WA: Getting There: STA considers removing Peaceful Valley service, expanding in Mead and Hillyard

The Spokane Transit Authority is considering removing bus service from Peaceful Valley in 2026, which would trigger a cascade of route changes across the city.

Part of the transit authority's annual service revisions, staff also are proposing extending routes in Hillyard and Mead.

The plans, which would impact under 2% of total services, are open for public comment until Dec. 15 and ultimately will be approved or denied by transit CEO Karl Otterstrom in March. If approved, bus services could begin changing in May.

Routes 20, 23, 223 and 33 — Cancellation of Peaceful Valley service

To take effect September 2026, STA proposed halting the every-30 -minute bus service through Peaceful Valley, leaving Route 20 riders in the area to existing stops along Riverside Avenue. Twenty stops along Clarke Avenue and Main Street would be discontinued under the draft.

The nearest stops for Peaceful Valley residents would be along Riverside, First or Sprague avenues in downtown or Browne's Addition if service stopped on Clarke. All of these require a hike up the Spruce or Cedar Street stairways for bus -riding residents, the former of which is currently closed indefinitely.

STA spokeswoman Carly Cortright said the proposal was spurred by low ridership in the neighborhood, with drivers sometimes serving no riders at stops along the route in a whole day.

The current Route 20 sees one bus go through Peaceful Valley and one up Riverside at alternating 15 -minute intervals, meaning a Route 20 bus arrives at its destination of Spokane Falls Community College every 15 minutes.

"Route 20 by itself actually doesn't really justify that level of frequency," Emily Poole, the interim transit authority planning officer, said. To optimize resources, "what we are proposing is that we do not service Clark Avenue and consolidate the service onto Riverside Avenue, which means that Route 20 would just run at a 30 -minute frequency."

Peaceful Valley Neighborhood Council President Bill Foreman said that while he understands and accepts that there will be reductions in bus services, he doesn't believe his neighborhood should bear the brunt of the loss. Both Riverside and Peaceful Valley's Clark Avenue have low ridership, he said, but Riverside riders are closer to the main city line than Clark's, and it would be easier for them to switch lines if needed.

"Living in the city, it's important to have public transportation available," he said, adding that it is good that the proposed changes include improvements in service elsewhere. "We've all gotta bear some burden, but Peaceful Valley neighbors shouldn't bear all of it."

Poole said if bus service is halted in Peaceful Valley, the area remains in the boundaries of Paratransit services, though not all residents would automatically qualify. Being in the public input period for the proposal, though, she said changes can be made to accommodate rider concerns. The proposal is not all-or-nothing.

Foreman pitched the idea of an alternating service between Riverside and Clarke Avenues that maintains the target 30 -minute service of Route 20 to transit staff, and Poole said that "we are certainly taking a look at that."

In any event, changing the frequency that buses travel along Route 20 and up to the community college causes mismatches with Route 33, which uses the Route 20 bus to offer service to Wellesley Avenue from Spokane Falls and vice versa.

"So for riders of Route 33 right now, they can stay on the bus — they don't have to get off the bus — they can ride all the way through to downtown from the time that it is the 33 and it flips its deck sign to 20 and they can ride all the way through to the plaza," Poole said. "When that interline changes, they won't be able to do that. They'd have to transfer at SFCC."

To address this, the route change proposal offers a tweak to yet another route, the 23 serving Maple and Ash. Stops along Ash will move seven blocks over to travel on Belt Street from Rowan to Garland.

"It provides an opportunity to transfer for those riders on the Route 33 to head downtown sooner instead of heading so far east to conduct the transfer," she said. "And it means that riders on the Route 23 will have closer access to a number of things that they're trying to get to on the route, like the Shadle Shopping Center ... as well as the Shadle Park Library."

A supporting route for the Maple and Ash number 23, Route 223 for Shadle and Indian Trail, will maintain the same stops and schedule as usual in the morning and mirror Route 23's proposed stops along Belt Street in the afternoon. The reasoning lies with the needs of the Shadle Park High School students who ride public transportation to school in the morning.

"The idea is that when you are going to school and you have a time you need to be there by, we want to get you as close to the school as possible," Poole said. "But then in the afternoon, when the 223 is returning, it would follow the same routing as the 23 on Belt. Students from Shadle Park could walk across the campus to pick it up at Belt, students from Glover could pick it up at Belt."

If approved, the transit authority would build shared stops for routes 23 and 223 along Belt.

"It is recognized that students living within the boundary of North Central High School between Garland Avenue and Rowan Avenue will not have paired boarding and alighting locations with this routing change," the proposal says, suggesting that students either walk the seven -block difference between the old and new Route 223 stop locations or use Route 4 on Monroe Street as an alternative.

Route 36 — North Central route extension into Hillyard

Instead of interlining with Route 33, the proposal says a less frequent Route 20 could partner with the North Central route, number 36, from the Spokane Falls Community College stop.

In addition, the time saved by cutting Peaceful Valley could essentially be reinvested into Route 36.

"What we have planned is, we would take those hours and we would extend another route, Route 36, into the Hillyard area, where there is currently no service at all on the eastern side of the North-South Corridor," she said.

The current proposal would add nine new stops along North Freya Street, extending the current route from Wellesley Avenue's U.S. Highway 395 interchange by 15 stops, ending just after Lyons.

"We have certainly heard and are still continuing to hear the residents of Peaceful Valley," Poole said. "But we are also happy to say that we have gone out and we've talked to the Hillyard Neighborhood Council and they are very hopeful that we will move forward with extending service into that neighborhood."

If the proposal to remove Peaceful Valley service is rejected, Poole said that STA would try to find a way to still boost service to Hillyard .

"They have been waiting what they consider a very long time for service in that area, and we need to look at ways that we could still provide the services to them," Poole said. "We are trying to look at ways where it doesn't have to be all or nothing."

The extension would not impact existing transfer opportunities along Route 36 and would allow Hillyard riders to ride a single bus straight to downtown Spokane.

Route 35 — Francis and Market

If the North Central route extends as proposed, Route 35 serving Francis and Market would not be able to act as an interline partner at the intersection of Regal Street and Garland Avenue, as it does now.

Because of this, the Francis and Market bus would run a westbound path back to the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center.

Route 35 still would interline with Route 22 for Northwest Boulevard on the western side.

Route 257 — Potential service to Mead

In an unrelated proposal from canceling service to Peaceful Valley via Route 20, the Mead School District requested STA consider creating a new route, connecting Mead with north Spokane.

A tentative service route called Route 257 features a line running from Shiloh Hills through Mead and into Fairwood.

Mead School District spokesman Todd Zeidler said it's "important for the school district to have strong community partnerships" with groups like STA, and the district requested the route as a way to provide transportation options for families in the district, along with extending the reach of the transit authority.

The transit authority has a "really good" partnership with Spokane Public Schools and wants to partner with Mead School District, as well. Though Mead schools have their own fleet of buses, public transportation is lacking in the area.

"We're really excited to have the opportunity to maybe work with them to target some areas in the school districts that were growing and that we knew didn't have as robust service," Poole said.

In the proposal, a bus would run to Mead twice in the morning and two to three more times in the afternoon, outside of high school bell times. Riders would be able to connect with the Hastings park and ride.

If approved, service to Mead could begin as early as September 2026.

Route 12 — Southside Medical Shuttle

Bus drivers requested that the northbound medical shuttle no longer travel on Howard Street on its route to Fifth Avenue due to the proximity to Lewis and Clark High School, the proposal states. The Fifth and Wall bus stop would move to the southeast corner of the intersection.

If approved, this change would take effect on May 17.

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