January Golden Transfer

Golden TransferThis month’s Golden Transfer goes to the citizens of King County, who stepped up in 2007 and got their behinds on the bus:

King County Metro Transit bus ridership increased a record-setting 7 percent last year with an estimated 110 million passenger boardings in 2007.…

These preliminary estimates will be finalized in March, but it is believed to be the largest annual ridership increase for Metro in the past 10 years.

(And I thought 2006 was a good year.)

Busy Bellevue Transit Center (Photo courtesty of King County)

It’s good to see individuals making changes (taking advantage of new Transit Now service, perhaps?), despite the fact that our region has been (and is being) more than a little slow to move beyond the car.

County Kingpin, on the increase:

This shift in driving habits not only helps in the fight to reduce global warming, it increases the capacity of our roads and highways during the high-demand commute times,” Sims said. “With more buses and improved service coming on-line from our voter-approved Transit Now initiative, it will be easier every year for even more people to include the bus as their travel choice.

To all the new riders: thanks, and happy busing. I guess everybody really is doing it.