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History and Challenges |  |
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AGENCY
HISTORY
Kitsap
Transit is a Public Transportation Benefit Area Authority (PTBAA), established
by the voters in 1982. Kitsap
Transit's initial mission was to provide public transportation services in the
greater Bremerton and greater Port Orchard areas of Kitsap County.
Since its formation, Kitsap
Transit has expanded through a number of annexations to cover the entire county.
After Initiative 695, Kitsap Transit's routed (all-day) network thinly covers
the Urban Growth Areas (UGA) where density warrants, plus extension where
high-volume rush-hour passenger traffic on Washington State Ferries warrants.
Now that the agency has successfully passed a sales tax ballot measure
for an additional three-tenths of a cent, routed service within the UGAs will be
restored to pre-I-695 minimum (adequate) levels and the rush-hour commuter
service will be restored and improved. Additionally, Kitsap Transit also
provides ACCESS services for the frail, elderly and disabled throughout most of
the county as well as Dial-A-Ride service in selected areas of the county where
routed transit service is not efficient for the general public.
Rideshare services include Worker/Driver buses, vanpools and ride
matching. The agency also supports, via fare integration, a private
passenger ferry operation between the downtown areas of Port Orchard and
Bremerton.
The
history of transit in Kitsap County follows national and state trends as they
apply to small western communities. It
prospered in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, particularly with the Puget Sound Naval
Shipyard (PSNS) as a primary West Coast Naval port. The county's economy began to decline in the 1950s, the
descent accelerated in the 1960s and 1970s and since then has held steady or
slightly improved. In 1982, voters
formed the new public transportation authority and authorized three-tenths of
one percent of sales tax funding to support it.
At that time, Bremerton city service was down to an absolute skeletal
system and the once extraordinary Worker/Driver program (subscription commuter
buses to PSNS) had been reduced to ten poorly utilized vehicles. The two
systems carried only about 600,000 people in 1982. Equally skeletal at that time was a fledgling specialized
transportation service operating with seven or eight vans, and part-time and
volunteer drivers trying to cope with an already increasing demand for
specialized transportation for the frail elderly and disabled.
Twenty
years after formation, Kitsap Transit is an established multi-program system
which:
Operates routes, both regular full-day and custom rush-hour in the ferry terminal areas of the county.
Operates
ACCESS services for people who are frail, elderly and disabled throughout
most of the county.
Operates
a Rideshare program composed of Worker/Driver buses (subscription or bus
pool service), vanpools, a county-wide Rideshare vehicle registration
service and participation in the Regional Ridematch Program.
Manages a park-and-ride lot system with approximately 2,459 spaces.
Operates a passenger-only ferry (POF) service between Bremerton and Port Orchard.
Carries
out transit-oriented developments (TODs) to produce the best and highest
transit use of real property and to contribute to the smart-growth
development of Kitsap County, especially the urban areas.
Kitsap
Transit, as the Transit Demand Management lead for Kitsap County, also works
actively with local governments and state agencies to promote its service and
other alternatives to the Single Occupancy Vehicle (SOV) including
pedestrian/bicycle facilities, transit-preference signal pre-emption and
land-use patterns that support non-motorized travel and transit.
For a full description of Kitsap Transit's services, consult the agency's
website: www.kitsaptransit.org.
The
transit system defines its responsibility to the community in terms of overall
mobility management, including Transportation System Management / Transportation
Demand Management (TSM/TDM) programs that will benefit local governments and
state agencies.
OVERALL
TRANSPORTATION
In general, Kitsap County's circumstances and problems with transportation are typical of small urban to rural communities in the western United States. In particular, Kitsap County's secondary streets and roads are now becoming less adequate to handle the demands placed upon them. Major rush-hour congestion problems exist on Highway 16 through Gorst and at the Highway 3 / Highway 16 interchange. There are also sections of state highways and major arterials, most notably Wheaton Way in East Bremerton, Silverdale Way in Central Silverdale, and State Route (SR) 305 from Poulsbo/SR 3 to the Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal, that have moderate to severe congestion, especially during ferry arrival pulses.
Kitsap
County also experiences unusual predicaments for a suburban community of its
size in end-point congestion around PSNS, which is the county's major
employment, as well as at all of the ferry terminals.
In the case of PSNS, very few parking spots are available to
approximately 8,500 civilian employees and 3,000 to 10,000 military personnel,
depending on the number and types of ships in port.
For years, the civilian employees in particular were able to park free in
adjacent neighborhoods, but the City of Bremerton is now reserving that parking
for neighborhood residents. Kitsap
Transit is committed to cooperating with the plan by providing clear
alternatives and incentives for those displaced from parking in city
neighborhoods. To promote the use of public transit near major navy bases, such
as Naval Station Bremerton located within the gates of PSNS, all Department of
Defense (DOD) personnel can ride free on Kitsap Transit's services under the
DOD's Transportation Incentive Program (TIP), which works in concert with a
program called ShoreLink for military personnel to manage parking demand at PSNS.
Similar parking demands are placed on the small communities that are terminal sites for the Washington State Ferry routes leading to Seattle, Fauntleroy and Edmonds. At the ferry terminal on Bainbridge Island, severe congestion occurs in the vicinity of the terminal at loading and off-loading times and daily parking prices range from $6.25 to $8.00, if you can find a space after 8 a.m. The Bremerton Ferry Terminal suffers rush-hour congestion as well, with $4.00 to $6.25 per day parking prices, depending on proximity to the terminal. Parking demands tax available space at Southworth and Kingston, and higher fees of $4.00 per day are the norm at these terminal-parking areas. When POF service comes on-line at Southworth and Kingston, we anticipate increased demand for both parking and transit service and that parking costs will rise substantially. At all terminals, pick-up and drop-off activities (Kiss 'N Ride) seriously compound the already severe rush-hour congestion.
These inter-related issues, DOD facility parking and ferry terminal congestion, represent a tremendous opportunity for Kitsap Transit. Our basic strategy is to match good quality services to parking management plans that promote and support transit use, ridesharing, walking and bicycling.
| Updated:
February 19, 2010
Phone: (360) 373-2877 or 1-800-501-RIDE |
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