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Long Range Planning

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For more information on this project, contact: Roland Behee, Project Manager, (425) 348-2368, or roland.behee@commtrans.org

Long Range Plan

The Long Range Planning Project builds on the Six-Year Transit Development plan, which was adopted by Community Transit’s Board of Directors in January 2008. That plan identified a series of possible transit emphasis corridors that will serve as the backbone of Community Transit’s future route network (see map). The Long Range Plan will refine those corridors and consolidate them with Community Transit’s other initiatives.

The Long Range Plan project kicked off in February 2009. Community Transit, working with our consultant team from Nelson\Nygaard, began by meeting with city officials from throughout Snohomish County, followed by focus groups composed of riders and community leaders. We were anxious to learn about their needs and thoughts about the future of transportation in Snohomish County. Summaries of what we heard from each group are here.

The long range plan will include performance guidelines that will set targets for each Community Transit route and help monitor the system’s performance to determine whether Community Transit is getting value for the taxpayer investment. Route design measures will also inform local jurisdictions about the population densities, development patterns and infrastructure that support effective transit service, helping us to better coordinate future transit services with planned residential and commercial growth.

A strong emphasis on partnerships and coordinated planning will help to ensure that all agencies are working efficiently toward a common transportation vision that will enable more people to "think transit first." The Long Range Transit Plan will be important in helping to define Community Transit’s leadership role in providing transportation solutions for the Puget Sound region.
Projected Growth
Here are some things that we are being told will happen in Snohomish County between now and 2030:
  • The county will be home to 981,000 people, 375,000 more than in 2000. Regional plans, still being refined, call for residential growth to be focused on urban centers such as Everett, Lynnwood and Edmonds.
  • There will be 132,000 new jobs in the county but many county residents will continue commuting to King County.
  • Most of the county’s employment growth will occur in the southwest part of the county. Especially Everett and Lynnwood, but other cities will also experience significant numbers of new jobs.
  • Eastern King County – Bothell, Woodinville, Redmond, and Bellevue – will attract increasing numbers of Snohomish County commuters.
  • New highway and road construction will not keep pace with population growth. Roads – both freeways and city streets – will become more congested. Throughout the county, local jurisdictions see public transportation, especially Community Transit, as an important part of their strategies for maintaining mobility as congestion increases.
  • Sound Transit’s Link Light Rail system will reach Lynnwood within the next 15 years. Community Transit will need to design its services to coordinate with that system.

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Frequently Asked Questions
How far into the future are you planning?
The plan will consider future improvements going out to the year 2030. What trends are likely to affect Community Transit over the next twenty years? While current economic conditions have recently impacted the pace of growth, long-range forecasts continue to project that over the next twenty years, Snohomish County will see its population, employment, and level of economic activity continue to increase. By 2030 the county’s population will increase by 375,000 people, a 60+% increase over year 2000. At the same time, 2 ¼ times more people will use public transportation when commuting to and from work. As a result, Community Transit’s ridership will dramatically increase. Existing and new services will need to accommodate new travel patterns.

What is Community Transit’s Vision?
Community Transit recognizes the need for planning a future that goes well beyond maintaining the system of the past 20 years. The emergence of Sound Transit and efforts to build a sustainable community for the future will impact Community Transit and causes us to re-consider our future. We have adopted a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) of “Think Transit First.” We envision that, in the future, people will view public transportation as their first mode of transportation. The ease and comfort of being transported will make driving their private car a second choice. The Long Range Transit Plan is just one part of our efforts to make our “Think Transit First“ vision a reality.

What is the Long Range Transit Plan?
The Long Range Transit Plan will identify the policies and service strategies that will help Community Transit support the “Think Transit First” vision. More than just a written plan, the Long Range Transit Plan will begin a process of coordinating public transportation services with local communities’ plans. Over time, we look toward development of compact transit oriented communities that are supported by a network of fast, frequent, high quality transit services, operating in transit emphasis corridors.

What is a “transit emphasis corridor?”
A transit emphasis corridor is an arterial street, highway or freeway upon which high levels of transit service are already operated or will be operated in the future. They generally provide high-capacity, direct transit connections between centers within the Southwest Urban Growth Area of Snohomish County. The built environment along transit emphasis corridors, when fully realized, is characterized by high-density, mixed-use development, an emphasis on pedestrian connections and pedestrian-friendly design, limited automobile parking and transit-priority infrastructure allowing buses to bypass traffic congestion.

A mature transit emphasis corridor, will provide bus service at 10 to 15 minute frequency, in both directions, all day, seven days a week. Some transit emphasis corridors will provide Swift Bus Rapid Transit. While some corridors already have frequent bus service, others have very little service or no service.

The objective in identifying the corridors is to enable long-term coordinated land use, infrastructure and transit planning between Community Transit, Snohomish County, local jurisdictions and WSDOT. By documenting and gaining consensus on the future corridor network, the Long Range Transit Plan will help all partners move forward in developing our future transportation system.

What streets are being considered as possible transit emphasis corridors?
Fifteen potential transit emphasis corridors were identified in the 2008-13 Transit Development Plan. This was the starting point for the long range planning process. (For a list of potential corridors, click here). Several additional potential corridors have been added during discussions with local jurisdictions. All these corridors will be considered during subsequent stages of the long range planning project.

