Route Improvements

STBD generates over $50 million dollars annually, and the bulk of this revenue is used to pay for more trips on King County Metro routes throughout Seattle. In total, about 79 cents of every dollar collected through the program is used to increase frequency on popular routes, extend the span service (i.e. the hours during which a route operates) for key bus connections throughout the city, and address trips that are chronically overcrowded.

STBD Spending Breakdown

Improving Service, Year over Year

Since the program began in 2015 until now, we have added more trips on more routes throughout Seattle every single year. While the bulk of STBD-funded service was added within the first year of the program, as revenue has increased and more investment capacity has been made available, we have continued to increase the number of routes that meet our various policy goals, while responding to the changing demands of Seattle's traveling public.

King County Metro makes service additions and/or changes twice per year - once in March and once in September (in 2015 and earlier, service could be adjusted in June as well). See below how we have continued to improve service along this timeline since the beginning of the program.

Service Change STBD Service Additions Weekly Trips Added
June 2015
  • First STBD Service Adds
  • Focus on overcrowding and reliability needs as identified in the Metro Service Guidelines
    • Restored service on Routes 19 and 47, slated for service cuts by King County Metro
    • Addressed overcrowding on 19 routes, adding 95 daily trips
    • Improved schedule reliability on 38 routes
    • Improved service frequency on 16 routes, adding over 1,500 weekly trips 
2,060
September 2015
  • Focus on improving service frequency on routes across the city, seven days of the week and all times of the day
    • Added over 300 Weekday trips, over 200 Saturday trips, and over 300 Sunday trips
2,190
March 2016
  • Sound Transit opened light rail to Capitol Hill and University of Washington stations; King County Metro restructured bus service to and around the stations
  • STBD improved frequency on routes serving the Capitol Hill Link Station
  • Improved midday, evening, and weekend service to the University of Washington Station, and other targeted trip investments
  • Separated and extended RapidRide C and D Lines (formerly interlined) to serve new markets in Seattle and increase service reliability
1,340
September 2016
  • Addressed crowding needs on Routes 8, 15X, 18X, 21X, 40, and 120
  • Improved Route 124 frequency to 15-minutes all day
190
March 2017
  • Metro began adding service and addressed many of the Seattle overcrowding and reliability needs identified in the prior year
September 2017
  • Improved weekday service to 10-minutes or better on Routes 44, 48, 65, and 67
  • Improved Route 60 to 15-minutes on weekdays from 6AM-7PM
  • Routes 3, 4, 8, 14, 41, and 67 received frequency boosts to ensure that they had 30-minute or better service for 18 hours a day, seven days a week
  • Night Owl restructure and added trips on Routes 3, 5, 11, 44, 48, 65, 67, and 70
690
March 2018
  • Due to capacity constraints from King County Metro, STBD made minor crowding related trip additions in Routes 5 and 21, which are interlined
10
September 2018
  • Improved Routes 41 and 70 to 10-minutes or better all-day service
  • Added service on RapidRide C, D, and E Lines
    • Metro and Amazon made additional investments in these Routes
  • Added Peak period trips on Routes 17X, 18X, 28, 40, 56, and 120
  • STBD added late night/ Night Owl trips on Routes 7 and 106
300
March 2019
  • Improved Routes 40 and 120 to 10-minutes or better all-day service
  • Improved midday service levels on Route 50
  • Improved weekend service on Routes 106 and 120
320
September 2019
  • Improved Routes 1, 11, 14, 124, and 372 to "Frequent" transit service levels
  • Added 15-minute evening and weekend and 20-minute weekend evening service to all existing 10-minute routes
  • Added peak trips on routes 3, 5, 5X, 17, 28, 36, 41, 120, 373, and D Line
  • Improved early morning and night-time frequency on E Line
  • Improved Saturday evening service on Route 21
950
Total Weekly Trips Added through STBD 8,050

Use the links in the sidebar to the left to explore how we've made progress on our Frequent Transit Network targets.

Transportation

Greg Spotts, Director
Address: 700 5th Ave, Suite 3800, Seattle, WA, 98104
Mailing Address: PO Box 34996, Seattle, WA, 98124-4996
Phone: (206) 684-7623
684-Road@seattle.gov

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The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is on a mission to deliver a transportation system that provides safe and affordable access to places and opportunities for everyone as we work to achieve our vision of Seattle as a thriving, equitable community powered by dependable transportation.