RIDE TRANSIT CHALLENGE COMPLETED!

We are thrilled to announce the results for the Ride Transit Challenge!We hope you enjoyed taking transit during June and that you will continue to take transit to get to where you need to go!

Together, with our partners at Downtown on the Go, Tacoma, Bellevue on the Move, Commute Seattle and Curb the Congestion from Community Transit, we had over 7,000 participants, we saved over 500,000 lbs of C02, and rode over 2 million miles. 

We want to thank our sponsors, without their support, Ride Transit Month and the Ride Transit Challenge would not have been possible!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP AWARD WINNERS!

Grand Prize – Gift Card (Valued at $1500) for a vacation of your choice.
Randomly selected between all participants who logged at least 10 trips. 
Winner: Praveen Sethuraman

Most Trips Prize: Amtrak Empire Builder trip for 2 to Leavenworth, plus overnight accommodation. 
Awarded to the individual with the highest number of one-way trips. 
Winner: Syed Kasmi

Most Miles Prize: Tickets to a Sounders Match. 
Awarded to the Individual with highest number of miles logged. 
Winner: Daniel Conn

Most Trips Team Prize:  $300 Gift Card for happy hour or pizza party. 
Awarded to the team with the most trips logged, averaged by participant. 
Winner: Bus Tarhymes, Team Captain Brandon Hunter

WHAT’S NEXT?

Continue riding transit! Each full bus takes 60 cars of the road, reducing congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and saving you money!

Want more light rail? Let’s make it happen! Sound Transit is seeking to expand light rail next year. What does that mean? Check it out here.

Seattle Riders: On June 6th, new bus service hit the streets thanks to the approval of Prop 1 last November. The next round of improvements will begin in September! Check it out at http://www.seattle.gov/transit.
Want more bus service, sidewalks and safer streets? The Move Seattle Transportation Levy is on the November ballot. Find out more about it  here.

TRANSPORTATION PACKAGE PASSES

Posted by Carla Chavez at Jul 01, 2015 11:25 AM | Permalink

Click to enlarge

Early this morning, the Washington Legislature passed the Transportation Package. While not perfect, this proposal furthers our collective vision of more and better transportation choices for all.

Transportation Choices’ mission is to give Washingtonians more opportunities to walk, bike, or take transit as their first choice to get around. While this 16 year, $16 billion investment is far from the ideal proposal, it is a legislative compromise and we applaud its passage. With millions of dollars of new state transit investments and $15 billion of Sound Transit 3 authority, this deal will go a long way to give Washingtonians more transportation options.

While we lament that the state transit investments are not higher and the restrictive language on the clean fuels authority, we commend legislative leaders and the governor for striking a deal that will help maintain local streets and highways, finish the west side of the 520 bridge, commit hundreds of millions state dollars to transit, and allow voters in the Puget Sound Region to choose their own transportation future. We look forward to working with the Sound Transit Board to craft a bold, equitable, and forward-thinking Sound Transit 3 proposal to take to the voters in November 2016.

Now the hard work beings! In the next few months, the Sound Transit Board will start putting together a package. You will be hearing from us throughout this process as we’ll need your help to make ST3 an equitable, well-balanced proposal. You can participate in this process now by taking the ST3 survey at http://www.soundtransit3.org. Once the project list is determined, we will start the campaign to educate voters about the benefits of light rail expansion, all leading to a vote in November 2016.

For the past six months, we have asked you to email, call and write your legislators – and you did it. Time and time again you took action and made your voice heard. Thanks to you – we can now start working towards on expanding light rail in the Puget Sound region.

Our awesome summer intern Doug put together this chart showing where the state money is going. Check it out and if you have any questions, let us know!

$15 BILLION

Posted by andrew@transportationchoices.org at Jun 30, 2015 12:17 PM | Permalink

It is the 11th hour for transportation in the legislature, and we need your help one last time to get this transportation package over the finish line.

In political compromise, nothing is perfect. The proposed transportation package released yesterday with agreement from the House, Senate and Governor is still far from our philosophical ideal, but it’s time to move forward across the finish line.

Let’s look at the numbers:

• $15 billion for Sound Transit 3 authority. $15 billion dollars that with voter approval in 2016 will allow for light rail expansion to Everett, Tacoma, Redmond, West Seattle and Ballard. Without this authority there are zero dollars to expand regional transit in the Puget Sound area and we’ll watch the 2016 general election come and go. We’ll have to wait years and potentially decades for another shot at the high capacity transit service our region so desperately needs.
• An 11.9 cent gas tax increase and other fees that will fund $16 billion in multi-modal and roadway investments across Washington State. About half of this includes highway construction (which includes money for projects we support such at $1.6 billion to finish the West side of 520). $1.3 billion will go towards highway preservation.
• $200 million for special needs transit, $100 million for complete streets, and $200 million for regional mobility transit grants. Not to mention $111 million for transit projects, which will fund things like bike share expansion to the east side of Lake Washington, the Spokane Central City line, more Rapid Ride bus service, a new Swift BRT line in Snohomish county, and the Northgate bike-pedestrian bridge.

The two chambers of the legislature, controlled by two separate parties, have banged their heads together for months to reach this compromise. Last night the Senate passed this proposal 39 to 9! It is not perfect. We continue to believe that transportation investments should not be tied to cleaner fuels. Futurewise and TCC are committed to working through this and other important issues beyond the last day of session in Olympia. 

It is time. It’s time to give residents more transportation choices. It’s time to reduce emissions by building connected communities where transit, walking, and biking are the first choice. It is time to authorize all of Sound Transit 3 and let us work our tails off to pass it in 2016. It is time for legislators to vote yes. 

Please join us in telling them to move forward on this transportation package.

Together, we win.

Andrew Austin                              Bryce Yadon
Policy Director                              Statewide Policy Director