Mercer Islanders should be especially supportive of “pay to park” as the way to meet their commuting needs.

Islanders or their employers could agree to pay $250 a month or $3,000 annually for 2,000 assigned “pay to park” spaces at one or two park-and-ride lots on the Island.

With $10 per-mile-bus-operating costs (per Sound Transit’s 2016 budget), the $20,000 daily fees would pay for 2,000 miles of bus service. If the distance between the park-and-ride lots to either a transit center on 4th Avenue or in Bellevue were 6.25 miles, the morning and afternoon round trips would each take 12.5 miles, or 25 miles total. Thus, the 2,000 miles of bus service could provide 80 morning and afternoon round trips to the two transit centers with capacity if needed for 8,000 riders. (That’s two-thirds or the 12,000 Islander residents between 20 and 64.)

The 2,000 parking space “owners” could decide on how the 2,000 daily miles of bus service would be split between routes to Seattle, Bellevue and Overlake. Presumably, most of the trips would be during morning and afternoon peak commutes but others could be throughout the day or even into the evening. Again, the assigned parking spaces would assure commuters of having a place to leave their car whenever they chose to do so. With “pay to park,” like East Link, Mercer Island commuters will lose the exclusive Single Occupancy Vehicle (SOV) access to I-90 Bridge center roadway. However, the Islander buses, along with all the other I-90 corridor buses, could use the bus-only, inbound and outbound lanes for fast reliable commutes on I-90 Bridge center roadway. And they could begin doing so within two years.

With East Link funding from ST3, Sound Transit will close the I-90 Bridge center roadway next year. Not only will Islanders lose their SOV access, their on-ramp lanes to I-90, being the last with access will likely be heavily throttled. Once on the outer roadway they’ll likely encounter congestion due to loss of center roadway lanes. Even when East Link begins operation, its lack of capacity means the majority of I-90 commuters (and Islanders) will still be forced to commute by car or by bus on likely gridlocked outer roadways. It should be an easy choice.

Bill Hirt

Bellevue