Summary

Transportation in King County received a big boost from the 2023-2024 King County budget, approved Tuesday by the King County Council. At 20% of the total $16.2 billion County budget, the Metro budget includes significant investments advanced by Council Chair Claudia Balducci that make King County’s transportation system safer, easier to use and more accountable.

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Transportation in King County received a big boost from the 2023-2024 King County budget, approved Tuesday by the King County Council. At 20% of the total $16.2 billion County budget, the Metro budget includes significant investments advanced by Council Chair Claudia Balducci that make King County’s transportation system safer, easier to use and more accountable.

“Our transportation needs continue to grow and evolve quickly with changing travel patterns emerging since COVID-19 and as people move continue to move further away to be able to afford housing,” Balducci said. “I’m proud that this budget reflects that need and have championed several additions to drive us toward a future where sustainable transportation options are available for people to get everywhere they need to go safely and easily. It is more imperative than ever that we provide a full range of mobility options to connect people to opportunity and all the places they need to go.”

Key transportation additions made by Balducci in the budget include:

• Restart Rapid Ride K Line. Adds $7 million for planning and design for the pandemic delayed RapidRide K Line. When implemented, the K Line will run fast, frequent and reliable transit service between the Totem Lake Transit Center in Kirkland, downtown Bellevue, and Eastgate Park & Ride in Bellevue.
• E-bike rebate program plan. Adds a provision to study and propose an e-bike rebate pilot program for low-income residents who want to purchase e-bikes, like successful programs in Colorado and Oregon.
• Intelligent Speed Assistance feasibility study. Requesting a study to assess the viability of installing Intelligent Speed Assistance in up to 1,400 county vehicles to demonstrate how this technology could improve roadway safety while also reducing costs for the County.

Providing over 238,000 weekday boardings in September, Metro Transit is one of the most visible and important ways the County serves its residents. To ensure Metro is the best it can be, Balducci added three requirements in the budget to increase oversight and transparency for Metro: 

• Critical oversight as Metro transitions to an all-electric fleet. As Metro embarks on its historic project to transition to an all-electric transit fleet by 2035, the budget asks the King County Auditor’s Office to review Metro’s electrification capital program to ensure it is building the best all-electric transit system possible. This report will monitor Metro’s electrification progress, explore best practices and provide the Council and the public essential information to assess how well Metro’s project to green the fleet is going.
• Assess bus shelter cleaning. With ridership at roughly half pre-pandemic levels, Metro Transit must work hard to welcome back transit riders. Clean, safe and inviting bus stops are integral to creating a transit system people want to use. The budget asks Metro to prepare a report by spring 2023 with specific information about bus shelter cleaning standards/goals, projected timelines for meeting those goals, and what strategies and/or resources will be needed moving forward.
• Restructure Metro Transit service to meet the needs of transit riders. After nearly three years of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s time to assess how King County’s transit system is serving its riders and to create the new post-pandemic ridership reality for transit riders now. The budget requires detailed reports prior to each major service change in 2023 and 2024 so the County can focus transit service to places where demand exists and is growing.