Ridership exploding
July 2, 2008
By Emily Keller
As gas goes up and traffic worsens, more people are riding the bus
Rafiq Shahul has a laundry list of reasons that he takes Metro Transit’s 216 bus to work in Seattle instead of driving.
He can listen to music, protect the environment and save money and stress all at the same time.
“To Seattle it’s a long commute. I don’t want to drive in the traffic,” Shahul said as he stood at the South Sammamish Park and Ride waiting for the 8:41 a.m. bus.
However, there is one drawback to commuting by bus, Shahul said. “The only problem is it’s crowded.”
According to Metro, King County’s transit agency, Sammamish buses were more crowded this spring than in 2007.
Average weekday boardings on Route 216, which runs from Downtown Seattle to the Bear Creek Park and Ride, rose from 492 in spring 2007 to 535 in spring 2008, an increase of 8.7 percent, said spokesperson Linda Thielke.
Average weekday boardings on the Route 269 bus that runs from Issaquah to Overlake went up 24.2 percent from 310 to 385, and boardings on Route 218 that runs from Downtown Seattle to the Issaquah Highlands Park and Ride rose 17.1 percent, from 1,336 to 1,565. Route 927, which runs between Sammamish and Issaquah, also had a slight increase.
“Right now it’s a little bit overcrowded, but not too much,” said Srini Reddy, a programmer who lives in Sammamish and works in Seattle, as he waited for the 216. “Bus service is pretty good all around.”
Across the street, Chevron sold gas for $4.42 per gallon. The escalating price of gas is one reason bus riders say there has been a recent increase in riders, making their commute a little less comfortable.
“There’s not always enough seats. People have to stand,” said commuter Mikmikhail Sheybian, a longtime bus rider who has seen an increase in ridership in the last few months.
Many Sammamish residents have also begun carpooling by van through Metro’s Regional Ridematch System, an online networking service.
Thielke said 40 people in each of Sammamish’s two zip codes signed up for van pool service between March 1 and June 15, 2008.
This makes up a significant portion of the total 134 new sign-ups in the 98074 zip code and 117 new sign-ups in the 98075 area that occurred between April 1, 2007 and June 27, 2008.
The service has become more popular in the last few years as well.
From March 2005 to March 2007, the service had only 124 new sign-ups in the 98074 area and 156 people in the 98075 zip code.
Thielke said Metro does not know whether those people still use the service.
Rochelle Ogershok, the public affairs supervisor for Metro, cautioned against attributing the increase in bus and van ridership directly to gas prices.
“We know that obviously fuel prices are a significant contributing factor to rider-ship, but they’re not the only one,” she said. “There’s a number of factors that come into play.”
Those factors include Metro’s ongoing efforts to add and restructure bus service to make it more convenient for riders, Ogershok said.
Metro is planning to accommodate some of the growth by increasing service on Route 269 in September from every 30 minutes to every 20 minutes at peak hours.
The agency also plans to make additional improvements over the next five years.
Those improvements will be paid for through a partnership with Microsoft and the cities of Sammamish, Redmond, Isssaquah announced this spring.
For information on Metro’s van and car pool service visit http://transit.metrokc.gov/tops/van-car/ridematch.html or call 1-800-427-8249.
Reporter Emily Keller can be reached at (425) 392-6434 ext. 242 or EKeller@isspress.com.
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