Rider Report - June-July 2000
Bus Briefs
Take a ride on transit history
 You can go back in time if you join transit-history enthusiasts on a special trip on a historic trolley or motor bus. The Metro Employees Historic Vehicle Association kicked off its annual schedule of trips in April.
The volunteer group preserves, restores and operates vintage transit vehicles that operated in King County. Their fleet includes a streetcar, four trolley buses from the 1940s and 12 motor buses dating back to 1938.
Two more trolley excursions and three motor bus excursions, ranging from two to five hours long, are planned for this year.
For more information, visit the MEHVA web site [external link] or call 206-633-4590.
Overlake park-and-ride to close until 2002
The Overlake park-and-ride lot will close on July 1 so King County, Langly Properties and other partners can build 300 new apartments and two levels of shared parking for transit users and residents. The lot will reopen in April 2002.
This is King County's first transit-oriented development project. These projects combine residential, commercial and transit facilities. They are intended to reduce reliance on cars and strengthen the transit system.
For more information about a proposed interim park-and-ride lot, call our hot line at 206-684-1146 or see Park and Ride lot Closures.
Agencies approve tunnel transfer agreement
The King County Council has approved an agreement with Sound Transit and the City of Seattle that will transfer the downtown Seattle bus tunnel to Sound Transit in 2004. Sound Transit plans to begin using the tunnel as part of its Link light-rail system in 2006 after it completes other light-rail line sections and modifies the tunnel for light-rail use.
Metro will have priority use of Third Avenue in downtown Seattle while the tunnel is retrofitted for light-rail. Metro also will continue to use the Convention Place Station site as a bus staging area and a place for entering and leaving the Interstate 5 express lanes. Eventually, an office, hotel and residential complex may be built over the site, with financial benefits accruing to the county and Metro.
The City of Seattle will benefit from $11 million in street and bus-zone improvements in downtown Seattle that will permit more people to use transit to commute to downtown Seattle while the tunnel is temporarily closed.
Transit Alert program wins innovation award
An innovative use of e-mail technology to alert bus riders and motorists during last year’s World Trade Organization meeting won an international award recently.
The GOVLINK WTO Traffic and Transit Alert program, a partnership of Seattle, King County and Washington State, won the award from the Intelligent Transportation Society of America.
From November 29 to Deccember 4, 1999 the program helped more than 10,000 motorists save time and avoid civil disturbances through subscriptions to a special e-mail and pager service. Another 10,000 bus riders received updates through the King County Transit Alert! program.
Ninety percent of 800 subscribers who replied to a follow-up survey were satisfied with the service.
While the WTO alert program has been deactivated, bus riders can still subscribe to Metro’s program, which advises riders of major changes in service because of major traffic disruptions or bad weather..
Birding by bus
Twenty-one Eastside residents had the opportunity June 17 to take a beginning birding class while not adding to air pollution -- by using the bus. Class participants did some wetland birding at Mercer Slough in Bellevue, took Metro to Kirkland’s Juanita Bay Park for more birding, and then returned by bus to the South Bellevue park-and-ride lot.
Metro provided free tickets to encourage riding the bus. The East Lake Washington Audubon Society sponsored the free class.
Metro ridership shows small increase
Transit customers boarded Metro buses about 96 million times in 1999 — a 2.6 percent increase over 1998. Metro researchers attribute most of the increase to a modestly growing economy and surging gasoline prices (when gasoline prices go up, more people ride the bus).
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