Snoqualmie Valley Transportation launches new website, makes riding easier

Editor’s note: The following story was contributed by Snoqualmie Valley Transportation.

Getting around Snoqualmie Valley without a car is easy with Snoqualmie Valley Transportation – just give them a call at 425-888-7001 and they’ll help you figure out which routes and services you need.

Or you can find all the information you need on the organization’s updated website, www.svtbus.org.

A new and improved website has been a long-awaited milestone for SVT’s David Beegle, who worked with SVT Executive Director Amy Biggs to plan the update and choose a designer. They examined other small bus companies’ websites and reviewed user complaints to determine what they needed.

The existing site, Beegle said, was “outdated and hard to navigate, and not very appealing to the eye.” It was also a little confusing to users, because of the number and variety of services provided by SVT.

As a matter of fact, a lot of people still think that the buses are for certain types of riders only, and don’t understand that the buses are for everyone.

The new site provides all the same information, but with more details, and broken down by how riders would use each type of service, he said.

The new site will also be translatable into many different languages.

Rider alerts may be the most useful addition to the website. Riders will be able to sign up for email alerts about changes to the service, such as during flooding.

Another long-awaited feature, a trip planner, has been postponed but should be implemented later in the year. The feature will be based on GIS mapping data for all SVT routes, and will allow users to get a full route calculated from origin to destination, all in one application.