Sammamish council creates a ‘wish list’ for transit services

City Engineer Andrew Zagars will represent Sammamish’s needs during a meeting at Mercer Island City Hall July 28 looking at technical information, like the utilization of park-and-rides.

By Megan Campbell • July 27, 2015 1:20 pm

Sammamish City Council members are putting together a “wish list” for transit services, to be delivered to King County Metro by the end of the month.

Sound Transit and Metro have been working together to establish a regional transit network by 2040 that will accommodate the expected expansion of Eastside cities.

As part of this process, Metro staff are collecting the needs of Eastside commuters, asking citizens and technical city staff to provide input.

City Engineer Andrew Zagars will represent Sammamish’s needs during a meeting at Mercer Island City Hall July 28 looking at technical information, like the utilization of park-and-rides.

Deputy Mayor Kathy Huckabay said Metro is looking at data to determine which park-and-rides are under used and that could lead to selling some of them off.

Councilmembers feared that could include the park-and-ride at Southeast 30th Street and 228th Avenue Southeast.

“If they do that we will come after them with pitchforks,” Mayor Tom Vance said during the Monday meeting. “We do need that park-and-ride and frankly we need more services at that park-and-ride.”

Christina O’Claire, Metro’s supervisor of strategic planning, said Metro is only looking at the data to better understand what’s happening across the region.

“At this point, we have no plans to be selling (park-and-rides) off,” she said.

Metro’s long range transit plan asks cities to identify the best service plan for their communities.

There are three service levels cities can chose from: frequent, express and local.

Or, in the case of Sammamish, cities can create a customized service plan, incorporating elements from the three categories.

Councilmembers agreed Sammamish needed local, in-town services during the day, and express, out-of-town connects, in the morning and evening.

Countywide, cities will have until the end of the month to produce their desired service packages, Huckabay said.

Eastside residents can also share their thoughts through an online survey, which ends July 31.

To take the survey, visit www.surveymonkey.com/r/kcmetrovision2.