County Council adopts updates to Metro Transit’s Strategic Plan

The Metropolitan King County Council voted unanimously Monday on legislation updating King County Metro Transit’s Strategic Plan for Public Transportation 2011-2021 and Metro’s Service Guidelines.

The updates were the result of work done by the Council’s Regional Transit Committee, which sent the legislation to the full Council last month. During the course of the year, the RTC thoroughly reviewed the policy basis for the updates, reviewed the annual Service Guidelines Report and the very first Strategic Plan Progress Report.

“I believe the process we used to update the plan was a model of cooperation of leaders throughout the region partnering together to improve this vital regional asset,” said Councilmember Rod Dembowski, Chair of the Regional Transit Committee. “Working together with the Sound Cities Association and the city of Seattle, we were able to address some of our region’s challenging transportation problems; I hope to see this model of cooperation followed in the future.”

First adopted by the County Council in 2011, the Strategic Plan for Public Transportation is the policy blueprint for Metro Transit, establishing goals and strategies for the state’s largest transit agency. 

Highlights of the update include:

• Requiring  Metro to develop a long-range plan;
• Refining the Service Guidelines to facilitate planning by cities and include college student enrollment when evaluating the need for transit service;
• Requiring a multi-agency study on community infrastructure that supports access to transit, including park-and-ride facilities; and
• Updating policy language to match Metro’s procedures for complying with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Council also voted to approve updates to the King County Metro Service Guidelines, which specify how Metro identifies transit service needs throughout King County, based on data measuring productivity, social equity, and geographic value.