SMOKEY POINT — Ask bus commuters who have used the Smokey Point Transit Center since its Jan. 31 opening, and it’s a good bet most will cite increased safety as one of its benefits.
“Thank God for it,” Arlington’s Victoria Welch said, as she bundled her fellow passenger, her 8-year-old Schnauzer dog Sky, in her jacket while they waited for the next bus home. “I couldn’t keep count of how many times I could have died crossing that busy street from the old bus stop.”
Both Welch and Joyce Griffin, another retired Arlington resident, take regular trips to Everett for shopping and Seattle for medical treatments, so the bus is a necessity for them. They each cited crossing Smokey Point Boulevard during rush hour as a particular concern about the old transit stop. The new one is located at 3326 Smokey Point Drive.
“I have bone and joint problems to the point where I can barely walk, so that was especially scary,” Welch said. “And then, I had nowhere to sit down in the freezing cold.”
Griffin added that the new $4 million transit center makes it easier for her to catch her connecting buses, even if does create occasional confusion.
“I do wish it was easier to find some of the buses,” Griffin said. “I missed one bus because I was waiting at one end, and it was at the other end.”
Martin Munguia, corporate communications manager for Community Transit, encouraged commuters with concerns to bring them to CT.
While fellow Arlingtonian Lexi Schuster is only 20 and still working, she echoed Welch’s appreciation of the brightly lit facility.
“It’s more public,” said Schuster, whose job is in Smokey Point. “I used to get off at the Rite Aid, but I like it here more. In case there’s trouble, other people can see you.”
Munguia elaborated that CT turned to the transit center as a backup plan, after area residents and the Arlington City Council did not support a full park and ride at Smokey Point.
“We fixed up the property we already had, so it would offer safer transfers and more lighting at night,” Munguia said.
Munguia cited the capacity to expand the facility, which was 80 percent funded by the Federal Transit Administration, with the remaining 20 percent coming from CT.
When asked about the possibility of installing restrooms, Munguia noted the expense of maintaining them, especially in light of the vandalism suffered by the few public restrooms that CT does maintain.
“It’s hard to justify that cost, so it’s not in our plans,” Munguia said.
