Innovative Services
Community Transit’s Innovative Services focuses on partnering with local communities and jurisdictions to test new transportation solutions to help provide people with more public transit options and improve their quality of life. These pilot programs will often serve as a vital connection to existing transit systems, providing access closer to people's homes and destinations and helping expand access to transit for more communities.
How it works
City Partnership & Community Focus
Community Transit will partner with cities of all sizes in its service area to pilot these programs as tests to learn from and potentially replicate in other communities. Communities for these pilots are chosen based on criteria such as population density, access to jobs, demographics/equity index, and current access to transit services.
Needs Assessment & Service Selection
Once selected, Community Transit works with these cities to partner on a comprehensive community needs assessment to identify travel gaps and barriers to accessing transportation. Through this process, Community Transit will research residents and work with city staff and a community working group to determine the local area of focus and the type of transportation service to test.
Service Pilot & Evaluation
The type of service for each pilot may vary. Community Transit partners closely with each respective community to customize a service that is most effective for their needs. The success of these pilots will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to determine if the service will continue long-term. This will be based on ridership and other relevant data from the pilot.
Lynnwood Pilot Program
Community Transit and the City of Lynnwood are partnering to develop and launch the agency’s first innovative pilot project to better meet transportation needs within the city.
Why Lynnwood?
Lynnwood was selected for this pilot program because of its large population size and many popular destinations. Lynnwood will also be the site of the northern terminal for Link light rail in 2024. A comprehensive needs assessment identified travel gaps and barriers to accessing transportation in fast-growing areas of Lynnwood. This resulted in focusing on a microtransit solution to test.
What is Microtransit?
Microtransit is a flexible transit service that you request when you need it. Microtransit runs within in a zone to get riders close to home or where they want to go. Riders request pick-up and drop-off at a time that works for them by using a phone app or calling. The fare for microtransit will be the same as local bus fare.
Alderwood Shuttle Launching Fall 2022
Alderwood Shuttle microtransit service was designed with assistance from community members to help make getting around the area easier. This will be a one-year pilot, launching in the Fall of 2022. Community Transit will continue gathering public feedback during this period to develop this program into a travel option that meets the community's needs.
Future Service Pilots
Community Transit has made the decision to move forward with the initial assessment phase for three new pilot programs. After much consideration of various criteria, including population density, access to jobs, demographics/equity index, and current access to transit services, Community Transit is beginning initial discussions with the cities of Lake Stevens, Arlington, and Darrington. The next step will be to work with these cities to partner on a needs assessment to determine the specific location within these cities and the type of transit service to test.