Q: Tell us your ideas on how to improve transportation in the region:

Service Improvement (106 comments)

More than 100 comments identified ideas to improve public transit in the region. It included everything from how to pay, expanding routes within cities, expanding routes to new cities, improving driver training and changing the frequency and expanding hours of routes.

 “Offer a 30 day pass that is used for 30 days, not for a month continous-like a punch card  -Better zone coverage  -Better air quality on the bus, they smell really bad sometimes, like body odor”

“Cost and timing is of important to consumers.  They would ride more if it was more available and didn't cost (only for the elderly)”

“I'm ambitious when it comes to this but I think Wenatchee needs about double the buses as well as a robust light rail route connecting East Wenatchee, airport, Rock Island, Wenatchee, Olds Stations and eventually more. With our cheap power this would be a win for everyone. After a decade or so of development personal cars should be banned within city limits except except for certain uses. With excellent public transit and a great city for active transportation people would quickly realize how silly it was that 75% of the people in Wenatchee drove a car to work alone. It didn't just happen this way because market forces or coincidence-car, oil, rubber all the industries connected to cars want it this way. We will have to work for change”

“There are 2 places in Wenatchee that I believe should have a straight connection, i.e. Leavenworth or Chelan directly to Central Washington Hospital and Wenatchee Valley College.  I think you would increase ridership”

“Making it 24 Hours service-24/7”

Program Idea (57 comments)

The big ideas were:

1. Improving how we pay for transit - free or reduced transit, different fares systems

2. More on-demand transportation - Uber/Lyft/Taxis

3. Make it easier to access medical care – reduced fares, on demand services, bringing services to people

4. Create programs and provide education to improve transportation, especially for seniors and disabled members of our community

Specific Programs Highlighted:

·         Uber/Lyft/Taxis, in rural areas and cities

·         Websites or apps to list all options in the Valley

·         Volunteer Driver programs

·         Zipcar

·         Uber Mom

·         Medical shuttles

·         Bike or transit education programs

·         Vehicles for seniors to use

·         Bike share

·         Low cost bus passes

·         Free public transit for all

·         Incentives for using bus, bike, walk modes

Comment (30 comments)

 These responses were lacking in details to be useful or were unrelated to the survey.

There were several comments about adding travel lanes to existing streets or building new bridges across the Columbia River. These are reasonable comments about improving regional transportation, but not relevant to the Mobility Council.

More options or creating more creative options were also mentioned several times. Comments about rural transportation were also mentioned.

Active Transportation (28 comments)

 28 comments addressed bicycling and walking. Comments were a mix of asking for better walking and bicycling conditions and suggestions for programs to improve bicycling and walking. Here are some of the highlights:

“Bike sharing sounds great for late spring, summer, and fall. The main challenges might be misuse of equipment by drug addicted cycleists...I've been discouraged to bicycle since using that form of transportation gets many perceived as an addict in wenatchee. I don't want such an image sterotype to damage of employment.    What if bike sharing is tailored to the communities needs? A list? Bike transportation education required? Will that and need for more bike lanes also create jobs? Would we instead increase bus line hours in winter instead of summer? Police urged to enforce bicycling laws. I miss Uber & Lyft...”

“Build bike paths and expand Trango stops and add to the route (e.g. twin lakes road loop in Winthrop) so extends beyond the highway”

“We need better / more visible bike lanes and more pro-biking attitude. Free helmets for kids would be fantastic”

“No single solution will fix/improvement the mobility in this region.  The ideas need to provide options for travel along with incentives to use none vehicle options (limit area of parking, provide more areas for ped/bicycles) in inner core areas.”