Rider Alerts Get Real-Time: New system gets timely info in riders' hands

By Martin Munguia, Corporate Communications Manager

Community Transit riders noticed a new look to their rider alerts today. The agency has launched a new partially automated alert system that provides riders with information on delays and other service impacts in real time, during all hours of service.

Riders can view/receive alerts about bus service impacts
in real time, during all hours of service. 

The result will be more alerts providing more information about what is going on with your bus while it is in service. This can help you make better choices about your daily commute.

The new real-time alerts report trip delays of 10 minutes or more, as well as canceled trips, reroutes that miss certain bus stops, and other issues that are impacting buses on the road, or scheduled to be on the road.

Once created, alerts are simultaneously posted on the agency’s website, Twitter page, and sent to subscribers via email or SMS text, as well as provided to third-party apps such as Google Maps or OneBusAway. While alerts are sent to those apps, it is up to developers whether to display them or not.

What’s the difference?

The new alert system is a huge improvement over the old system due to the process. Rather than using administrative staff to create alerts based on information sent out from the agency’s two dispatch bases, the new bus alerts are created directly by dispatchers. As soon as they get information from the field, dispatchers use a new tool to select from several drop-down menus to generate an alert.

This literally cuts out the middle person. It also means real-time alerts look a bit different than the old alerts.

They start with the route number and time the bus leaves the first stop so riders can easily tell if it is their trip. The alerts then identify the direction of the trip by destination, and the reason for the delay or cancelation. These alerts are produced any time a bus is impacted, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Alerts about future impacts due to planned construction, parades or holidays will continue to be produced by staff, as they may require more complex explanations or images. On Community Transit’s Rider Alerts webpage, www.communitytransit.org/Alerts, the two alert types are called Real-Time Alerts and Rider Information.

How to get alerts

If you already get Community Transit’s electronic rider alerts, you don’t have to do anything to get the real-time alerts. If you don’t, here are three ways to get them:

• Email/text – Sign up for alerts to be sent by email or SMS text. Visit www.communitytransit.org/Subscribe to select the routes you ride most frequently. Whenever an alert affecting that route is sent, you will get a notification. Because more alerts are being sent out in this new system, choose your route preferences carefully. If you already subscribe, you may want to adjust your preferences to avoid getting too many alerts.
• Twitter – Follow Community Transit’s new service alert Twitter handle,

  

  Follow @MyCommTransBus on Twitter for rider alerts posted
  real-time alerts throughout our operating hours.

  @MyCommTransBus. All alerts for all routes are sent to this Twitter feed. If you see an alert announcing service delays on your route, scroll up the feed to see if that delay has ended.
• Website – Visit www.communitytransit.org/Alerts to view all active alerts. If a bus trip is delayed more than 10 minutes or canceled, an alert will be generated. That alert will be removed once that trip has ended. A button for rider information alerts lists all constructed- or holiday-related impacts to service that are planned in advance. These alerts include reroutes or closed stops, whether short-term or long-term.

Questions about bus service may still be answered by calling (425) 353-7433 or emailing riders@commtrans.org.

Real-time alerts are reported for all Community Transit bus routes and the six Sound Transit bus routes operated by Community Transit – ST Routes 510, 511, 512, 513, 532 and 535.

Agency Earns Award for "Breaking New Ground"

The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) has awarded Community Transit a 2019VISION 2040 Award for successfully launching Swift Green Line, the second bus rapid transit line in Snohomish County.

“Community Transit is always breaking new ground, always pushing the envelope,” said Josh Brown, PSRC’s Executive Director.

Brown went on to praise the agency’s collaborative approach to planning regional transit, noting that the Green Line is "an excellent example of how we can do great things when we work with our partners."

Community Transit CEO Emmett Heath, left, shakes hands with PSRC Executive Director Josh Brown.

VISION 2040 is the PSRC’s guide for managing the region’s expected population growth of more than one million people by 2040. The VISION 2040 Awards recognize excellent work being done to implement the VISION 2040 via strategies that provide transportation access and mobility, bring jobs closer to where people live, and otherwise improve the quality of life in the central Puget Sound region.

Swift Green Line extends 12 miles, from Canyon Park Park & Ride to the new Seaway Transit Center near Boeing, connecting with the existing Swift Blue Line at Highway 99. Between the two major employment centers, Green Line destinations include Mill Creek Town Center, McCollum Park (and McCollum Park Park & Ride), and Paine Field Airport.

Regional Programs & Projects Manager June DeVoll holds the award plaque and stands among just a few of the agency staff and board members who helped bring Swift Green Line online.

Related News
Read more about Swift bus rapid transit and how it is different from regular bus service.
Learn how to take Swift Green Line to Paine Field Airport and walk to the terminal.
Learn how PSRC plans for a sustainable future.

Happy 40th Vanniversary, Washington State!

Governor Jay Inslee declared July 2019 to be Vanpool Month, marking the 40th year of vanpool
programs in the state.