How will the public be involved in development of the long range plan?
Community Transit plans to involve community members during each phase of the planning process. Already, project staff members have been meeting with local jurisdictions, gaining a thorough understanding of their plans and likely future development. Focus groups have provided a forum for local citizens and business leaders to share their views and react to future transit proposals. During coming months local citizens will be invited to participate in local planning workshops and other outreach events.

What do communities need to do to ensure high-quality transit service is available?
The Long Range Transit Plan will provide guidelines describing intensities of land use, geographic locations and roadway infrastructure elements that best support the range of transit services offered by Community Transit. These guidelines are intended to facilitate coordinated land use and transit planning helping to ensure the most appropriate bus services for each community. While specific service investments are always subject to available funding and the balance of needs across our transit network, the Long Range Transit Plan will help clarify the service planning process and identify specific steps communities can take to encourage transit market growth.

What does compact, transit-oriented development look like?
A transit-oriented development (TOD) is a mixed-use residential or commercial area designed to maximize access to transportation. Transit-oriented neighborhoods are designed to encourage transit ridership by focusing development around transit stops. This can be a rail station or, in the case of Snohomish County, a Swift station where relatively high density development is located and with lower-density development spreading outwards. Transit-oriented developments usually foster walking by hosting a mix of residential, commercial and public facilities. They usually have excellent pedestrian facilities such as high quality pedestrian crossings, narrow streets, and reduced parking.

Does everyone need to live in a transit-oriented community to make this work?
No. But in order for transit use to grow at the rate needed to enable continued mobility in our region, a substantial portion of future population and employment growth must occur in transit-oriented communities. The highest future transit service levels will be provided in communities that provide the greatest potential market. “Think transit first” will truly be possible in those areas that combine compact, transit-oriented development with high-intensity, corridor-based transit service.

Will Community Transit continue to provide service everywhere in Snohomish County?
Community Transit will continue to provide market-driven, economically-sustainable service in Snohomish County. While the highest level of service will be focused on transit emphasis corridors in the urbanized areas of the County, transit routes will continue to extend beyond this core network to more rural communities as well. Availability of suburban and rural services will be dependent on both the transit market (productivity) and Community Transit’s financial capacity to sustain this service.

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Input So Far
Focus Groups: Riders and Community Leaders Community Transit recruited riders and business leaders from around the area, inviting a cross section of individuals to participate in focus groups in late May 2009. Each two-hour focus group was designed to share information about Community Transit’s Long Range Transit Plan and vision for a corridor-based transit system that encourages riders to “Think Transit First.”

In addition, the focus group was designed to gather feedback from attendees regarding the proposal to move over time to a network of fast, frequent, high-quality transit services operating in transit emphasis corridors. This feedback, briefly summarized below, will, in turn, be used to shape and influence the final plan.
Transit Riders
  1. Participants emphasized that frequency of buses and late night service is critical to ridership along with providing bus shelters and easy access to transit stops.
  2. Participants suggested that Community Transit should communicate to the public that public transit is often faster and more direct than driving when you factor in drive time, looking for parking, and walking from parking to your location.
  3. Frequency was a top priority for the group. Riders agreed that buses on a corridor-based system need to run often and provide easy transfer points. Participants said they would be willing to walk greater distances to bus stops if bus frequency increased, travel time decreased, and walking to the bus stop was easy to navigate and safe.
  4. The group agreed that transfers should be at short intervals and that riders need to be able to see the bus transfer stops easily.
  5. Participants encouraged Community Transit to create fast east-west connections to the new SWIFT buses.
  6. Participants saw transit corridors being more effective than vanpools. They ensure faster trips and more frequent buses for the majority. Transit emphasis corridors reduce overlapping efforts; therefore, it will be important to increase coordination with other transit agencies, especially with Everett Transit.
Community Leaders
  1. The community leaders agreed that more public transit was needed to help support and bolster the region’s growth. They saw the existing service as limited, and somewhat difficult to use, and as an inherent impediment to the area’s economic development.
  2. Integration with other regional transit plans needs to happen to avoid redundancy and provide efficiency to make the whole system work.
  3. Like the transit riders, frequency was a top priority for the group. The business leaders agreed that buses on a corridor-based system need to run often and provide easy transfer points to allow riders to shop or run errands during the work day.
  4. Participants saw the vision of transit emphasis corridors as an initiative that would need national, state, and local coordination for it to be truly successful.
  5. Through this discussion, the business leaders agreed that transit emphasis corridors need to make travelling by bus convenient and affordable to be effective.
  6. The business leaders recognized a subtle societal change working to make people change their habits and think about using public transit first.


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Links
Community Transit understands the importance of coordination in planning transportation solutions for our region. The Long Range Transit Plan must complement and integrate with plans from local jurisdictions, WSDOT, Puget Sound Regional Council and other transit agencies. This coordination will ensure that we develop an efficient and sustainable transportation system for the entire region. The links below represent some key plans, local, regional and state, that Community Transit is considering as we develop the Long Range Transit Plan.

Corridor and Urban Center Plans
Regional Transportation Plans