Trends in Transit

Bellevue’s Transportation Department leverages data from King County Metro and Sound Transit to monitor transit performance in the city. This story map presents information about the number of people who get on (boarding) and off (alighting) the bus on an average day in Bellevue.

Boarding and alighting information is summarized for two service changes during the year: fall service change from September to March, and spring service change from March to September. This web map presents data collected since 2012, the year used as the planning baseline for the city’s current  Transit Master Plan . Transit use is presented in six tabs that summarize the data by four themes:

1. At all bus stops, where people actually get on and off the bus;
2. At major transit hubs like the Bellevue Transit Center;
3. In Bellevue's neighborhoods;
4. In Performance Management Areas, which are geographic areas where Performance Targets for the vehicle mode are set and progress toward improving mobility for each mode is measured;
5. Along all routes, which provide connections between neighborhoods and across the region;
6. Employer shuttle information, which identifies the number of boardings and alightings for private employer shuttle services.

Transit use in Bellevue has generally trended upward for more than a decade. From 2003 to 2013, average daily boarding and alighting activity more than doubled, from 21,900 to 53,600. Ridership growth continued through fall 2015, peaking at about 57,600 daily boardings and alightings. From fall 2015 to fall 2019 the ridership slightly declined, however, the biggest decline occurred in spring 2020. Since then, the average daily boarding and alighting activity has been increasing and reached 28,000 in spring 2023.

Over the years that followed, various factors caused transit use to decline in Bellevue and elsewhere in King County. Some of the most notable include:

• Closure of the South Bellevue Park-and-Ride and the Rainier Freeway Station in Seattle due to construction of East Link light rail;
• Removal of bus service from the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, which impacted transfers and travel time.

Fortunately, the short-term pain transit riders have experienced during recent years, which has caused some to find other travel options during this time, is in service of long-term gain for regional high-capacity transit.

There is evidence that ridership declines were slowing, stabilizing, and in some cases beginning to grow again in 2019. Transit use is expected to grow significantly when East Link service begins in April 2024. This interactive map does not yet account for the significant impacts to transit use as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

The Trends in Transit story map contains a wealth of transit ridership data, but raw data is unable to tell the story behind changes in ridership. Trends in Transit Insight reports attempt to add the story telling element to the Trends in Transit story map, allowing the reader to better understand the changing landscape of travel behavior and contribute to decision making that can improve the attractiveness of transit in Bellevue.

There are more than 550 bus stops in active service throughout Bellevue. This map depicts every stop that has been served since the Fall 2012 service change, including some that are now inactive. Click on a stop point to see the boardings, alightings, and total for each service period.

Although commuter parking facilities play an important role in concentrating transit rider demand in lower-density areas, providing convenient access to frequent transit via automobile or bicycle, the vast majority of boardings and alightings take place outside of park-and-ride lots, and more than a third take place at bus stops on arterial streets.

Transit hubs consist of six clusters of stops where more than half of all daily boardings and alightings in Bellevue take place. These stop clusters are surrounded by commercial destinations and employment, and they also function as transfer points between multiple local and regional routes.

Bellevue Transit Center alone accounts for a third of all boarding and alighting activity in Bellevue. With the South Bellevue Park-and-Ride closed during East Link construction, the Eastgate Park-and-Ride and Freeway Station is the second largest transit hub in the city, accounting for more than 10 percent of all boardings and alightings.

Bellevue contains 14 neighborhoods that previously were called Mobility Management Areas and were used for performing concurrency analysis and for reporting.  Neighborhood ridership reporting is being retained as a useful way to consider how transit use compares between areas across the city.  For example, the Downtown neighborhood accounts for more than 40 percent of all transit use in Bellevue and the Eastgate neighborhood accounts for nearly 20 percent.  By contrast, lower-density neighborhoods – which are all served by less frequent transit – together account for only slightly more ridership than Crossroads alone. 

A Performance Management Area (PMA) is a geographic area, as defined in the city’s Mobility Implementation Plan. Performance Management Areas are mapped to reflect the type and intensity of land use and the diversity of the transportation options. These geographic areas are where Performance Targets for the vehicle mode are set and where progress toward improving mobility for each mode is summarized. 

• Type 1 PMA includes the High-Density Mixed-Use areas of Downtown, BelRed and Wilburton/East Main
• Type 2 PMA includes the Medium-Density Mixed-Use areas of Crossroads, Eastgate and Factoria
• Type 3 PMA includes the Low-Density, predominantly residential areas of the city

To see ridership data by neighborhood within each type of PMA, please consult the section on neighborhood ridership. 

King County Metro and Sound Transit jointly operated 30 routes* in Bellevue in the spring of 2023. These can generally be classified as one of two types of service: all-day or peak-only.

All-day services provide connections from morning through evening between areas of concentrated activity via highways, major arterials, and neighborhood streets, serving a variety of travel needs and trip purposes. Some examples include Route 226, 271, 550, and the RapidRide B Line.

Peak-only services provide faster travel times and accommodate a very high demand for travel to and from major employment centers and park-and-ride facilities during the morning (5–9 AM) and afternoon (3–6 PM) commuting periods. Some examples include Route 111, 212, 232, and 556.   

 ^{*This does not include the one route that King County Metro operates for Bellevue School District, 10 additional routes that King County Metro operated for the Bellevue School District, or specialized employer shuttles, which operate only one trip per day in the morning and afternoon peak periods.} 

There are six companies that provide private shuttle services throughout Bellevue for employees. The City of Bellevue issues Right-of-Way permits so that employers can operate these shuttles. This data demonstrates what times of the year private employer shuttle services are most utilized. Summer months of June, July, and August have the highest ridership while winter months of December, January, and February support the lowest ridership. As the city began to collect data in 2022, with more time there will be a greater ability to understand year-to-year trends and typical monthly ridership.