If you regularly drive along 164th Street Southwest, Snohomish County wants to make you an offer it hopes you won’t refuse.
In an effort to reduce congestion, the county is partnering with the regional bus service, Community Transit, to encourage residents to ride the bus or take a vanpool to their jobs or wherever else they’re going.
The program targets people where they live — in neighborhoods.
Incentives include $45 off the vanpool monthly fare or a free bus pass to the first 100 people who agree to regularly ride the bus instead of drive through October.
“We’re trying to get 100 people to say, ‘Hey, I’ll try riding the bus or joining a vanpool or carpool,” said Community Transit spokesman Martin Mungia.
“We’re hoping to make that somewhat modest goal of reducing 100 vehicle trips a day,” Mungia said. “Long term, we may far exceed that just by telling people about the service that’s out there.”
Jay Larson, transportation specialist for the county’s public works department, said the county-funded project seeks to improve mobility along a busy street the county has declared “at capacity,” meaning there’s no plan to add lanes, which he said would prove too expensive and force businesses and homeowners to move.
Instead, he said, the idea now is to reduce congestion by getting people out of their cars and “reducing trips on the road.”
The idea behind it is based on the 17-year-old state-mandated Commute Trip Reduction program in which employers are required to encourage employees to get to and from work on buses, in car or vanpools or via rail or bicycle.
“We’re going to take that same idea and apply it to residential neighborhoods,” Larson said, adding that Community Transit is hiring a coordinator who’ll be “your personal assistant on how to find other ways to get to work than driving on 164th.”
He said the county expects to expand the program to other areas.
“Using these techniques in residential neighborhoods has actually proven quite successful in places it’s been tested,” he said. “It’s actually been more effective attacking it from the residential side than from the employment side.”
Mungia said every person who opts for an alternative to driving can make a difference.
“For a lot of people, they won’t change their lifestyle,” he said. “But some people might whether it’s a concern for reducing green house gases or saving money. Maybe it’ll save them money to ride the bus around more often.”
The county’s goal is to take 100 vehicle trips a day off the road. If achieved, it’ll increase average vehicle speed 15 to 20 percent, Mungia said.
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