King County Metro ‘van-niversary’ celebrates 40 years of commuter vans

Publicly-owned and operated commuter van program leads the nation for having the most public vanpools

July 18, 2019 11:30 am
Fred Hutch vanpoolers Andrea Gay, left, and Terry Jo Lewis, receive keys from King County Metro General Manager Rob Gannon for a new Pacifica hybrid vanpool as part of a pilot project. The presentation was made at a a commemorative ribbon cutting at Metro’s vanpool distribution center in Redmond on July 17. COURTESY PHOTO

What started as a small King County Metro fleet of 21 and 189 riders in 1979 is now the nation’s largest public fleet of vanpools, carrying 11,000 riders and drivers in 2018 in 1,600 vans each day.

“For 40 years, our reliable vanpool service has saved commuters money, reduced traffic congestion, and strengthened communities,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “We now operate the nation’s largest public vanpool fleet, making it convenient for commuters to share rides, take public transit, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

According to King County Metro, public commuter van riders, on average, take six single-occupancy vehicles off the road each weekday, which annually reduces 48 million vehicle miles, saves more than 2 million gallons of fuel and prevents 50 million pounds of greenhouse gas from entering our atmosphere – that’s 22 million metric tons.

“Vanpooling has grown exponentially in the region in the last four decades, reducing traffic on the region’s toughest, most-congested commutes by an estimated 11,000 vehicles every workday,” said King County Metro General Manager Rob Gannon. “We want to continue to see growth in ridership on this key commute option as a critical part of the region’s goals to support mobility, sustainability and address our climate crisis.”

Growing the number of vanpools is critical to the Puget Sound region, which hosts the largest number of public vanpool group but also has some of the greatest traffic challenges, King County Metro said. In this region, vanpool fare coverage is often subsidized by employers as part of their benefits packages to recruit, keep and provide additional transportation options for their employees who live and work in and around King County’s metropolitan area.

“The success in this region has been due to our top employers supporting ridesharing and subsidizing employee vanpool fares,” said King County Metro Mobility Division Director Chris O’Claire. “Our hats are off to them and to the cities and transportation partners who help us in this effort.”