The following statement was approved at TRU’s March Membership Meeting. To get involved in the campaign to save bus service and win a more affordable reduced fare, email contact@transitriders.org and check out saveourmetro.org.
The Transit Riders Union strongly urges all transit riders and all voters in King County to VOTE in the April 22, 2014 special election and to APPROVE Proposition 1, the ballot measure regarding transportation funding.
Passage of this ballot measure will save our Metro bus service from devastating cuts. It will also make public transit more affordable, by lowering the new low income reduced fare from $1.50 to $1.25 for two years.
We urge approval of Proposition 1 despite our strong objections to the taxes proposed.A $60 Vehicle License Fee and a 0.1% sales tax increase are regressive taxes that will further burden the working and poor people of King County. Neither do these taxes constitute a stable or sufficient long-term funding solution for Metro. Nonetheless we strongly urge a YES vote for the following reasons:
- First, due to irresponsible neglect on the part of the Washington State Legislature, King County has no other realistic option for saving bus service.
- Second, the King County Council chose to include a $20 rebate of the Vehicle License Fee for low income car-owners, making this tax somewhat less regressive.
- Third, the immediate alternative to Proposition 1 is massive cuts to our Metro bus service that will increase congestion, harm the environment, and unacceptably lower the quality of life of working and poor transit riders throughout King County.
The Transit Riders Union therefore calls upon the transit riders and voters of King County to vote in favor of Proposition 1, and to join the Transit Riders Union and our allies in the long-term battle for sustainable, progressive funding for affordable mass public transit.
i like to save our bus becouse im go to every day talk bus
We need the bus 107 for go to work
I don’t ride the bus that often. HOWEVER; I may have to start riding it very often in the next few years. I have been riding the bus since I was an infant, since I was born in Seattle. Of course I will vote YES!
I do live in Bellevue Ave, E. Me and many other people relay on round #47. We want to keep at least just one bus for this route. And we’ll vote YES!
This vote for Metro will provide funding to maintain transit services that are not only essential to us bus riders, but also essential to every car driver in the Puget Sound basin…. Think of the number of cars our metro buses keep off the roads every day!
If this proposition fails, car drivers will be seriously affected — by even more congested rush hour traffic! It is in the interests of bus riders and car drivers to vote for this!
Today’s article in The Seattle Times included some revenue proposals for consideration. Two of these are of special merit (1) charging a nominal fee for use of the park and ride and (2) increasing the fare box fee for seniors. Extensive investments are made in park and ride facilities – tens of millions of dollars. There currently is no charge for these and, obviously, the costs are not recovered from the fare box. The Eastside park and rides are often jam packed by mid morning providing direct evidence of the “economic dislocation.” The Eastgate Park and Ride 4-story structure is often packed because, in addition to transit riders, it is used by Bellevue College students for free parking in spite of warning signs. The transit companies can assess a nominal parking fee for park and rides which can be collected via the Orca cards and the overall transit cost for riders would still be substantially less than round trip single person auto transportation to Downtown Seattle and Downtown Seattle parking. The one-way fare box fee for seniors is $0.75 regardless of zoning. I am a senior and I take advantage of this because it is tantamount to a free ride. I know that I am courting a vehement outburst from AARP and nearly all of my fellow seniors who use transit, but this is totally irresponsible. Seniors should, at the minimum, pay the about-to-be-implemented low income fee. In fact, they should be required to attest on the honor system that they are indeed low income — otherwise, they should pay full freight. I will be at the head of the line of those who will thus properly support our transit system.
We need the buses 168 and 159 in the Covington city to help us to get to and from work and also to go places like doctor’s appointments. It will affect us a lot if the services are eliminated or reduced.
Intelligent people voted against the tunnel but stupid people outnumbered us and look what happened. (Actually, this is not altogether true — 70% of Seattleites voted “NO” on the tunnel when it was first put to the voters.) We need to cancel the tunnel plans right now and put that money to good use: bus service.
My second suggestion for saving our buses it to raise the fare for outside Seattle where prop 1 was voted down but not in Seattle where we passed it.
My third suggestion is to pass a state initiative that makes it a felony crime for politicians or transportation bureaucrats to own or operate a motor vehicle. That will get us results.