TACOMA — It took just three months for Sarah Evans to second-guess her 90-minute bumper-to-bumper morning commute up I-5 from Tacoma to Seattle.
“I would look around and say why are all of us in a car that has five seats, and we’re all sitting here by ourselves, angry? It was just ridiculous,” the 30-year-old attorney said recently while sipping her coffee on the Sounder commuter train.
Evans is now a regular on the 7:20 a.m. train run by Sound Transit, the regional transit authority for greater Seattle. The train gets her to Seattle in an hour, saving money for gas and parking and — more importantly — aggravation.
“I can relax on the train instead of worrying about what’s happening on I-5,” she said.
With people looking to escape rising gas costs and traffic gridlock, the use of public transportation by regular commuters like Evans is expected to increase, which in turn could help the state meet new goals of cutting vehicle miles traveled in half over the next four decades.
Nationally, public transportation use is at its highest level in five decades, and up 32 percent since 1995, according to the American Public Transportation Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group.
In Washington state, a new climate change law calls for reducing vehicle miles by 18 percent by 2020, 30 percent by 2035 and 50 percent by 2050, starting from a statewide baseline of 75 billion miles per year.
The law exempts trucks weighing 10,000 pounds or more, as well as other vehicles like buses, tractors and for-hire vehicles that seat more than six.
“People drive because they need to get somewhere,” said Linda Robson, spokeswoman for Sound Transit, which has seen its ridership steadily increase since the Sounder started running in 2000.
“If driving is the thing that gets them home sooner and is more convenient for them, that’s the choice they’re going to make. If we offer choices that make transit the more convenient option, people will do it.”
The state hopes that they can build on the increasing interest that commuters have in finding more stress-free and cheaper ways to get where they’re going.
By July, a collaboration of the Department of Ecology, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Community Trade and Economic Development will start working on ideas on how to reduce the number of miles traveled as well as how to measure progress.
The three state agencies’ ideas must be presented to the Legislature by Dec. 1. The report must also include projections on reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as recommendations on ensuring there is enough public transportation in areas with affordable housing.
Opponents to the measure call it a mandate that is trying to force people out of their cars.
“They always start out with a small bill and then five years later it’s a big bill,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla. “All of these goals will become mandates. We believe the market should take care of itself.”
But Brian Lagerberg, assistant director of public transportation for the state Department of Transportation, said no one knows how far the market will go on its own.
“Certainly we would hope and encourage the market to answer most of the questions,” Lagerberg said. “But to the extent that we can create incentives, that we can structure a transportation system in place, that makes the market that much more successful.”
The state already tries to reduce vehicle travel and helps subsidize programs like vanpooling and the commute trip reduction program, which requires large employers in the state’s most populated counties to offer incentives such as subsidized bus passes and flexible work schedules.
But as gas prices go up, so does interest in finding alternate ways to get around. In the United States, people used public transportation more than 10 billion times last year, according to the transit association.
Light rail, which includes streetcars and trolleys, had the highest percentage of ridership increase, with a 6.1 percent increase in 2007. Heavy commuter trains — like the Sounder — increased nationally by 5.5 percent.
Nationally, bus use only increased by 1 percent in 2007. But in Seattle — where light rail is still under construction — it had the highest increase compared to other cities at 7.5 percent. Denver was next with a 7 percent increase.
Sound Transit’s commuter train had a ridership increase last year of more than 27 percent from the year before, and Robson said there has been double-digit growth every year since service began in 2000.
William Millar, president of the national group, said there’s no one single reason that public transportation has increased.
Population increases in places like Washington state, rising gas prices and easier, more convenient forms of public transportation all play a role.
“If it fits their lifestyle, they’ll use it; if it doesn’t, they won’t,” he said.
Jessyn Farrell, executive director of Transportation Choices Coalition, a Washington state advocacy group, said the focus in the next few months will be to figure out how to encourage people to get out of their cars. Reaching the state’s first benchmark goals for 2020 could be achieved by people ditching their car commute just one day a week, she said.
“The idea isn’t that we stop driving,” Farrell said. “There’s nothing more flexible than driving around. But there’s also that demand for getting out of your car. People don’t like to sit in traffic. If there’s a really good alternative, people will take it.”
On the Web
Washington state Department of Transportation: www.wsdot.wa.gov
American Public Transportation Association: www.apta.com
Transportation Choices Coalition: www.transportationchoices.org
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