Washington’s vanpools were actually the USA’s first; 40 years later, Community Transit’s program includes the 11th largest vanpool fleet in the country. (See below for more interesting vanpool statistics.)

Our program began operations in 1986 with all groups going to Boeing.

A van from Community Transit's original vanpool fleet, 1986.

By 1992, we had 45 vanpool groups on the road.

Vans from various agencies gathered at the Key Arena for the statewide 20th Vanniversary, 1999.

Community Transit's 100th and 300th vanpool groups, dates unknown.

This February, we officially reached 400 vanpool groups, serving 2,835 people that average 48 round-trip miles per day.

A team of five Vanpool Fleet Coordinators work with the groups, processing payments, training drivers, and coordinating scheduled -- and unscheduled -- maintenance needs. The vans’ insurance, gasoline, and maintenance are all provided by Community Transit.

A Vanpool Fleet Coordinator checks in a van brought in for routine maintenance, July 2019.

Customer feedback is an important part of the vanpool program; customer input even helps to choose which new vans to purchase!

Insight being gathered from vanpool customers now will help decide how to best serve customers of the future. Commuting in and through Snohomish County will change significantly in the next 5-10 years and our Vanpool program will be there, continuing to help people get where they want to be.

Happy Vanniversary... here's to another 40 successful years!

Body Shop Lead Celebrates 40th Work Anniversary at Community Transit

 Gerry Martin reflects on 40 years working in transit

Community Transit began operations in 1976, 42 years ago. 2019 marks a milestone; On April 16, Community Transit celebrated body shop lead Gerry Martin as the first employee to achieve 40 years of service to the agency.

Originally from Winthrop, Washington, Martin left his hometown where he worked for the Forestry Service to come to western Washington. In 1979 he was hired to perform preventative maintenance on Community Transit buses.

Body shop lead Gerry Martin

Flash forward 40 years and now Martin is the lead of the agency body shop. Some of his duties include repairing buses, providing estimates for repairs and new bus preparation, including the installation of graphics. Martin has also been instrumental in the design and overall look of the agency buses over the years.

When Martin reflects on his time spent with the agency and what’s changed, he says that technology in the industry has changed quite a bit.

“Buses are so computerized, and along with that goes the technology of the technicians working on them and their knowledge,” said Martin.

But he’s not stuck in the past, he has a strong appreciation for new technology and the new batch of younger employees entering the industry. “They’re so technical. I love it,” said Martin.

While Martin takes pride when he sees an agency bus on the road, you might be surprised to learn what kept him around for 40 years has less to do with the actual work and more to do with the people he works with.

“After 40 years it’s a family,” Martin said. The one thing that he says hasn’t changed is the comradery. “It’s always been strong, it’s always been great.”

Martin says it’s the strong relationships with his team at Community Transit that kept him returning day after day, year after year.

Can you imagine working for the same agency for 40 years? What are the factors that would be most important in your decision to stay for decades?

What's the Value of Public Transportation?

Today is National Get on Board Day to recognize the value of transit

Ask a bus or train rider why they choose that mode of travel and you’ll get many different answers. Cost savings. Convenience. Not having to deal with traffic or parking. Less stress for their commute.

Most major cities and even many rural ones have some form of public transportation. The value of that service is sometimes expressed as a lifeline for those with no other travel option, or a choice for people who simply don’t want to drive every day. Usually, it’s both.

In 2018, Community Transit provided 10.7 million trips on its buses, vanpools and DART paratransit vehicles. That’s more than 33,000 times a day someone had to get somewhere and chose Community Transit to get them there.

Because about 70 percent of our riders are “choice riders” who have access to a car but chose transit, we like to say that without our service, there would be another 23,000 cars on Snohomish County roads every day. Mitigating even worse traffic congestion is one of the values transit provides to everyone in our community.

Snohomish County is growing like crazy. More than 10,000 people a year are forecast to move here over the next 20 years. That’s the equivalent of a new city the size of Snohomish added each year!

This is the perfect time to add more transit as we want every one of those new residents to consider not adding another car to the day’s commute.

Thanks to voter approval of Proposition 1 in 2015, we are increasing transit service in the county. By 2022, Community Transit will have expanded its bus service by 40 percent over 2016 levels. This summer, we will be engaging the public on a how to redesign our bus service to integrate with Link light rail when it gets to Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood in 2024.

One key to that transit expansion is adding to our Swift bus rapid transit network. When the Swift Green Line launched a month ago, it quickly became the second most popular route in our system, behind the Swift Blue Line. Combined, those two routes carry more than 7,000 people a day.

There are downsides to this expansion – impacts from the construction of some projects, being stopped behind a bus as it boards passengers. If you’re stopped behind a bus for 20 seconds thinking about blowing your horn, consider this: 23,000 more cars on our roads every day, 10,000 more cars on I-5 every day, and 10,000 more cars added each year without transit. Even if you don't use the service, you are benefiting.

What do you value most about transit?