A public transportation benefit area, abbreviated as PTBA, is a type of public-benefit corporation for

public transit Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typic ...

operators in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Description

Public transportation benefit areas are defined by

Revised Code of Washington The Revised Code of Washington (RCW) is the compilation of all permanent laws currently in force in the U.S. state of Washington. Temporary laws such as appropriations acts are excluded. It is published by the Washington State Statute Law Committ ...

Chapter 36.57A, and are described as special taxing districts created solely for the purpose of funding

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

. Within

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

, there are 31 systems that cover all or parts of 23 counties and serve 132 cities. The majority of transit systems in the state are operated by public transportation benefit areas, with the exception of

King County Metro King County Metro, officially the King County Metro Transit Department and often shortened to Metro, is the public transit authority of King County, Washington, which includes the city of Seattle. It is the eighth-largest transit bus agency in t ...

(a metropolitan county system) and

Sound Transit Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It operates the Link light rail system in Seattle and Tacoma, ...

(a regional transit authority) in the

Seattle metropolitan area The Seattle metropolitan area is an urban conglomeration in the U.S. state of Washington that comprises Seattle, its surrounding satellites and suburbs. It contains the three most populous counties in the state—King, Snohomish, and Pierce ...

; as well as county transportation authorities in Columbia County and Grays Harbor County; and city-owned systems in Everett, Pullman, and

Yakima Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, and the state's 11th-largest city by population. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The uni ...

. PTBAs are granted the authority to impose a voter-authorized sales tax of up to 0.9 percent and motor vehicle excise tax of up to 0.4 percent within its boundaries.

Community Transit Community Transit (CT) is the public transit authority of Snohomish County, Washington, United States, excluding the city of Everett, in the Seattle metropolitan area. It operates local bus, paratransit and vanpool service within Snohomish C ...

, the PTBA of

Snohomish County Snohomish County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. With a population of 827,957 as of the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous county in Washington, after nearby King and Pierce counties, and the 75th-most populous ...

, was granted a sales tax limit of 1.2 percent in 2015 after exhausting the existing 0.9 percent. PTBAs with boundaries on the

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

are also authorized to provide

passenger ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

service in addition to traditional

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...

and

vanpool Vanpools or Vanpooling is an element of the transit system that allow groups of people to share the ride similar to a carpool, but on a larger scale with concurrent savings in fuel and vehicle operating costs and thus usually a lower cost to the ...

services. PTBAs are governed by a

board of director A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

s of not more than nine elected officials, supplemented by a

union representative A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company who represents and defends the interests of their fellow employees as a labor union member and official. Rank-and-file members of the union hold ...

. In Thurston County, the board is allowed to have citizen members; in Mason County, elected officials on the board include representatives from school boards, fire districts, and hospital districts. A special type of PTBA for

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

s within counties, called unincorporated transportation benefit areas. , only two UTBAs exist, in

Garfield ''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976, then in nationwide syndication from 1978 as ''Garfield'', it chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat, his hum ...

and Whitman counties. Only two PTBAs serve more than one county:

Ben Franklin Transit Ben Franklin Transit is the operator of public transportation in Franklin County, Washington, Franklin and Benton County, Washington, Benton counties in the U.S. state of Washington (U.S. state), Washington. Seventeen routes provide local servic ...

in Benton and Franklin counties; and Link Transit in Chelan and

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking *Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...

counties. These systems are allowed up to 15 members on their board of directors.

History

On July 1, 1975,

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Daniel J. Evans signed Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill No. 2280 into law, creating the PTBA. The bill had been proposed by the Snohomish County Transportation Authority (SNO-TRAN), who would later use the legislation to establish the state's first PTBA, the Snohomish County Public Transportation Benefit Area Corporation, later renamed

, in November 1975.

List of public transportation benefit areas

, Washington has 21 PTBAs and two unincorporated systems.

Notes

References

External links

Legal definition: RCW 36.57APublic Transportation Systems in Washington
at the

Municipal Research and Services Center The Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC) is a non-profit organization based in Seattle with a mission of "supporting effective local government in Washington through trusted consultation, research, training, and collaboration". Founded in ...

Washington Transit Links
from the

American Public Transportation Association The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is a nonprofit group of approximately 1,500 public and private sector member organizations that promotes and advocates for the interests of the public transportation industry in the United S ...