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Feb. 26, 2001
Major transit Park-and-Ride expansion planned for King County
Commuters will soon see major relief from crowded park-and-ride lots as thousands of new spaces will be made available over the next three years King County Executive Ron Sims announced today. The additions are part of a regional effort to fast-track the expansion of park-and-ride capacity along key travel corridors in King County. The creation of over 6,400 new spaces by 2004 will allow the County to ease overcrowding and provide relief to commuters trying to get to work.
"When I launched my initiative to expand park-and-ride capacity three years ago, we knew many of our lots were filling fast. We also knew that projected demand would require immediate and aggressive action to expand park-and-ride capacity throughout King County to help prevent congestion from getting worse," Sims said. "Today, I am pleased to announce there are over 6,400 new parking spaces already in the pipeline to ease our severe park-and-ride crunch. These new spaces will provide capacity equal to ten additional lane-miles of roadway. The first of those new spaces will come on line in a few weeks when a new state-owned 650-stall park-and-ride opens in Twin Lakes."
Sims highlighted the status of his Park-and-Rides Initiative today prior to a series of park-and-ride visits with commuters scheduled to begin tomorrow. During the next three weeks, Sims will visit four overcrowded Metro lots that will be seeing some much needed relief in the coming years. Beginning at 7 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday, February 27), Sims will talk with commuters at the Northgate Park-and Ride, with additional visits scheduled for February 28 at the Eastgate Park-and-Ride, March 8 at Star Lake Park-and-Ride, and March 13 at the Issaquah Park-and-Ride lot. Each visit will begin at 7 a.m.
During his visits, Sims will talk with passengers about the County's plans to expand capacity and ask them to share their thoughts about the types of improvements being planned to relieve the park-and-ride crunch in their communities. (See list below of park-and-ride improvements proposed for Eastgate, Northgate, Pacific Highway South and Issaquah Highlands in addition to those being developed through partnerships.)
"When we asked residents last fall to support a measure to preserve and improve Metro Transit, we promised we would make one of the region's most valuable transportation assets even better. Our proposal to expand capacity does just that — the additional parking stalls scheduled to come on line in the next three years will allow Metro to provide additional service more frequently to thousands of new passengers. This added capacity will offer commuters a real alternative to driving alone in congested corridors — and they won't have to wait years to take advantage of these expanded services," Sims said.
According to recent park-and-ride studies commissioned by Metro Transit and the State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), over 11,000 new spaces will be needed in King County by 2020 to meet projected park-and-ride demand. While Metro has added over 600 spaces over the past three years through innovative leasing and shop-and-ride programs, it has been working closely with private developers and other agencies such as WSDOT and Sound Transit to fast-track park-and-ride expansion in key corridors. These early actions are now paying off with agencies combining their efforts to bring the largest new inventory of park-and-ride space on line since the early 1980's. The early implementation of park-and-ride programs is expected to significantly increase bus ridership and expand the number of vanpools and carpools originating from park-and ride lots that are currently operating at capacity.
"WSDOT has a long history of supporting and developing park and ride lots as one tool of many to reduce congestion. We appreciate King County's efforts to provide commuting options to the traveling public through its Park and Ride program," WSDOT Northwest Regional Administrator John Okamoto said.
Information about Metro Transit's 2001-2003 Park-and-Ride Expansion Program and addition park-and-ride lots being developed through partnerships follows below.
Related: King County Executive's Park-and-Rides Initiative
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