T4.10 Rider education / Benefits *
Maintain and expand a regional online page that lists all the mode shift education efforts and employer benefits opportunities (Thurston Here‐To‐There). Include a comments section for suggestions to further transit education and ridership.
Intercity Transit’s Bus Buddy program provides provides free, one-on-one assistance for people who want a little extra help riding the bus, using volunteers who are “experienced bus riders with excellent customer assistance skills.” The staff also do rider education for individuals and groups through the Travel Training program.
IT’s free Rolling Classroom field trips give pre-12 through 12th grade students the experience of riding an Intercity Transit bus as a group and a chance to see behind the scenes at the maintenance facility. The Class Pass program supports using regularly scheduled buses for field trips; teachers can request a classroom presentation from an Intercity Transit educator before the trip, and ask to have a Bus Buddy volunteer go along. (IT did 29 transit education field trips in 2019.)
Thurston Here‐To‐There takes you through a series of steps and pages to get to the information you might want. Bellevue has a more straight forward and extensive on-line resource guide – Choose Your Way Bellevue.