What Happened to the Very Frequent Transit Network?

In 2015, Mayor Ed Murray's administration unveiled what would become the 2015 Levy to Move Seattle. It included a goal to Provide 72% of Seattle residents with 10-minute all-day transit service within a 10-minute walk of their homes" by 2025 dubbed the Very Frequent Transit Network". Using Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) funding, access to that network increased significantly. In 2015, only 25% of Seattle was within walking distance of the Very Frequent Transit Network. By 2020, 70% of the city was.

Percent of Seattle Households with Access to Very Frequent Transit Service from the STBD's Fall 2020 report. (SDOT)

In 2015, only the 3/4, 7, 36, E, and Link were considered Very Frequent", with service every 10 minutes or better during peak hours. Between 2015 and 2020, routes 40, 41, 44, 48, 65, 67, 70, and 120 (now RapidRide H) became part of the every-10-minute network.

Access to The Very Frequent Transit Network in 2019 (SDOT). Click to view full-size.

Service cuts in 2020 significantly reduced access to very frequent transit. In 2022 (the last year SDOT published data), 52% of Seattle was within a 10-minute walk to very frequent transit.

Access to The Very Frequent Transit Network 2020-2025. (SDOT)The Very Frequent Transit Network Today

The original goal was for 72% of Seattle to have access to the Very Frequent Transit Network by 2025. Now it's 2026. Did we reach the goal?

The 10 minute walkshed to the Very Frequent Transit Network in early 2020. 70% of Seattle's population was served. (Nick Sattele)The 10 minute walkshed to the Very Frequent Transit Network projected in 2027. 55% of Seattle's population will be served. (Nick Sattele)

Using a custom script that parses transit feeds and census data, I recreated SDOT's maps with current bus service. You can interact with the maps here. These maps show only 53% of Seattle residents are currently within walking distance of a route with service every 10 minutes or better. When Judkins Park station, Pinehurst station, and the J Line open, still only 55% of the city will have the luxury of very frequent transit service, far from the two-thirds of the city served in the late 2010s.

Percent of Seattleites within a 10 minute walk to transit service every 10 minutes or better all day on weekdays over time. (Nick Sattele)Seattle's Better Goal: The (new) Frequent Transit NetworkSDOT's Frequent Transit Network goals by route type. The goals are the same every day of the week. (SDOT)

But with the 2020 pandemic inspiring major shifts in when and how people use transit, SDOT has reconsidered bringing very frequent" peak-oriented service to most of the city. Instead, in a somewhat confusing but certainly warranted pivot, SDOT's new north star is the far more ambitious Frequent Transit Network (FTN). The new FTN is laid out in the 2024 Seattle Transportation Plan with an aim to bring 15-minute-or-better service from 6am to 9pm, 7 days a week, to nearly every bus route in the city. Most routes still have a midday frequency target of every 10 minutes, but the FTN captures that some bus frequencies should be better than 10 minutes and that frequency is still important on nights and weekends.

The Frequent Transit Network interactive map (SDOT)

SDOT reports that as of 2024, the FTN is 81% complete as measured by the percentage of trips funded. Access to the a very frequent" network of service every 10 minutes is still a goal in the Seattle Transportation Plan (STP) and will still be reported on, but the FTN will guide SDOT's service investments through the Seattle Transit Measure.