Kris' transportation story
“On a typical day before COVID, I would get up and catch the 7:15 a.m. bus outside my apartment, take a three-minute bus ride down to the ferry terminal, where I would switch buses to the 390. The 390 would take me out to the Poulsbo Park & Ride. At that point I would switch to a bus that would take me down to Silverdale Park & Ride. At Silverdale Park & Ride, I would then switch on to another bus that would get me into Bremerton. That was my commute. It took two hours. It's a 30- to 40-minute drive.”
Kris lives on Bainbridge Island. Her main mode of transportation is fixed route buses, though she also uses a Dial-A-Ride service since moving to Bainbridge Island. The main barrier Kris faced before COVID was that buses nearby home only came during “commuter” hours, so if she wanted to go somewhere mid-day, later in the evenings, or weekends, she had to use Dial-A-Ride. But Dial-A-Ride buses also served as peak hour fixed-route buses, so she was limited to requesting trips that finished by 3:30 p.m., so the driver could serve the fixed routes. Transit also stops running at 8 p.m., which makes evening activities difficult. Adjusting to using Dial-A-Ride after many years of using fixed route transit was also a challenge, because Kris wasn’t used to planning where and when she wanted to go 24 hours in advance. Having lived on Bainbridge and in Mason County, both places with a lot of water, she wishes there were more privately operated passenger-only ferries, like there used to be, which would encourage more people to not drive and reduce road congestion. Her two-hour bus trip from Bainbridge to Bremerton would be a 30-minute ferry ride. Kris wishes elected leaders would take the time to ride transit, even if they think they’re “too busy,” because it would give them a much better sense of what our transportation system needs.
“I raised my two kids, and I used buses all the time to get to school, to bring them home from school, to get to doctor's appointments, to get them to friends’ houses. Transit allowed us to participate independently in music lessons, in sports, in art, and other activities where we didn't have private transportation. Some of what we had to do was network for rides with friends and family and their friends. But you don't always want to rely on others for your transportation.”
This story was originally published to Disability Rights Washington's Transportation Access Story Map. For more stories, please visit: https://www.disabilityrightswa.org/storymap/