Central Puget Sound Interstate 5 - Transit ridership
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Measures of public transit ridership on I-5 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 I-5 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, refer to WSDOT's Handbook for Corridor Capacity Evaluation (PDF 5.9MB).
The chart below shows average percentage of buses compared to all vehicles passing select points on the I-5 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 show 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%).
Performance highlights
In 2023, transit ridership continued to increase due to the ongoing recovery of travel volumes and travel demand in the wake of COVID-19, but was still below pre-pandemic levels.
Transit contributed the most to morning highway commute travel on southbound I-5 at South Everett, where buses (0.3% of all vehicles) moved 7.2% of travelers.
During the evening commute at the same location, buses (1.8% of the total vehicles) moved less than 6.1% of the northbound travelers.
In 2022, transit ridership continued to increase due to the ongoing recovery of travel volumes and travel demand in the wake of COVID-19, but transit ridership was still under the pre-pandemic level. Transit contributed the most to morning highway commute travel on I-5 southbound at N 145th Street, where buses (2.0% of all vehicles) moved 8.9% of travelers. During the evening commute at the same location, buses (1.4% of the total vehicles) moved 6.4% of the northbound travelers.
In 2021, transit ridership continued to increase due to the recovery of travel volumes in the wake of COVID-19, but the number of transit riderships was still under the pre-pandemic level. Transit contributed the most to morning highway commute travel on I-5 southbound at N 145th Street, where buses (1.2% of all vehicles) moved 8.6% of travelers. During the evening commute at the same location, buses (0.1% of the total vehicles) moved 0.6% of the northbound travelers.
In 2020, due to the statewide response to COVID-19 there was significant decrease in transit ridership compared to the previous year. Transit contributed the most to morning highway commute travel southbound on I-5 at N 145th Street, where buses (1.0% of all vehicles) moved 4.9% of travelers. During the evening commute at the same location, buses (0.1% of the total vehicles) moved 30.8 % of the northbound travelers.
In 2019, transit contributed the most to morning highway commute travel southbound on I-5 at N 145th Street, where buses (1.1% of all vehicles) moved 27.7% of travelers. During the evening commute at the same location, buses (0.8% of the total vehicles) moved 20.4 % of the northbound travelers.