The Seattle region is nestled between Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains, leaving a long and narrow corridor. An Interstate that serves as an international trade corridor and a critical gateway to ports of Asia, along with a population growth nearly twice as large as when the Interstate first opened, has created extreme congestion. In TomTom’s annual traffic index, the region ranked 4th for most congested region in the United States.
From downtown Seattle to downtown Everett, where Community Transit is located, it’s about 28 miles on I-5. For a 90 percent reliable commute, Emmet Heath, Community Transit CEO, said you’re looking at 90 minutes to go from Everett to Seattle.
The cost of living in Seattle is skyrocketing and as it’s the largest, most dense employment center of the region, most of the people working there can’t afford to live there. “It’s forcing people out to the perimeter to live,” Heath explained. People being pushed out to live a long way from where they earn their livelihood is the biggest disruption they’re dealing with, he said.
“If you go out and talk to people about what contributes to their quality of life, in almost every case, they’re going out of their way to access something that adds quality of life: a job for income, education, recreation …” said Heath. “Our strategy here is to provide an appealing choice to get people from where they are to where they want to be, because that’s how they access quality of life.”
Regional Connector
Community Transit is a commuter system that started in 1976 after voters in seven cities within Snohomish County agreed to form a local transit agency. Since that time, the agency has continued to grow its service; residents in every city in the county except Everett has voted to join the agency.
The city of Everett started its city transit system in the 1880s and they’ve been very proud of it ever since. As Heath said, when you’re in that situation, local control is very important. While there have been discussions of consolidation, the emphasis, Heath said, is trying to get the two to work together in a more seamless way for the benefit of the customer.
“We have some great partnerships in place,” Heath said of working with the city transit system. “Great personal relationships in place with the mayor, with the transit division director … still, I think there’s room for improvement in the services that are provided.”
He added, “They are a donut hole in our service area and they don’t provide the same level of service that we do and I don’t believe they are in a heavy financial posture or a revenue base to keep pace with our growth.
“Our six-year plans include about $1.3 billion worth of capital and operating investment,” Heath explained. “That includes, in addition to the high-capacity transit build-out, a 40 percent increase in the amount of fixed-route service hours, and that’s all around Everett, not so much through it, so you can imagine as that network continues to expand around them in terms of span coverage, frequency of coverage, it’s just going to increasingly highlight the different level of service.”
Meeting Demand
Community Transit is building out Swift, its high-capacity bus rapid transit, and its transit service to expand its network in the county. In 2024, Sound Transit is expected to open its northern leg in Community Transit’s service area at the Lynwood Transfer Center. In 2036 Sound Transit will expand further north, into Everett.
The Swift Blue Line extension to the south will connect to Sound Transit’s future Link light rail station. The 12.5-mile Green Line will connect the Canyon Park area in the southern part of the county and the 65,000 jobs of the Boeing Everett Factory and Paine Field. The future Orange Line will tie in to what will be Link’s northern terminus.
When June Devoll, manager of strategic planning & grants, came to Community Transit, she said the agency already had done the feasibility study for what is now the Swift BRT program. The Blue Line opened in 2009 and is Community Transit’s most popular route, with almost 20 percent of the daily ridership riding that one route.
The Seaway Transit Center was designed as a stand-alone regional transit hub; they had committed to that project before they were able to commit to the Swift Green Line BRT, but it will serve as a terminus for the Green Line.
The projects Community Transit is working on serve more than the county, they connect it to the region. Heath said, “We talk about the customer of old generally going from origin to destination in one seat with one carrier, and now it’s multiple modes, multiple agencies — there’s a regional dialogue that goes along with our increased efforts to solicit federal funding for those projects with local and regional importance.”
When it comes to federal funding, he said the continuation of that partnership is going to be really important as they build out the system in the future.
For the Seaway Transit Center, they purchased the property from Snohomish County Public Utility District and the city of Everett donated some street right of way at no cost to the project.
When it comes to the transit center, Heath said it was all about, “location, location, location. It is at the front door of the Boeing company,” he said. “I love to quote that there are about 36,000 people working at the Boeing Company. They have about 27,000 parking stalls.”
When the Green Line opens, approximately 12,000 of the Boeing employees will be within a five-minute walk to either the Blue Line or the Green Line.
Heath reiterated, “That’s 10-minute, high-capacity transit service right to their front door. As part of the partnership with Boeing, they are designing a process to use their own fleet of vehicles to pick up their customers at our transit center and distribute them to their final work destination.” He stressed, “I think that’s a great example of a public-private cooperation to get people to all the way — talk about a last-mile solution. You’re dropped off at the door where you work.”
Looking at the population of the service area, in 2024 when the lines are open, 75 percent of the service area will be within about a 5-minute walk of a transit stop.
“We’ve got a really good BRT,” Devoll said. “We really followed the characteristics of the bus rapid transit report that the FTA put out and tried to incorporate all of the elements, short of a fixed guideway.”
