Month: September 2012

Working More to Ride to Work

Ever get the feeling that riding the bus is taking a bigger bite out of your paycheck than it used to? Well, that’s because it is.

In the mid-1970s, a worker in Seattle making the Federal minimum wage had to work for just over 10 minutes to make enough money to pay for their bus rides to and from work. Today, they’d have to work for over 40 minutes to cover their commute – or, at Washington State’s higher minimum wage, almost 35 minutes.

For low wage workers, the cost of riding public transit has effectively tripled in the past forty years!

You can find a PDF of this report, along with source data, here:
https://transitriders.org/pdf/Working_More_to_Ride_to_Work

TRU in the news, and a letter to Councilmembers

Check out the front page of today’s Seattle Times! Here’s the full article. And make sure to buy a copy of Real Change this week – we have an editorial on the second page. And finally, here’s the letter we’re delivering to Councilmembers today:

September 13, 2012

Dear County and City Councilmembers, Mayor, and County Executive:

Read more

Funeral March for the Ride Free Area

Save the date! On Friday, September 28, the last day of free rides downtown, the Transit Riders Union is planning a Funeral March to commemorate and protest the elimination of the Ride Free Area. There will be a real brass band, and some other surprises… and we’ll be marching to the County Courthouse to deliver our petition! Wear your best funeral clothes.  Help us spread the word! Facebook event page here.

  • 3:00 pm:  Rally at Westlake Park
  • 3:30 pm:  March down 3rd Avenue sidewalk to the County Courthouse
  • 4:30 pm:  Petition delivery and march back up 3rd Avenue

So far we’ve collected over 1,300 signatures on our petition asking the County Council to save the Ride Free Area. We don’t expect them to listen before the end of the month – but afterward, when the negative effects of eliminating the RFA begin to sink in, we may be able to pressure them to reconsider.

Join the Funeral March and show the County Council that transit riders are not ready to say RIP to the RFA!

Sign our email petition if you haven’t already, and share the link: https://transitriders.org/rfa_petition/