County Connector Passenger Survey Report July 2015
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County Connector Passenger Survey Report July 2015 Prepared by: Mary E. Anderson, Project Manager Whatcom Council of Governments 314 East Champion Street Bellingham, Washington 98225 (360) 676-6974 www.wcog.org [email protected] Thank you to Whatcom Transportation Authority, Skagit Transit and Island Transit for their assistance with this survey. Thank you to Colleen, Donna, Eileen, Greg and Ian for administering the surveys and to Melissa and Elizabeth for helping with data entry. Introduction The County Connector bus service began in 2005 with funding from a two million dollar state appropriation. Island Transit, Skagit Transit (SKAT) and Whatcom Transportation Authority (WTA) initiated a collaborative transit service connecting four counties along state routes. There are four county connector routes as of June 30, 2015. This report summarizes results of the first passenger survey conducted on the county connector service. The County Connector Passenger Survey was funded by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WDOT) using Regional Transportation Planning Organization (RTPO) funds. The Whatcom Council of Governments (WCOG) conducted the survey in March and April of 2015. • Route 80x connects Skagit Station in Mount Vernon with the Bellingham Transit Station in Bellingham, stopping at Lincoln Creek Park and Ride, Alger Park and Ride and Chuckanut Park and Ride. There are eight trips Monday – Friday and four trips on Saturday, shared evenly between Skagit Transit and Whatcom Transportation Authority. • Route 90x connects the Chuckanut Park & Ride to Everett Station (with connections to Seattle), stopping at Skagit Station, South Mount Vernon Park & Ride, Everett Community College and Providence Hospital. There are eleven round trips a day Monday – Friday. It is operated by Skagit Transit. • Route 411W is operated by Island Transit and connects Whidbey Island to March’s Point. The route originates in Oak Harbor and makes a number of stops en route to March’s Point. There are thirteen roundtrips Monday – Friday. Skagit Transit Route 40x adds to this route connecting March’s Point to Skagit Station in Mt. Vernon. Route 40x is considered local service and is not reported with this survey data. • Route 411C is operated by Island Transit and connects Camano Island with Skagit Station, with a few stops in Stanwood (Snohomish County). There are nine roundtrips Monday – Friday. Goals The County Connector Survey had four broad goals: • To show park and ride usage • To show the environmental impact of corridor transit service • To communicate the importance of county connector service to policy makers • To have 80 percent of riders respond to the survey Whatcom Council of Governments County Connector Passenger Survey July 2015 1 Figure 1: County Connector bus routes Whatcom Council of Governments County Connector Passenger Survey July 20152 Methodology There are a total of 82 County Connector runs per day. WCOG worked closely with the transit agencies to develop the survey instrument, choose survey days, develop passenger interview protocols and staff training requirements. WCOG surveyed each route on a Tuesday and a Wednesday for a total of 164 runs. Survey Dates: • 80x & 90x: March 10, 11, 17 & 18 • 411w: April 7 & 8 • 411c: April 14, 15, 21 & 22 WCOG hired and trained five temporary employees to administer surveys. Paper surveys were distributed when passengers boarded the bus. The one-page survey form was printed in English on one side and Spanish on the other. As an incentive for taking the survey passengers were given a pen with the inscription “I ride the county connector”. Route Identification Each transit run has a distinct departure time, date and location. Each run was given a unique identification code that included the route name, the direction of travel, the day of the week and the run number. For example: 411wSBW1. Results Route Total Miles A total of 1,450 passengers filled out a survey form. Ten percent of those surveyed were on route 411C, 411c 1,896 24 percent on route 411W, 30 percent on route 90x and 36 percent on route 80x. The distribution of 411w 4,106 survey responses per route is shown in Figure 2. The total estimated passenger miles for the survey 80x 12,980 participants is 33,238. 90x 14,256 Grand Total 33,238 Table 1: Passenger miles. Whatcom Council of Governments County Connector Passenger Survey July 2015 3 Analysis: A total of 1,450 people filled out a survey and the reported ridership during the survey period was 1,812. A total of 80 percent of passengers filled out a survey card. Detailed ridership for each route is shown in Table 2. The distribution of ridership on Northbound (NB) and Southbound (SB) route is balanced; the rest of this document reports total ridership by route and does not call out NB or SB. Unless otherwise noted, results are reported as a percentage of the total number of riders that filled out a survey. 