Innovative Services
Community Transit’s Innovative Services focuses on partnering with local communities and jurisdictions to test new transportation solutions. We hope these solutions can help provide people with more public transit options and improve their quality of life. These pilot programs often serve as a vital connection to existing transit systems, providing access closer to people's homes and destinations and expanding access to transit for more communities.
How it works
1) City Partnership & Community Focus
Community Transit will partner with cities of all sizes in its service area to pilot these programs. Pilots serve as tests that help us 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.
2) Needs Assessment & Service Selection
Once selected, Community Transit works with these cities to partner on a comprehensive community needs assessment. This assessment identifies travel gaps and barriers to accessing transportation. This process includes learning from residents, working with city staff, and working with a community working group. These stakeholders help us to determine the local area of focus and the type of transportation service to test.
3) 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.
Current Projects
Community Transit is currently developing three Innovative Services pilot projects:
After conducting several community surveys to identify travel needs in these areas, Community Transit has announced it will pilot its microtransit service, Zip Shuttle, in Lake Stevens, Arlington, and Darrington. Community Transit is currently working on launching these new Zip Shuttle pilots. The pilots are targeted to launch in late 2024.
Potential Future Projects
Community Transit surveyed residents in Arlington, Lake Stevens, and Darrington to get their feedback on Community Van as a travel option. Community Van is a van that is parked at a location in a community that people can schedule for local group trips (e.g. transporting a group of high school students to an event). This solution requires that trips have two or more people, and one of those people must be an eligible and trained driver. At least 34% of survey respondents in each town said they would use Community Van. Community Transit will assess this travel solution for each community to determine the best pilot opportunity.
First Pilot Program
Community Transit and the City of Lynnwood partnered to launch the agency's first innovative pilot project to better meet transportation needs within the city. This one-year microtransit pilot launched on October 20, 2022. Microtransit is a flexible transit service that you can request when you need it. Vehicles are typically smaller than traditional buses. Microtransit often operates within a defined service area to get riders close to home or where they want to go.
Zip Alderwood Shuttle
Zip Alderwood Shuttle was the first microtransit pilot at Community Transit, and it was designed with input from community members to help make getting around the area easier. Throughout the pilot period, Community Transit gathered public feedback to develop this program into a travel option that meets the community's needs. As the pilot matured, the on-demand shared ride service became popular with community members, with many repeat customers taking trips on Zip regularly.
Zip has successfully demonstrated high ridership demand during the pilot. By the end of the pilot, Zip served over 1,400 customers, averaging 20 trips per customer, for over 32,500 boardings. The Lynnwood community provided overwhelming support for the service during public engagement period that occurred from August 3 – September 7, 2023, with 94% of respondents supporting the service and its continuation past pilot period. On October 5, 2023, the Board of Directors approved for Zip Alderwood Shuttle to continue as a regular service for Community Transit.