Central Puget Sound Interstate 90 - Transit ridership
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Measures of public transit ridership on I-90 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-90 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 the average percentage of buses compared to all vehicles passing select points on I-90 in the central Puget Sound region, and the average percentage of bus riders compared to all highway users passing those points.
Source: WSDOT Public Transportation Office.
Note: Charts showing 0.0% may indicate smaller values (for example, 0.04%).
Performance highlights
In 2024, transit ridership stayed the same compared to 2023, and was still below pre-pandemic levels. During the morning commute on I-90 at the floating bridge, buses represented 0.4% of all vehicles and transported 0.2% of travelers heading west. In the evening commute at the same location, buses again made up 0.4% of total vehicles and moved 0.1% of travelers going east.
In 2023, transit ridership did not significantly change compared to 2022, but was still below pre-pandemic levels. Transit contributed the most to the westbound morning commute on I-90 at the floating bridge, where buses (0.4% of all vehicles) moved 0.2% of travelers. During the evening commute at the same location, buses (0.3% of the total vehicles) moved 0.1% of eastbound travelers.
In 2022, transit ridership did not significantly change compared to 2021. Transit ridership was below the pre-pandemic level. Transit contributed the most to the westbound morning highway commute on I-90 at the floating bridge, where buses (0.6% of all vehicles) moved 0.2% of travelers. During the evening commute at the same location, buses (0.4% of the total vehicles) moved 0.1% of eastbound travelers.
In 2021, transit ridership struggled to recover, compared to 2020, due to the recovery of traffic volume in the wake of COVID-19. However, transit ridership in 2021 wass still not at the pre-pandemic level. Transit contributed the most to morning highway commute travel westbound on I-90 at the floating bridge, where buses (1.3% of all vehicles) moved 0.1% of travelers. During the evening commute at the same location, buses (0.9% of the total vehicles) moved 0.05% of eastbound travelers.
In 2020, due to the statewide response to COVID-19 there reduced demand for transit compared to the previous year. Transit contributed the most to morning highway commute travel westbound on I-90 at the floating bridge, where buses (0.7% of all vehicles) moved 0.9% of travelers. During the evening commute at the same location, buses (0.5% of the total vehicles) moved 0.4% of eastbound travelers.