Whatcom County’s transit agency is starting to think outside the bus.
In an effort to remain relevant after more than a decade of declining ridership, Whatcom Transportation Authority may expand its scope to address some of the county’s biggest problems.
The aim is twofold: to benefit the community while adding riders.
“I think it’s fair to say that most people are highly conscious of huge, painful challenges that are affecting our community right now,” WTA Director of Community and Government Relations Maureen McCarthy told the agency’s board of directors on Thursday, Aug. 17. She listed some of these challenges: homelessness, substance use disorder, mental illness and public safety.
Specific projects aren’t known, as WTA’s new direction is only a concept for now. But officials have at least one idea in mind: leasing its properties to build affordable housing.
McCarthy pitched to board members the idea that WTA needs to help solve these problems to remain relevant. Ridership plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic but has been declining since about 2009.
A large majority of the agency’s funding comes from the public, through a 0.6% sales tax.
“While we’ve always enjoyed a great deal of public support, some might ask, ‘What value are you providing for this tremendous investment that we’re making?’” McCarthy said. “And I think it would be a fair question.”
WTA’s long-range plan calls for advances in three areas: environment, efficiency and equity. All three are likely to suffer, McCarthy said, if WTA maintains the status quo.
In order to reduce the community’s carbon footprint, the agency needs to attract more riders who would otherwise drive cars. For now, WTA adds to overall greenhouse gas emissions, McCarthy said. As for efficiency, the number of riders is going down while costs go up.
Board member Scott Korthuis, who is Lynden’s mayor, expressed skepticism about expanding the agency’s scope to include broader social benefits.
“Is that really our mission?” Korthuis said. “We’re in the transportation business. I don’t want to take on more than we’re supposed to take on.”
In response, McCarthy said the agency would not “go out looking for problems that we can solve that are outside of transportation.”
“We’re not going to get into the housing business,” WTA General Manager Les Reardanz added.
But WTA might partner with a housing agency to build affordable homes on its properties. One example could be a 3.5-acre transit station and park-and-ride in Lynden that WTA officials say is underused.
“I would feel terrible that we had an asset to try to contribute to solving [the housing] problem, and we didn’t do anything with it,” Reardanz said.
Additionally, building workforce housing next to Lynden’s existing transit center should boost ridership, WTA officials said.
Some of WTA’s transformative work could be about the buses themselves, particularly those that serve rural areas and the smaller cities. Korthuis said he gets increasing criticism about empty buses rolling through the north county.
“I think if we would publish the cost per ride it would be shocking to most constituents, and they would say, ‘What are you doing?’” Korthuis said.
One way to get at cost per ride is to divide WTA’s overall expenses by the total number of passengers. Based on projections for 2022 reported late last year, WTA had $42.7 million in total operating expenses to support an estimated 3.16 million passenger boardings, for a per-ride cost of about $13.50.
Korthuis suggested replacing the expensive, on-demand Lynden Hop service with a contracted ride-share driver, and using smaller paratransit buses instead of standard 40-foot buses on the routes in and out of Lynden.
The conversation about WTA’s transformation has only begun. In the coming months, the board will be asked to approve spending on consultants and new staff that would help the agency navigate its new role. Much of this could surface this fall, during deliberations over the 2024 budget.