1,450 Riders Surveyed 411c NB 411c SB 5% 90x SB 5% 14% Percent of Riders who Route Surveys Ridership Took Survey 411w NB 90x 436 509 86% 13% 80x 526 649 81% 411w 336 461 73% 90x NB 411c 152 193 79% 16% SUM 1450 1812 80% 411w SB Table 2: Ridership and percent of riders who took 11% survey 80x SB 18% 80x NB 18% n = 1,450 Figure 2: Percentage of riders surveyed by route and direction Whatcom Council of Governments County Connector Passenger Survey July 2015 4 Question 1: What is your zip code? Figure 3: Map of Passenger Zip Code Residences. Each dot represents one person that filled out a survey. A green dot in the 98229 zip code means that a person living in zip code 98229 rode the 80x. Whatcom Council of Governments County Connector Passenger Survey July 20155 Analysis: Relative to where riders live, 80x is a two-way flow as evidenced by significant amounts of passenger residences on each end of the route. 90x serves more of a southbound flow. Both services draw a significant portion of ridership from areas east of the I-5 corridor. n = 1,262 Figure 4: Zip codes of passengers. Only zip-codes with ten or more responses are included in this chart. Whatcom Council of Governments County Connector Passenger Survey July 2015 6 Question 4: Where will you get off this bus? Figure 5: Disembark Location. Each dot represents one person that disembarked from the bus. Whatcom Council of Governments County Connector Passenger Survey July 20157 Question 4: Where will you get off this bus? Since boarding and disembark locations are nearly identical only disembark locations are shown in this report. Figure 6: Disembark location of 80x passengers. Figure 7: Disembark location of 90x passengers. Whatcom Council of Governments County Connector Passenger Survey July 2015 8 Figure 8: Disembark location of 411w passengers. Figure 9: Disembark location of 411c passengers. Whatcom Council of Governments County Connector Passenger Survey July 2015 9 Question 3: How did you get to the bus stop? Although the question didn’t ask respondents to choose more than one arrival mode, some did. This is why there are 1,522 mode choice responses for the 1,450 completed surveys. There did not seem to be an effective way to determine the most pertinent response so all are reported. How did you get to the bus stop? Walk Bus Parked Car Dropped Off by Car Bicycle Other Train 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% Percent of People 411c 411w 80x 90x n = 1,522 Figure 10: Arrival mode to bus stop. Analysis: Nearly 35 percent of people walked to the bus stop, followed closely by taking another bus. About 13 percent drove a car and parked it while about 12 percent were dropped off by car. Only people who took the 90x connected to the route via train. Both the Everett Station and the Skagit Station are served by trains. The high percentage of people who walked to the boarding location shows the value of transit proximity. While overall boardings at park and ride locations are very high, the percentage of those passengers who parked a car at those locations is relatively low. Whatcom Council of Governments County Connector Passenger Survey July 2015 10 Question 5: When you get off this bus, how will you continue to your next destination? As with boarding mode, we didn’t specify for people to choose more than one disembark mode, however some did. This is why there are 1,531 mode choice responses while only 1,450 people took the survey. There is no way to determine the most pertinent response so we reported all of them. When you get off this bus, how will you continue to your next destination? Bus Walk Parked Car Picked Up by Car Bicycle Other Train 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% Percent of People 411c 411w 80x 90x n = 1,531 Figure 11: Transportation mode to next destination. Analysis: The high rate (nearly 45%) of bus connections illustrates effective integration with other regional and local transit service such as Community Transit and the Sounder train and that the County Connector is part of a larger service framework providing transportation along the entire I-5 corridor in Washington. Whatcom Council of Governments County Connector Passenger Survey July 2015 11 Question 6: What city is your final destination in? Mount Vernon is the most common destination with 21 percent of passengers naming it as their final destination. It is followed by Bellingham, Oak Harbor and Everett. 64 percent of riders surveyed named one of those four cities as their final destination. Only cities that had ten or more responses are shown in Table 3.