The Green Line, which will open in 2019, is under construction. It includes three major capital projects: some bus-only lanes to cross Interstate-5, the Seaway Transit Center, and the new BRT stations.
They are just finishing up the feasibility study for the third line, the Orange Line.
Soon they will be starting the feasibility study for the Blue Line extension, extending it another mile-and-a-half to meet with Link light rail. Devoll said as they look at extending that, they will go back and look at the entire alignment for speed and reliability improvements.
“We do what’s called overlay BRT,” Devoll explained. “We still have a local route running in the corridor but our BRT only stops about every mile so we get a little more speed, a little longer distances.” The BRT gets about a 30 percent reduction in travel time.
“It’s difficult taking away travel lanes in highly congested areas. It’s not something we’ve really been able to do on the Blue Line; it’s a seven-lane profile,” Devoll said. However, they’ve been able to add some spot treatments to improve speed with partial BAT lanes. The business access and transit lanes gives the bus some speed and reliability to get past choke points.
To get precision docking, the Swift stations have a 4-inch curb bumper at the face of the curb. The drivers are taught that when they approach the station, they put the front tire on the curb bumper and they pull up along there. On the station there are “welcome matts,” which show the customer exactly where the doors are going to be and shows the driver where to put the doors.
Wider doors give extra space to allow two-way traffic through the door at the spots. Devoll said the goal with Swift is 10-second dwell times.
As projects progress, in addition to traditional public hearings, Community Transit has been using social media to get their message to a larger audience.
“I’m not a huge social media user, but when you do the traditional public hearings … you have a roomful of consultants … and you have 10 people show up, as opposed to Martin [Munguia] and I sitting in front of a camera for half-an-hour and we had 2,000 hits,” Devoll explained. “There’s a much better way to get your message across.”
Double Talls
Some of the Community Transit routes are nearly 70 miles long, where people are getting on a bus, going all the way into the city. The biggest challenges they have are roadway congestion and having enough buses to meet the demand of the people that want to ride them. With a double-decker bus, they can get 77 seats in a 40-foot bus, as opposed to 60 seats in a 60-foot bus.
Devoll was previously at the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas, where they had a prototype double-decker. “They brought it up [to Community Transit], we had it for two weeks and we did static displays at park-and-rides and did surveys … We gathered data for two weeks,” she said.
Community Transit worked with the manufacturer to build one bus that they le=ased for three years. They tested it out, including how it would work in their roadway configurations.
The leased double-decker was so incredibly popular, they had to go on the website every day and list which trip it was on so people knew where to find it.
Community Transit’s first purchase was a partnership between Alexander Dennis and ElDorado National. With the initial order, Devoll said there were some learning opportunities but that the customers loved them. Customers say they’re very comfortable and have great views.
During a tour of the yard, Community Transit Manager of Contracted Transportation Wade Mahala pointed out they have three different year models with the original double deckers being about 6 inches shorter than the newer ones.
The buses are also incredibly resilient to the weather conditions. While the area doesn’t get snow often, when they do, the area shuts down.
“We tend to have a process that in snow conditions, we ground our artics,” said Devoll. “They don’t run will in snow and Seattle is all-hill.
Mahala said during snow, they take the weight off of the tag axle on the double talls and all the weight goes under the drive axle. “We’ve never had to put chains on these,” he said. “You can just pull out of snow and they drive phenomenally.”
“We have never had a snow problem with a double decker. Ever,” Devoll said. “They pull right out of the snow. A lot of that has to do with the way that they are built.” She explained, “When you stand on a double decker, 70 percent of the weight of that vehicle is below your waist. You think they’re top heavy, just being on the vehicle … but it is heavily distributed along the bottom.”
When she was at RTC and they brought the first ones to Las Vegas, they had to make sure the vehicle coming in the United States met all of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). There was one requirement the bus couldn’t meet, Devoll explained. “That was the rollover standard because the bus can’t roll.
“There’s so much weight that if it were ever to tip, that bottom can’t come back over it. It literally — the laws of physics prevent it from meeting that standard.”
When they were bringing the double-decker buses to Community Transit, they had a planned base modernization so they were able to incorporate changes to meet the needs of the double talls.
Some of the considerations include doors that are tall enough, soffits that don’t hang too low and a bus wash that can accommodate a double-decker. Devoll said the bus wash was the only thing that absolutely had to be modified.
In the maintenance bays, they have maneuverable lifts so they work with all of their vehicles. Mike Swehla, maintenance manager with First Transit, the contractor for Community Transit’s maintenance, said part of the remodel was putting in Stertil-Koni eco90 lift systems. Typically there will be one fixed position and one to two moveable positions to accommodate the different vehicles.
Mahala said the double talls have less maintenance and better fuel mileage than the artics. Swehla gave some round numbers, with their artics getting about five miles per gallon and the double-deckers getting four. As for labor hours per year, he said they’re saving between 30 to 40 hours per average per vehicle.
Devoll said of double-decker buses, “The one thing that you probably have to be really cautious about if you buy them, before you put them on a new route or reroute, make sure you’ve tested the route first.” She said the supervisors at the base have a folding yardstick that is 14-feet tall and they will go drive a new route with that stick.
