King County Metro continues to find ways to keep people moving. Starting June 24, Metro’s Sammamish Community Ride, in partnership with the city of Sammamish, will begin serving designated neighborhoods in Sammamish with a new reservation-based transportation option connecting the community to local destinations and transit.
The Sammamish Community Ride service will operate in Klahanie, and parts of Sunny Hills, Providence Point and Sammamish Highlands neighborhoods. It will provide reservation based, daytime service within the designated service area. Service at first will operate Monday through Friday and expand to include Saturday service beginning July 6.
The Community Ride service, which has launched in three communities since March 2017, serves specified areas instead of traveling along a fixed route with a set schedule. For communities in Sammamish, this service provides flexible connections to local destinations and additional transit options, and also mitigates the loss of the Metro DART route 927, which discontinued service in September 2014. The Community Ride service is offered by King County Metro in partnership with the City of Sammamish and operated under contract by Hopelink Transportation.
In 2016, King County Metro’s Community Connections Program, in partnership with the City of Sammamish engaged a stakeholder working group of Sammamish residents and stakeholders and conducted two Sammamish-wide surveys to help identify the impact of the elimination of DART route 927 and understand other mobility needs of the community.
As a result of this outreach, the community identified needs for services that picked them up close to home, connected them to local destinations and transit stops, was available most of the day and weekends, connected students to after-school activities and reduced congestion around schools. The City and Metro staff presented solutions to the Sammamish City Council and the community and in collaboration identified these services for implementation:
- Community Ride – a reservation-based service that travels within a specific service area instead of staying on a set bus route or schedule. A professional driver picks you up and takes you exactly where you want to go within a set service area.
- Community Van with Community Mobility Hub – a “one-stop shop” for community transportation that could include transit information, a place for riders to meet ride providers, and more. Slated for implementation later in 2019.
- School Pool – SchoolPool and Safe Routes to School programs provide tools and resources to find smart, shared travel solutions to get students to and from school, and after-school activities more efficiently. Slated for implementation later in 2019.
King County Metro will continue to work with the City of Sammamish to roll out community specific services to fit their needs.
