Seattle touting transit numbers 2 years after new fees

The Seattle Department of Transportation is boasting success with transit programs, two years after voters provided funding for increased service.

Residents approved a transportation benefit district for Seattle in 2010. In 2014, voters approved additional funding for that district with car registration fees and taxes.

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The $60 Seattle registration fee adds up to about $50 million each year. It funds bus service. The 2014 funding will last until 2020. Since it was approved:

(SDOT)

• 270,000 annual service hours was added to 68 routes in the first year
• Increased service by more than 30 percent on key transit routes
• Increased access to transit service from 25 percent to 64 percent of Seattle households
• RapidRide ridership has gone up across the system; all buses are meeting their schedules 80 percent of the time.
• 40 percent increase on RapidRide C; up 28 percent on the D Line; up 13 percent on the E Line
• The percentage of low-income residents using ORCA Lift cards doubled; currently at 20 percent of eligible riders
• A total of 2,680 low-income middle and high school students are now using ORCA cards; amounting to 440,000 student ORCA card trips, saving their families about $648,000

The Seattle Department of Transportation has a goal of getting a certain number of residents within a 10-minute walk of a 10-minute transit ride. That number reached 64 percent in 2017, exceeding the city’s goal for 2020. It is within 8 percent of its 2025 goal.

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