Central Puget Sound Interstate 405 - Transit ridership
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Measures of transit on the I-405 corridor in the central Puget Sound region.
Transit ridership
WSDOT works with transit agencies in major urban areas throughout the state to collect data on the number of transit vehicles and passengers that pass specific points on select urban highway corridors, including the I-405 corridor in the central Puget Sound region. WSDOT combines this data with its highway vehicle and person throughput data to produce the measures below. For more information on how WSDOT calculates vehicle and person throughput, see WSDOT's Handbook for Corridor Capacity Evaluation (PDF 5.9MB).
The chart below shows the average percentage of buses compared to all vehicles passing select points on the I-405 corridor in the central Puget Sound region, and the average percentage of bus riders compared to all highway users passing those points. Use the drop-down menus in the chart to see how these percentages vary by location, time of day, direction of travel and year.
Source: WSDOT Public Transportation Division.
Note: Charts showing 0.0% may indicate smaller values (for example, 0.04%).
Multi-year trends
In 2022, transit ridership did not significantly change compared to 2021.
In 2021, there was a slight increase in transit ridership compared to 2020, but ridership was still under the pre-pandemic levels.
In 2020, due to the statewide response to COVID-19 there was a significant decrease in demand for public transportation compared to previous years.
The same trends that impacted delay and travel times on I-405 between 2018 and 2019—economic growth, increased employment, rising housing prices and the opening of the I-405 Express Toll Lanes between Bellevue and Lynnwood in fall 2015—also impacted demand of public transportation on this corridor. Public transit agencies in the central Puget Sound region—including King County Metro, Sound Transit, Pierce Transit and Community Transit, which contributed data for this report—increased their services to meet this demand.
Annual highlights
In 2022, transit ridership was similar to 2021. Transit contributed the most to the morning highway commute southbound on I-405 at Kirkland, where buses (0.1% of all vehicles) moved 1.3% of travelers. During the evening commute at the same location, buses (0.03% of the total vehicles) moved 0.2% of the northbound travelers.
In 2021, there were slight number of increase and decrease in transit ridership compare to previous year, but the number of transit riderships was still under the pre-pandemic level. Transit contributed the most to the morning highway commute southbound on I-405 at Kirkland, where buses (0.3% of all vehicles) moved 1.1% of travelers. During the evening commute at the same location, buses (0.1% of the total vehicles) moved 0.2% of the northbound travelers.
In 2020, due to the statewide response to COVID-19 there was significant decrease in demand for public transportation compared to previous year. Transit contributed the most to morning highway commute travel southbound on I-405 at Kirkland, where buses (0.3% of all vehicles) moved 0.8% of travelers. During the evening commute at the same location, buses (0.1% of the total vehicles) moved 5% of the northbound travelers.
In 2019, transit contributed the most to morning highway commute travel southbound on I-405 at Kirkland, where buses (0.3% of all vehicles) moved 9.3% of travelers. During the evening commute at the same location, buses (0.2% of the total vehicles) moved 5.4% of the northbound travelers.
Transit ridership data was not collected for 2018 due to a pause in publication while WSDOT conducted an engagement process to inform the redesign of this dashboard. Following input from its transit agency partners, WSDOT switched from commute-level transit ridership measures to analyzing transit ridership at select locations along urban highway corridors. This change helped to streamline the collaboration process.