16,000 employees commute to this part of Pierce County. It’s about to get microtransit
Workers who walk or bike a mile or two each day from the Sumner Sounder Station to the city’s manufacturing and industrial center soon will be able to take a shuttle instead.
There are about 16,000 workers in that part of the city, which has companies such as REI, Amazon and Costco.
The City Council has been considering a microtransit option to make the last mile for those commuters easier. On a 5-2 vote at its Dec. 5 meeting, the council approved a contract with a vendor.
The company, BusUp, plans to start the shuttle service as soon as Jan. 9.
Council members Barbara Bitetto, Curt Brown, Pat Cole, Charla Neuman and Patrick Reed voted in favor of the agreement. Cindi Hochstatter and Earle Stuard voted against it.
Community Development director Ryan Windish told the council that the first six months of the pilot project will cost $60,000. The second six months will cost $82,500.
“The city will monitor the success of the program, and we can terminate the program if ridership is insufficient,” he said.
Companies that sign up will choose to pay all, some or none of the fare for their employees, which will be $6 a ride ($12 round trip). First the company would have to agree to join the service. Then workers at participating companies would be able to sign up for it through their employer. They’ll use an app to pay and to reserve their seat on the 14-person shuttle, which will have a bike rack.
Windish told The News Tribune the city will work with BusUp to market the service to employers.
Amazon, REI, Sekisui Aerospace, and LKQ are interested in participating, he said.
The city needs to have at least one of those businesses sign up between now and Jan. 9, and he said he’s optimistic that will happen.
“We’re very close,” he said.
The more ridership the service gets over time, the less the city would have to pay. Enough ridership could offset the cost to the city entirely. Windish said the city would break even with 115 rides (just over 57 round-trip passengers) a day.
Windish said transit options are one of the top things the city hears from employers when asked about their needs. The idea is that the shuttle service “will open up the opportunity for more people to be able to be hired in the north end,” he said.
East Pierce County is unique
Bobby Lauterjung, a representative for BusUp, answered questions from the council before the vote. He said he’s been working with Windish for years to develop relationships with employers and come up with a program.
Lauterjung explained to the council that shared shuttle programs, where multiple entities run a shuttle program and split the cost, are illegal in Washington because the state doesn’t want to create competition for Pierce Transit and other public transit agencies. However, Sumner left Pierce Transit in 2012.
“What is unique about East Pierce County is that cities like Sumner voted to leave the service area,” he said. “There is no duplication of service.”
Lauterjung said the new service is about “getting people that want jobs to companies that want to fill them.” He argued it’s also about getting data from the first year, if it’s successful, to take to Pierce Transit to “see if it’s enough to bring them back.”
If it is, he told the council, “our company has said openly that we’re committed to stepping away, forgoing profit, leaving that money on the table to do the right thing. Our goal is truly to bring back public transportation to your area. That would be just a huge win for us.”
Rejoining Pierce Transit would require a vote by residents, and a 0.6 percent sales tax increase would be implemented again, Windish previously told The News Tribune.
‘Kind of a bold step forward’
Asked about his no vote, Stuard told The News Tribune he’s concerned the company doesn’t have contracts with other cities in the United States. He said he doesn’t want Sumner to be a “guinea pig” and that he doesn’t think it’s the job of the City of Sumner to provide transportation.
“In my mind, that is not something the city should worry about providing, but the employer should help their employees,” he said.
He also said he’s concerned about part of the contract that requires the city to repay 75 percent of the balance of the contract if it is canceled in the second six-month period.
Lauterjung told the council BusUp operates throughout Europe, largely in Spain and Portugal, transporting 30,000 passengers a day.
The company transports 15,000 to 20,000 people a day in Latin America, he said, primarily in Brazil and Peru. It also has about 500 routes in Mexico, he said, and five “major clients” in the United States. It also hopes to expand in Ottawa with Amazon, he told the council.
Council member Neuman said at the meeting that she understood “why it might be unusual and unique and kind of a bold step forward for a small town like us to consider this.”
She pointed out that Sumner was unique in creating its manufacturing and industrial center and that it’s something to be proud of.
“But that means that brings in as many employees as we have residents, and that comes with a responsibility,” she said. “... I think we want to jump on this opportunity to at least give it a try. Let’s try it for a year.”
If the city had stayed in the Pierce Transit area, she said, they’d be going to Pierce Transit to ask for the service.
“But because we chose to leave that, we are going to have to accept that, some way, we have to start supplementing services on our own,” she said.
