Picture This!  
What's new this week in transportation

The year in King County Transportation

Highlights from the past year of "Picture of the Week" include (clockwise from upper right): county bridge inspectors checking roads after the Nisqually earthquake; a county MyCommute camera over the Woodinville-Duvall Road at Avondale, providing an online eye on the arterials; racking of timetables for the second largest service expansion in Metro history; RPIN eNews provides e-mail and pager alerts of service disruptions during adverse weather or other regional emergencies; Kent schoolchildren take part in streaming videos that teach back-to-school Walk Smart child pedestrian safety.

Thanks for clicking on our "Picture of the Week" all this year.  We started this weekly photo feature to provide a snapshot of what's new in King County transportation, to focus on program, projects and  services that help you drive county roads or ride King County Metro Transit.

If there was one theme for 2001, it was using technology to make our services easier to use, whether online or on the road.  Despite the decline of the local dot.com industry, this year saw the launch of a number of new online services that have proven popular with customers looking for ways to improve their commute:

• The MyCommute web cameras that provide an "eye on the arterials" are consistently among the most-viewed pages on this Transportation Web site. 
   
• King County Metro's new Online Trip Planner has been visited more than 32,000 times in just the four weeks since its public launch on December 4. 
   
• Hundreds of subscribers have signed up for RPIN eNews, the personalized e-mail and pager alert system that notifies you when a disruption in service occurs.  It is the successor to our award-winning GOVLINK WTO Traffic and Transit Alerts of a few years ago.
   
• RideshareOnline.com has drawn national attention as the first public self-serve, regional ridematch service that allows you to instantly find a carpool or vanpool partner with a commute similar to yours.  Since March, 75% of new ridematch applications are now completed online, and Ridematch applications have jumped 25% over 2000.  The match list page, for those who completed a match, averaged 3,646 hits per month
   
• And listen for news in 2002 of a new look for two online services we've been refining the past few years with the University of Washington, MyBus and Busview, which allow you to find actual departure times for buses and track their real-time movement on a map.

On the ground, technology is helping us to work with local cities to improve traffic flow by synchronizing traffic signals to save you time and money, and give buses Transit Signal Priority to make for smoother and faster bus trips on major arterials without slowing down traffic on cross-streets.  To protect pedestrians, new Lightguard flashers help alert drivers to the presence of people waiting to cross the street. 

Planning and implementation was also reflected in our themes from 2001.  Transportation projects don't happen overnight, so public input was sought on a new Six-Year Transit Development Plan that will guide future bus service.  In April we broke ground on a new road and walkway system over the railroad tracks in the industrial area south of downtown Seattle, to speed freight movement from the port, and you can now see the roadwork underway just behind SAFECO Field.  Final design work was underway this fall on the North SPAR Road to help relieve congestion on the Sammamish Plateau.  And King County Metro launched its second largest service change ever on September 29th, with more than half the growth in new service hours going to the Eastside.

Outside events were reflected in our coverage. the Nisqually earthquake in February gave us a chance to see whether our earthquake retrofits to King County roads have paid off.  They did.  The electricity shortage last winter prompted added efficiencies, such as our use of energy-saving LED lamps in traffic signals.

And this year saw King County Transportation using video to help get information out, whether online or on cable.  Seven short streaming videos shot with schoolchildren in Kent kicked off our Walk Smart back-to-school pedestrian safety campaign.  Duvall residents could watch streaming video interviews with the engineer and public artist who worked on the Novelty  Bridge replacement.  And late in the year, we brought you the first of our occasional Inside Transportation television productions on CTV, King County Civic Television.  Look for our second installment in January, featuring County Councilmember Cynthia Sullivan looking back at the creation of the King County Metro Transit-Oriented Development Program, and a visit with the Road Services crews that plow winter snow.

Have a safe and happy New Year.  Look for a few upgrades to this page in 2002.

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