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Reliable transit networks help support growing communities. The hubs of these transit networks are transit centers and park-and-rides. These centers offer easy access to buses and commuter trains, with parking needed for commuters to leave their cars near home. Express buses, commuter trains, local buses, van pools and bicycle lockers all come together for easy access to and from work, school and home. All together, Sound Transit has added well over 10,000 parking stalls to park-and-rides and transit centers since 1996.

In addition, these venues are places where Sound Transit has helped contribute to transit-oriented development. Transit centers lead to high pedestrian traffic, which translates into more business development. Development has been spurred around Sounder stations in Kent, Auburn and Tacoma, where increased foot traffic has brought more business to the many small shops in the downtown areas.

Many of the services at these centers are becoming so popular, parking is becoming a premium. Future system expansion will look at ways to add parking where it makes the most sense.

Imagine the time saved when the traditional weaving buses from on-ramp to HOV lane to off-ramp is avoided: measurable minutes. Sound Transit has partnered with the State Department of Transportation, and other local municipalities to build direct-access ramps in the middle of freeways so that buses, including ST Express regional buses, can exit directly from the HOV lanes and turn into transit centers. For instance, with the Ash Way/164th Transit Access, and Lynnwood HOV Access ramps combined, commuters are now saving 12 minutes per day on a round trip commute from Everett to Seattle. In Bellevue, the HOV access ramps led the way for a new interchange on I-405 at Northeast Sixth Street for buses and carpools, giving buses direct access to the expanded Bellevue Transit Center. This project improved freeway interchanges at Northeast Fourth, Northeast Eighth, and Southeast Eighth streets including improvements to nearby city street intersections.