Dear friends,
Spring is almost here, and change is in the air!
This month and next, we’re excited to celebrate three new transit openings — the Swift Orange Line in Snohomish County, the Stream Community Line in Pierce County, and the 2 Line from Bellevue to Redmond. Will we see you at an opening day celebration?
Last week, the 2024 Legislative Session concluded, with lawmakers passing a supplemental transportation budget that included a lot of new and increased investments in safe, sustainable, and equitable transportation — hooray!
Unfortunately, the certification of Initiative 2117 to repeal the Climate Commitment Act casts a shadow over this success. If passed, it would decimate the funding we’ve been winning for transit, walking, and biking. We’ll be working with all of you to ensure voters reject it at the ballot in November.
Read on for more info on upcoming events, what we’re reading, and to hear from our Executive Director about riding the Grape Line.
Keep moving,
– Transportation Choices Coalition
WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO
Closing Out the 2024 Legislative Session
Another year, another legislative session in the books! Lawmakers passed a supplemental transportation budget that allocated an additional $340 million from the Climate Commitment Act, including $30 million for public transit and $22 million for active transportation projects! We’re proud to have helped win these investments in safe, sustainable, and equitable transportation.
We fought again this year to reform Washington’s jaywalking laws, but unfortunately our Free to Walk bill did not make it out of the Senate. But the work we’ve done to illuminate the disparate impacts of jaywalking enforcement on Black and unhoused people has not gone unnoticed. The research report we released with Ethan C. Campbell was featured on the front page of The Seattle Times last week in a story for Project Homeless, and Ethan was interviewed live on KOMO News.
Read more in our final Dispatch from Olympia of the year.
Presenting Our Youth Engagement Work
McKenna Lux and Laura Svancarek arrived wearing the same Ride Transit Month t-shirt!
McKenna Lux, our Events and Engagement Manager, took transit to Tacoma to present at “New Kids On the Bus: Youth Mobility in Tacoma,” a forum hosted by our partners at Downtown On the Go. The panel explored how youth get around Tacoma, why they make the choices they do, and how this can influence the way we think about transportation and city design. McKenna shared insights from our youth focus groups and our subsequent report, “Youth Perspectives on Transit.”
WHAT’S COMING UP
Join Us at the Swift Orange Line Block Party!
The first of several major transit openings this year, Community Transit’s Swift Orange Line opens at the end of the month. The new Bus Rapid Transit line—the agency’s third—will provide fast, frequent service linking Edmonds College, Alderwood Mall, and Mill Creek, with connections to Link light rail in Lynnwood when it opens in fall 2024. Join us on Saturday, March 30, from 12-3 PM at Edmonds College for the Swift Orange Line Block Party to enjoy food and family-friendly activities – and be sure to stop by our table for a commemorative sticker!
Ride Pierce Transit’s Stream Community Line
Pierce Transit is in the process of rolling out bus service changes, including the launch of a new Stream Community Line between Spanaway and the Tacoma Dome Station. The line will follow the same path as Pierce Transit’s Route 1, but stop only at the most frequently-used stops, cutting travel time by at least 14 minutes. Pierce Transit hopes this “enhanced service” will help build momentum for more Bus Rapid Transit in the future. Save the date for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, April 22, from 12-1 PM at the Tacoma Dome Station on the Plaza outside Customer Service.
Mark Your Calendar for the 2 Line Opening!
On April 27, Sound Transit’s new 2 Line from Bellevue to Redmond will open to the public. Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Bellevue Downtown Station at 10 AM, there will be opening day festivities at all eight of the new stations featuring activities, exhibits, and entertainment. Hop on, hop off, and experience a new era of Link Light Rail in the Puget Sound.
LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
Register for a Climate Justice 101+ Workshop
King County is hosting an entry-level workshop on Climate Justice. You’ll get an overview of the Climate Justice movement in the U.S., learn about the intersections of climate change with existing inequities, and see examples of frontline communities taking climate action. The workshop will be held on Zoom on Monday, March 18, from 5:30-7:30 PM.
Tune in for a Tacoma Transportation Update
Join the Affordable Housing Consortium of Tacoma/Pierce County to hear from Laura Svancarek of Downtown on the Go about how transportation policy works in Tacoma and how it relates to the Home in Tacoma Plan, Tacoma’s Transportation Master Plan, and the City’s Comprehensive Plan. This lunch and learn will take place on Zoom on Thursday, March 21, from 12-1 PM.
Register for “People over Parking: Advancing Walkability through Parking Reform”
Concocted in the 1950s as part of “America’s love affair with the automobile,” many cities and towns enacted parking minimums for new development, which have become a major barrier to walkable communities. Join America Walks on Wednesday, April 3, at 11 AM, for a webinar on the benefits of parking reform and how individuals and organizations can engage the issue. Panelists include Minnesota State Senator Omar Fateh, author of the “MN People over Parking Act,” U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, co-sponsor of the Congressional Bill “HR-3145 People Over Parking Act of 2023,” and Tony Jordan of the Parking Reform Network.
WHAT WE’RE READING
Want Safer Streets for Everyone? Narrow the Lanes. — NextCity
“Turns out, wider lanes don’t make for safer streets. In a new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a team of researchers found that the opposite is actually true: Narrowing lanes at certain speeds could save lives.”
New Report: Strengthening Transit Through Community Partnerships — TransitCenter
“TransitCenter, Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), and six LA-based community organizations worked with LA Metro to implement part of the agency’s strategy for working with community-based organizations.”
Momentum for expanding intercity bus service is growing among states, new study shows — Mass Transit
“The change is being fueled by the success of state-supported intercity bus systems, mounting evidence that bus and Amtrak service planning should be done in tandem, and a growing appreciation of the hardships facing disabled and lower-income travelers who rely on bus travel.”
Washington’s key climate law is under attack. Big Oil wants it to survive. — Grist
“The stakes of the repeal are high: Eliminating the cap-and-invest program would rip a $5 billion hole in the state’s transportation budget, taking away free public transit rides for young people, funding for bus routes, and more.”
Sound Transit pulls out the stops to solve a Lynnwood train shortage — The Seattle Times
“Sound Transit found a way to avoid a debacle of long waits and packed trains this fall, when the new Lynnwood light rail extension brings tens of thousands of new passengers.”
Ben Franklin Transit wins top award for mechanic recruitment video — Apple Valley News Now
“The AdWheel Awards, aimed at spotlighting excellence in marketing and communications within the American Public Transportation Association’s membership, serve to champion industry best practices.”
STAFF PICK
Travel Washington on Intercity Buses
Since starting at TCC this January, I’ve made a point of visiting our Board members in person to learn more about their communities. Last month, I headed out to Pasco and Walla Walla. It was an opportunity to try the Grape Line, one of Washington State’s four intercity buses, known as the Travel Washington program, that zipped me along the Walla Walla River. Intercity transit service has the potential to connect rural areas to opportunity and make it easier to live with one less car. WSDOT has a 2019 plan to expand it across the state that I’m on board with. Check it out!
Kirk Hovenkotter
Executive Director
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