Mercer Island Mobility Projects

Bike Map

Looking for our bike or trail maps? Visit the City's Getting Around page.

First/Last-Mile Solutions

These programs are intended to help travelers access regional transit options at the Mercer Island Park & Ride without the need to drive and park a personal vehicle. Before the COVID-19 pandemic,  all 447 stalls would fill by 7:00am on most weekdays, forcing many Islanders wishing to use bus transit to choose Single Occupant Vehicle (SOV) travel instead. The City believes reducing SOV usage will improve congestion on the Island, reduce rush hour pressure on I-90, and help lower local greenhouse gas emissions.

Ride Share

After extensive exploration, the City launched a 6-month rideshare pilot program with providers Lyft and Uber in mid-April, 2018. For six months, the program subsidized any ride on Mercer Island that started or finished at the Park & Ride on North Mercer Way. The pilot ended Oct 31, 2018. Learn more here.

Bike Share

The City launched a 3-month bikeshare pilot program with LimeBike that ran from mid-July to mid-October, 2018. Approximately 25 electric-assist models were available 24/7 to anyone, Island-wide, and were restocked daily at designated hubs. Learn more here.  After the pilot ended, the bright green Lime bikes continued to be available on Mercer Island until summer 2019, after which Lime scaled back fleet size. The City of Bellevue also ran a 1-year pilot with LimeBike, starting in Aug 2018. 

VanPool, CarPool

The City is also exploring how to better promote existing King County Metro programs among its residents; click here to see Metro's range of RideShare Programs. In addition, Metro offers a Carpooling service, and there are carpooling apps which match drivers with riders for a small fee. 

King County Metro Innovation Program

Metro is in the process of launching a number of pilots across the County that includes exploring new concepts to address access to Park & Rides, geographic transit deserts, time-of-day challenges, and peak time challenges of meeting demand. The City is eager to collaborate with Metro on first-last mile solutions and has had good success with the existing Route 630 Commuter Shuttle.

Integration With Bus Transit and Future Light Rail

These pilot programs are currently focused on transporting commuters to the Mercer Island Park & Ride area in order to board express buses.  When light rail opens (expected 2025), trains will replace much of today's bus service, and it will be especially important to ensure that there are also safe bicycle/pedestrian corridors and services leading to the future rail station.