Annual Reports – 2014 STBD Prop 1.
Under the Seattle Transportation Benefit District 2014 Proposition 1, annual reports were released in fall of each year, covering activities and milestones from the last reporting years (July to June).
Under the 2020 Seattle Transit Measure (STM), annual reports will be released in spring of each year, covering the previous calendar year (January to December). The first annual report under STM is scheduled for release in spring 2022, covering July 2020 through December 2021 (to account for the shift in reporting year).
Seattle Transportation Benefit District 2014 Proposition 1 Reports
Year 1 Annual Report
In the first year of the program, we added 270,000 annual service hours added-equivalent to 61 buses running 12 hrs. per day, 365 days a year. This added service on 85% of Seattle's routes. See "STBD By The Numbers" below, and download a full version of the report to learn more.
The above graphic summarizes the progress and achievements for the first year of the Seattle Transportation Benefit District’s transit service purchase and transportation equity programs.
Year 2 Annual Report
In the second year of the program, we’ve increased the availability of frequent transit throughout the city, improved late night and early morning transit options, and increased access to transit for low-income students and families. See “STBD By The Numbers” below, and download a full version of the report to learn more.
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The above graphic summarizes the progress and achievements for the second year of the Seattle Transportation Benefit District’s transit service purchase and transportation equity programs. After investments in September 2017, the percent of Seattle households within a 10-minute walk of 10-minute or better transit service has reached 64%, which exceeds our 2020 goal by 11% and puts us within 8% of our 2025 goal. These frequency investments are accompanied by increases in the span of service and availability of additional transit options on nights and weekends, which all add up to an increase in service of more than 30% on the the 15 routes with the greatest amount of STBD investment. Overall these investments are being met with ridership increases, especially on the three RapidRide routes that serve the City of Seattle: Ridership on RapidRide C, D, and E Lines is up, 40%, 28%, and 13%, respectively.
As a part of STBD’s effort to improve transit options across the city, 2,680 ORCA cards were distributed to income eligible high school and middle school students (that did not already receive an ORCA card from Seattle Public Schools) during the 2016/2017 school year. These cards were used to take approximately 440,000 individual transit trips in the region, saving participating students approximately $648,000 in fares. Additionally, efforts to increase enrollment in the ORCA LIFT program – which offers subsidized transit passes to income eligible residents – are paying off: About 11,000 new Seattle residents enrolled in the program, increasing the percentage of eligible residents actually enrolled in the program from 11% to 19% over the last year. During this same time period, countywide enrollment (excluding Seattle) increased by only 6,000, from 4% to 7% of eligible residents.
Year 3 Annual Report
In the the third year of the program, we’ve increased the availability of frequent transit throughout the city, expanded the distribution of free or discounted ORCA Cards to students and low-income families, and increased the ways in which funding can be utilized to improved transit service and access. See “STBD By The Numbers” and download a full version of the report to learn more.
Year 4 Annual Report
In the first four years of the program, STBD expanded access to 10-minute or better service to 70% of households (up from 25% in 2015). This was accomplished by adding over 8,000 weekly new trips across the city on 78 different King County Metro routes. See "STBD By The Numbers" below, and download a full version of the report to learn more.
The above graphic summarizes the progress and achievements for the fourth year of the Seattle Transportation Benefit District’s transit service purchase and transportation equity programs.
Year 5 Annual Report
Year 5 of the Seattle Transportation Benefit District represents the last full 12-month reporting year of the six-year measure approved by voters in November 2014. This year was marked by the high-water mark of the program - in service hours delivered, ORCA cards distributed to students and low-income Seattleites, and STBD capital project delivered - and ended with one of the most challenging periods of the program. See "STBD By The Numbers" below, and download a full version of the report to learn more.
This two-page "By The Numbers" spread from the Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) Year 5 Annual Report highlights important information from the last year of the program, as well as the program as a whole (going back to 2015). In almost every service change since the program began, STBD has added service on King County Metro routes serving Seattle, reaching almost 350,000 service hours (about 8% of Metro's countywide network) in early 2020. Through these investments, we've been able to increase the percent of households in Seattle within a 10-minute walk of 10-minute or better transit service to 70% in 2019 and early 2020, up from just 25% in in 2015. Due to the financial constraints of voter initiative 976 (which has since been overturned by the Washington Supreme court) and potential sunsetting of the program, the decisions was made to reduce the number of hours funded by STBD by about half in September 2020.
STBD's budget goes almost entirely towards funding transit service and access projects - $0.91 of every dollar collected goes directly to fund these types of improvements. This includes the Senior Regional Reduced Fare Permit (RRFP) pilot program (which funded 207 RRFPs for seniors in Seattle), 30 capital projects to improve the operating conditions of buses in Seattle, and over 15,000 ORCA cards under the ORCA Opportunity program (which distributes these cards to Seattle Public School and select Seattle College students).