Valley Transit

VALLEY TRANS I T with major cities like Seattle and Spokane, Valley Transit is pretty much the “go-to” agency for public transportation. Peters notes, “You could potentially grab an Uber – I think we have one or two – but outside of that, we’re the only public transit player in the area. So, if we’re not running, you’d need to get a ride from a friend to get somewhere. Obviously, if you’re a person experiencing a disability and you’re using a mobility device, that’s going to be really challenging because most people don’t own a modified vehicle for personal use. The entire Valley Transit fleet is accessible in order to prevent this from being an issue on our services.” As with workforce management considerations in the pandemic context, Valley Transit is also being intentional about putting energy and focus behind electric vehicle (EV) adoption. “We’re in the process of going fully EV on our Fixed Route fleet,” Peters reports. “Four of our vehicles are battery-electric, but the goal is to take them all in that direction.” Valley Transit is presently at a standstill to purchase more BYD electric buses due to a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act. Passed by Congress and signed into law in 2019, the defense bill bars the use of federal funds to buy Chinese buses and railcars. BYD Co. Ltd (“Build Your Dreams”) is a Chinese manufacturing company based in Shenzhen, with North American headquarters and manufacturing in Los Angeles County. “The four battery electric vehicles we have are BYDs and they’re fantastic,” says Peters. “We’d also like to keep as much of a similar fleet as possible. There are other electrics to choose from, but BYD is the only purpose-built electric on the market at this time, and they are the only vendor currently willing to offer a 30 foot electric bus which is the best size for our community. All the other electric buses out on the market use a modified chassis. They weren’t built electric from the floor up. That changes the efficiency and how many problems you might have, so we’ve decided to hold temporarily on vehicle purchases.” The transition to electric has been “fairly smooth,” and energy storage capabilities on their EV fleet has performed better than expected. “We’ve had a bit of a competition going between some of the drivers to see who could bring back the bus with the most charge,” Peters says, laughing. “We’ve had a driver bring a bus back with 48% battery remaining. That record was set on a holiday, so I suspect it won’t be beaten.”