I had to get a route and a safe place for a picture. 

The people at Community Transit were extremely helpful and within a few days, provided us with a route number that the bus was running.  

“OK kids, we are packing up and heading to the Lynnwood Transit Center for a Bus Hunt!” 

 We huddled at bus bay where our route was to arrive and waited.  The drivers were all courteous and kind, but they were wondering why we didn’t get on the bus!  We let them know we were waiting for “Jeff’s bus” and showed them the poster as evidence.  The third bus driver let us know the total route time and figured there were a total of 9 or 10 buses that we may have to wait through to check them all out.  We got through about 5 buses and the kids were getting pretty cold.  We were also running out of daylight for a good quality photo, so we decided to leave.

Just then—right on our way out of the Transit center--our youngest yelled, “Dad! – There you are!” 

Did Jeff find his bus? Did the Millers get their family Christmas picture? Stay tuned and find out!

Community Transit Employees Get In the Spirit of Giving this Holiday Season

Community Transit employees got in the spirit of the season in December with our annual Holiday Giving Tree campaign. This year many of our employees donated gifts to 172 residents of the Stillaguamish Senior Center Apartments. The Stillaguamish apartments are located on the grounds of the Stillaguamish Senior Center. The Stillaguamish Senior Center provides services to all seniors that enhance the quality of life, limit isolation and prevent a need for institutionalization.

Hundreds of presents waiting to be wrapped for the residents of Stillaguamish Senior Center Apartments

One happy resident of building 2 was excited to see our Community Transit employees 

Sue Masel, Wade Mahala and Stacey Gunnerson  (L-R)  at her door

Community Transit’s Steve Peters accessorizes with holiday decorations as he hands out presents to residents in building 1

Thank you to all our employees that donated gifts and their time to bring joy to others

Website Survey Results: You Like Us-- but We Can Do Better

Last month, we asked for 4 minutes of your time to take our online website survey and you gave us 1,824 minutes! (That's 4 minutes each for the 456 people that  took the time to tell us what they like, don't like and want to see for communitytransit.org in the future.) Sure, we've got Google Analytics to give us reports on hits, visits and other numerical data-- but we wanted to hear from the people that use our website and we're glad we did!

We want to update our website in 2014. The last time it was refreshed was roughly five years ago, which doesn't seem very long ago until you realize the iPhone and iPad just came onto the scene in 2009. If you consider this September 2013 study of cell phone and usage by Pew Internet, it appears we are doing this refresh just in time:

"63% of adult cell owners now use their phones to go online, a figure that has doubled since we first started tracking internet usage on cell phones in 2009. In addition, 34% of these cell internet users say that they mostly go online using their cell phone. That means that 21% of all adult cell owners now do most of their online browsing using their mobile phone—and not some other device such as a desktop or laptop computer."

So, one of the takeways learned from our website survey is that it needs to be mobile-friendly so that the information you need is accessible no matter what mobile device you are using. We also found out that a majority of you rate the website quite high, and for that we thank you!

Below is an infographic illustrating the highlights and trends gleaned from the survey. Do you agree? Are you surprised?  What are your reactions to what the survey participants said about our website?