Text transcript from the video "Bicycles in the Bus Tunnel"

Sherman Alston/Metro Transit Chief of Service Quality says: We encourage bicyclists to ride Metro in the tunnel. We have two areas where bicyclists can load and unload their bikes. One is at the International District Station and one is at Convention Place Station. The stations in between have mezzanines and they require that the bicyclist would have to climb stairs, use an elevator, or use an escalator to go to the mezzanine level. And from the mezzanine level, the bicyclist would also have to climb stairs or use an escalator or an elevator up to the street level. Because of the high volume of passengers that we have in the tunnel during the day, we want to discourage use of those areas for that reason. We also want to discourage any activity in the roadway. All station roadways have 'Do Not Cross the Roadway' painted on the surface. Coaches are required to pull up as close the bumper of the coach in front as possible. This discourages people from getting of the coach and crossing in front. There is a single passing lane with limited clearance, and if someone were to walk out in front of a coach, they would have a very good chance of being hit by a passing coach. So it would make it very difficult for an operator to anticipate a bike customer who wanted to load or unload a bike and it would force us to have all coaches stop short of the coach in front in order to anticipate loading and unloading customers. So we encourage bicyclists to load and unload at the International District Station and Convention Place Station and we wish them a nice ride.

Text Transcript for the Video "Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program"

Narrator: If you see a speed reader board like this on your street in unincorporated King County, it means a resident in your area has asked King County's Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program for help. The program gets more than 1,500 calls a year and speeding is the number one complaint

Kevin Chang/NTS Safety Supervisor says: When there is speeding on a neighborhood road, most of the time it is people that live in the area that are familiar with the roads. They may have come across congestion on the highway. They get to their residential streets, they are comfortable with them and they drive faster.

Narrator: These speed readers represent a subtle way of encouraging drivers to slow down. Another tool is to send a Sheriff's Officer to the area to monitor traffic and write citations. The Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program offers multifaceted solutions to neighborhood problems, such as trimming brush that obscures sightlines or fixing streets, like it did with this stretch of road leading up to Lakeland Elementary School near Federal Way. To make it safer for pedestrians, county engineers widened the road, added concrete curb dividers, and in some places built sidewalks and added signage. The key is for residents to get involved in helping to make their neighborhood safe.

Kevin Chang/NTS Safety Supervisor says: We certainly encourage residents to be active if they have a concern - to please contact us. We can be reached by e-mail and by phone. We encourage folks to join their neighborhood association. If there is not one that is readily available for them to, talk amongst your neighbors. It is definitely helpful when a group has a concern that needs to be addressed.

Narrator: If you go to the Transportation section of the King County homepage at www.metrokc.gov and follow the links to the Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program, you will find advice for drivers, parents, pedestrians, and residents. The county can supply you with tools to make things safer, but residents have to do their share as well.

Kevin Chang/NTS Safety Supervisor says: King County's responsibility is to provide safety for the roads. We are doing all that we can, but we can only do so much. We can install new signs, we can add striping, or we can collect data and decided if there is a need for added enforcement. But the other part of the shared responsibility falls on the citizens and those folks that live in the neighborhood themselves. If they are driving too fast because they are late for work or they need to pick up their child at school, or if they are being reckless, that is something that the county cannot control. So it is a shared responsibility. The county provides many of the services, but there is also responsibility that falls on the drivers of the vehicles that are familiar with those roadways.

Narrator: You can contact the King County Neighborhood Traffic Safety program by calling area code 206-296-6596 or go to the webpage for more information.

Text transcript for the video "NSPAR Bike Path"

Narrator: The path parallels a section of Highlands Drive and will be shared by cyclists and pedestrians. Now, while water runs off Highlands Drive into storm drains and into percolation ponds, water that falls on the path will soak right through to the soil underneath and filter into the groundwater naturally. King County Roads Division Engineer Al Corwin explains what makes this asphalt porous.

Al Corwin/King County Roads Division Engineer says: Porous asphalt is basically asphalt concrete. The only difference between porous concrete and the normal asphalt concrete is that the aggregate is relatively the same size. So because it is the same size, it results in a lot more void space in the material. A standard asphalt usually has about 2 - 3 % when compacted while this material has up to 20 - 30 % void space.

Narrator: By using the porous asphalt the county did not have to build an additional percolation pond, a savings of about $ 50,000. The county will monitor its performance with an eye towards future applications.

Al Corwin/King County Roads Division Engineer says: Our group is intending to periodically go out and take a peek at what it is doing and how it is behaving. One of the problems with porous asphalt is that it does clog up over time. In a sidewalk situation like this it may not be as big of an issue as it is sometimes in roadways. So we will take a look at how effective it is over time.

Narrator: With the rainy season coming soon, King County's Roads Division will ample opportunities to measure the porous asphalts performance.

Text transcript for the video "Trip Planner"

Narrator: Will a bus take you from here….to there? One easy way to find out is to use King County Metro Transit's online trip planner. It's one of Metro's most popular tools, garnering some 5,000 hits a day. Last month a record 150-thousand users logged onto trip planner. The main attraction is the 24 hour convenience and detailed information.

Terri Lewis/Metro Marketing Specialist says: You can pick as many trips as you want to take. It will tell you where to get on the bus, how many blocks you need to walk to get to the bus stop, what bus stops are nearby so you can do all that planning any time of the day.

Narrator: All you have to do is enter your departure and destination points with some time frame information. Trip planner will even offer tips on how to do that. And it's ideal for situations like the September service change, when riders may be unsure of schedule changes.

Terri Lewis/Metro Marketing Specialist says: It is updated all the time with the most current information with what is happening on King County streets, and the city of Seattle and suburbia.

Narrator: To find trip planner just go to www.Metrokc.gov and click on transportation to find the link. If you don't have access to a computer, you can always still call Metro at (206) 553-3000 and talk to a customer service representative with questions about bus routes.