Employee Uptime
A benefit to employees — that has also helped Community Transit’s bottom line — is the Employee Maintenance Center, an onsite facility for employees to get treatment for injuries and education for risk prevention.
The building itself belongs to Community Transit, but they contract out the operations to the health and wellness program manager InjuryFree. Community Transit pays about $30,000 per month to InjuryFree.
InjuryFree combines the principles of biophysics and ergonomics with education awareness as its approach to risk reduction and injury prevention. They work to reduce the risk of workplace injuries and treat injuries quickly to help the employer maintain productivity goals, reduce absenteeism, and lower worker’s compensation costs.
An employee can go in for an initial evaluation, get a treatment plan and come in once or twice a week based on his or her schedule, and it’s all free to the employee.
Munguia said there were a number of board members understandably skeptical of who was going to use it and how it was going to be used. After the first year of statistics were presented, everyone has been on board with the program.
Prior to the opening of the EMC, the average monthly cost of workers compensation was just over $103,500, but since opening, that amount has decreased to $78,000. The $25,000 savings is expected to increase as the old worker compensation claims run their course.
In addition to claim reductions, according to Chris Beck, acting human resource manager with Community Transit, the agency has experienced decreases in operations staff calling out sick or injured. Beck also stated via email, “… better than the decrease in WC cost and the increase in our employee attendance is the positive impact the EMC has had on our employees.”
Munguia himself had a knee injury, unrelated to work, but was able to come in, get a treatment plan, and had about four months of treatment, learning the things he needed to do on his own, including the right kind of stretching and exercises. He was able to walk from his office, get treatment, and walk back to work.
Darshita Dalal, a lead physical therapist with Injury Free, said they see a variety of conditions, from headaches, backaches or other injuries.
“It’s based on prevention and we have many technologies unique to spinal strengthening,” she explained. “Things you see in a typical rehabilitation facility, as well as advanced technologies and some unique state-of-the-art equipment that’s not easy to find.” She stressed, “The goal is to help prevent injuries before it becomes a complaint.”
The center is open from 7:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and sees between 60 and 70 appointments a day. The treatments and protocols are designed so they’re quick in-and-out, so employees can get the treatment they need and get back to their job.
Since the EMC opened three years ago, there have been 38,902 visits. Community Transit has just under 700 employees and of those, 428 have been seen at the EMC.
The Customer Experience
Community Transit exists to serve the customer but as technology evolves, disruptions occur, and the needs of the customers change. Molley Marsicek, customer experience director, was brought on board to ensure the needs of the customers are met.
Munguia said they previously had a customer relations director but the view was “customer relations” was about answering complaints. “This was, by the name change itself, conveyed that we’re putting ourselves in the customer’s shoes and trying to see what we can do as an agency to match what the customers are saying in those complaints.”
“We work for the public,” Marsicek said. “The people here, they have really big hearts already, but tying the emotional piece of what the customer’s wants and needs are and showing the people how fun it is to solve those.
“There’s a lot of really deep knowledge of transit here,” she continued, “but I think when you have a lot of deep knowledge, you might lose track of what customers know or encounter or experience …”
The position is relatively new, so she has started with a focus on her own department, focusing on vanpools. Community Transit has had a great vanpool forever, but this is about connecting with the customers more, in a different way, Marsicek said.
“It’s really involving our customers in the decision making and joining that with the history and knowledge of what people already have,” she said. “You kind of need both sides of that in order to identify what some of those problems are and try to solve them best.”
They are going to be buying new vans and as part of involving the customers, they’ve done surveys and had customers out to test out new vehicles. They brought a bunch of vans that were available to purchase, customers could drive them and vote on what they wanted.
“People are learning and seeing, acquiring different knowledge from our customers and then everybody’s a part of it,” said Marsicek.
As things evolve, she said some people want to know if the change is done. “We will not be the same thing every single day,” she explained. “The change will continue because our customer’s expectations change.
“I take a really pragmatic view of what makes the most sense to deliver on our customer’s needs and how do we align skills and resources in order to accomplish that. Once it’s arranged correctly and people are delivering to their biggest strength and value, then they’re more empowered to do what they need to do and that becomes exciting for people.”
She added, “But it does shake the tree a little bit to get out of the same path that we’ve always been in but the end result is so much better for the customers.”
She said she’s also encouraging team members to reach out to different industries. “Go expand and learn different things and bring that back in,” she said of conferences they attend. “Go to something different this year, no things you went to last year.
“They have vast amounts of knowledge; I’m not sure they need to go to some of the traditional ones every single year.”
Heath said of adapting to disruption, “I think from a leadership perspective, it’s coaching the agency to be comfortable adapting, comfortable with ambiguity, competent in the ability to adapt as things change.”
An important focus when facing disruption is to embrace it, not to fight it, he said.
“The leadership dynamics of getting an organization comfortable with adapting, that’s an important focus for me.”
