Community Transit

Community Transit's Rich History

Over the past three decades, Community Transit has grown from a small, local bus service into a leader in local and regional transportation. From a thriving vanpool program to the region's first double decker bus and rapid transit line, Community Transit has been at the forefront of helping Snohomish County residents to think transit first.

Community Transit began service Oct. 4, 1976, after voters in Lynnwood, Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace, Brier, Woodway, Marysville and Snohomish agreed to form their own local transit agency. With 18 leased GMC buses, Community Transit began serving seven routes in those communities.

That first year, Community Transit buses provided 951,200 rides. As one long-time driver recalled, the agency didn't have specific stops on routes back then. Drivers had to keep a sharp eye out for riders, who would flag down a passing bus.

Three decades later, Community Transit has 269 coaches that provide service to most of Snohomish County, the University of Washington, Downtown Seattle and the Eastside. After beginning with non-existent bus stops, the agency now serves more than 2,100 stops, including 20 park and ride lots with more than 6,100 parking stalls, with the four-story Mountlake Terrace Parking Garage set to open in early 2009.

Community Transit operates 33 local and 31 commuter bus routes and carries 57 percent of all Snohomish County-Seattle commuters to work and back. In 2007, Community Transit provided more than 10 million passenger rides, a record for the agency.

Growth has been a big part of Community Transit's history. Since starting in the seven original communities, citizens in every city in the county except Everett have voted to join the agency: Monroe and Lake Stevens in 1977; Stanwood, Granite Falls, Mukilteo and Sultan in 1979; Arlington in 1980; Gold Bar, Index and Startup in 1981; Oso and Darrington in 1982; Mill Creek in 1983 and Bothell in 1992. In addition, Community Transit provides countywide commuter service into and out of Everett.

Buses are only part of Community Transit's success over the past quarter-century. The agency's flourishing vanpool program - one of the largest vanpool fleets in the nation - carried about 3,000 passengers each weekday in 2007. Also, the DART paratransit program helped provide mobility for an average of 670 disabled passengers a day in 2007, taking them to everything from medical appointments to entertainment events.

As a regional transportation player, Community Transit is contracted to operate five Sound Transit routes from Snohomish County to King County. Community Transit helped develop the Puget Pass, which allows riders to use one pass on transit systems in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties and is working on a regional smart card system. Community Transit also works with more than 80 employer worksites on Commute Trip Reduction programs, which lower the number of single occupancy vehicles on our busy roads.

In 2007, Community Transit became one of the nation's first transit agencies to put a double decker bus into regular commuter service. The "Double Tall" is able to carry nearly twice the number of passengers as a typical articulated bus in a much smaller footprint. In 2009, Community Transit will become the first agency in the region to have a rapid transit system when Swift goes into service. Serving the busy Highway 99 corridor between Everett and Shoreline, the train-like buses will make stops every 10 minutes and gives commuters an exciting and efficient new way to get around.

Clearly, the agency that once made up its own stops as it went along is now helping the entire region move forward.

Community Transit Facts

Agency

• More than 11.8 million passenger trips in 2008 (a record!)
• 33 local routes, 31 commuter routes
• 918 employees, including contracted services
• Service area: 1,305 square miles
• Service area population: 494,400 (December 2008)
• 21 Park & Ride lots with 6,736 parking spaces

Fleet

• 282 fixed route buses
• 410 vanpool vans
• 55 DART paratransit vehicles
• Average bus age: 7.5 years
• Annual ultra low-sulfur diesel fuel usage: 1.8 million gallons
• 231 buses on the road during weekday peak hours
• 14.4 million miles traveled in 2007 (5.8M local, 2.5M commuter, 2M DART, 4.1M vanpool)

Other Community Transit Facts

• Our buses carry 40,000 passengers on an average weekday
• About 8,500 passengers travel to and from downtown Seattle on our buses each weekday
• Another 3,300 passengers travel to and from the University of Washington on our buses each weekday
• Our vanpools carry about 3,000 passengers each weekday
• Our busiest route, Route 101 on Hwy. 99, carried more than 1.1 million passengers in 2007
• Our longest local route is Route 277 from Gold Bar to Boeing, 40 miles
• Our longest commuter route is Route 422 from Stanwood to Seattle, 54 miles
• Average local bus ride is five miles; average commuter bus ride is 21 miles
• Our longest vanpool commute is 165 round-trip miles from Marysville to Bremerton Naval Base
• Without Community Transit commuter buses, I-5 would need to be widened by two lanes in each direction between Everett and Seattle to handle rush-hour traffic
• The Alderwood mall area is served by 10 Community Transit routes, providing 24 trips per hour each weekday
• Community Transit has six routes serving Boeing-Everett and the Paine Field area
• Community Transit DART paratransit service provides mobility to an average of 700 passengers a day who might not otherwise be able to get around

Public Transportation Facts

• In 2006, more than 10 billion trips were taken on public transportation nationwide
• Each year, public transportation saves the United States 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline. That is almost four million gallons of gas each day
• Public transportation produces 95 percent less carbon monoxide, 90 percent less volatile organic compounds, and about half as much carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, per passenger mile, as private vehicles
• Every dollar communities invest in public transportation generates $6 in economic returns