After working to learn about and address some of the transportation challenges on Vashon, King County officials will host an open house next week to review a slate of recommendations intended to make it easier for island residents to get around.

The possibilities include two different van services for pre-arranged rides, a ride-share option that could be used for both planned and spur-of-the moment carpool trips and a transportation information hub. The open house, set for next Tuesday, will include information stations with details about each concept along with notepads for public input. King County will also launch a survey that day to gather further information about the ideas and will provide laptops to access the survey as well as paper survey forms.

The county’s Dan Anderson, a Metro community relations planner who has helped lead this project, said he hopes islanders will attend and share their thoughts.

“We strive for community-driven decision making, and we want people to interact with us in person and with their neighbors and ask questions and get answers in a group setting,” he said. “We also want to raise the visibility of the project and can familiarize people with the program. If these concepts move forward, we will have already had some of the important conversations with people who end up using them down the road.”

If implemented, the transportation options would be part of a two-year demonstration project through Metro’s Alternative Services, which brings transportation services to communities where traditional bus services may not be effective or possible.

King County staff based their recommendations on work with a local advisory committee and a survey that more than 300 islanders completed last fall, which indicated that most in demand are transportation options that serve areas beyond the highway, are available on weekends, pick riders up near their homes and include sustainable, active alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles.

The four transportation possibilities that arose from those goals will be presented at the open house and include using Metro Access vans to serve anyone looking for a pre-arranged ride on a space-available basis, deploying Metro-owned community vans through a partnership with an island organization, launching real-time ridesharing — an informal carpooling option that matches riders and drivers traveling to the same destination through the use of an app — and creating an on-island or virtual community transportation hub for islanders to connect with each other to share rides or find out about local transportation options.

Last month, Metro’s Anderson and several other county employees shared these recommendations with Vashon’s advisory group and explained them in some detail, gathering feedback in the process.

Currently, the county’s Access vans are only available to registered riders with disabilities and provide 13,000 trips a year on Vashon, Anderson told the group at the time. Under the proposed plan, those riders would still be given priority, but the service would be opened up to other riders as well. The buses — which can seat up to 11 riders, including two in wheelchairs — would operate using paid, professional drivers from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with pickup and delivery scheduled in advance as space and schedules permit. Riders would pay a Metro fare for the service.

Emma Amiad, a member of the advisory group and real estate agent who is active in island social services, said she believes this service, called Open Door Access, would be especially appealing to seniors who no longer drive, but are too healthy to qualify as disabled.

“This is the option I see growing like mad,” she said.

Fellow group members Kathleen Johnson, the executive director of Vashon Youth & Family Services, and Robbie Rohr, the executive director of the Vashon Maury Community Food Bank, noted some of the challenges of the Access van, which can include long wait times for those who ride it — and stated they believe new riders would likely expect better service.

Anderson noted that Metro is still figuring out details for this plan and that it would require further development before moving ahead.

Another transit option suggested also includes community vans, though these would be owned and maintained by Metro and be driven by on-island volunteers. These vans — which have a lift and can accommodate one wheelchair and six other riders — would be used for special, pre-scheduled trips, with the trips being determined by demand. They could run, for example, from the west side of the island to the Saturday Farmers Market, to the free meals program at island churches or to Point Robinson for a weekend outing.

Each trip would require a volunteer driver and at least two passengers, Metro officials said. They noted there would be two vans on the island — and more to follow if the program proved popular.

“If it goes gangbusters and we show it’s a success, we could increase the fleet,” said Tricia Barbachan of King County Metro.

The third transit possibility, Real-Time Rideshare, is informal carpooling that makes use of a free smartphone app and designated meeting places that match drivers with passengers who want to share a ride. According to county information, riders who are going the same way as a driver passing by can get picked up and dropped off, all coordinated through the app, called iCarpool. Drivers are reimbursed for fuel through the app as well, and riders pay a fee of $1.50 for the first five miles and 26 cents per mile after that.

“We thought this is something that would really take off here,” said Metro’s Victoria Tobin, when she described the idea to the advisory group.

She noted that this option is currently being piloted in Redmond, and 200 drivers have signed up.

Finally, the county’s plan also calls for a community transportation hub, either online or in a physical location, such as the ferry terminals and the public library. It would provide a space for islanders to find out about local transportation options and would be staffed by a part-time transportation coordinator, with the county paying a stipend to fund the position.

When county officials presented this range of options to the advisory group, several members responded positively, including Amiad.

“I am just absolutely thrilled,” she said at the meeting. “You listened and responded. … I am very impressed.”

The recommendations do not solve all of Vashon’s transportation limitations, however, and some of the group’s members noted the proposal does not address the lack of service on Sunday, which rated high on the survey as a barrier to transit.

“It’s an unconscionable thing to do to a community — to provide no public transportation one day a week,” the food bank’s Rohr stated.

For his part, Anderson said that he and other county officials heard the message about the importance of Sunday transit clearly and have had multiple conversations to determine if they can address it.

“We are looking to see if we can bring a proposal back to Vashon,” he said.

Last week, looking back at the work of the advisory group and ahead to the open house, group member Baily de Iongh expressed mixed feelings about the range of concepts suggested.

“I think they are a good start,” she said. “In my mind, it will depend on how they play out in practice.”

If some elements do not work, she added she would like to see — and expects to see — adjustments made so they fit the island better.

She noted that she has some questions about the rideshare option and thought islanders might be able to come up with better solutions on their own.

“It seems like some ingenious person could come up with an alternative to the app,” she said. “Maybe we can figure out our own cheaper alternative to ridesharing.”

For now, though, county transportation representatives want to hear from islanders about the options they will present. A survey will be available online beginning April 5 for at least two weeks, with paper copies available upon request. Once the results are compiled, Anderson said he will present them to the advisory group, which will help determine if these are, in fact, the best options for Vashon. When that refinement process is complete, Metro will begin working out the details of the each of the concepts and then roll them out in the community, possibly as early as this summer.

The open house will meet from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, with welcoming remarks at 6 p.m. at the Land Trust Building. The survey will be available online beginning April 5 at metro.kingcounty.gov/have-a-say/.