Uncategorized

TRU’s Position on a Low Income Reduced Fare

Since our foundation, the Transit Riders Union has been advocating for a Low Income Reduced Fare. This Monday, October 8, the King County Council will consider the following motion:

Proposed Motion No. 2012-0380: A MOTION regarding access to public transportation mobility for low income populations; and the establishment of an advisory committee for mobility as an element of the health and human services safety net to assist in the development of new regional public transportation fare programs.

The TRU applauds this move, and we will work to make sure that such a program is adequate to the need and that the process of qualifying for a low income reduced fare is simple and dignified. At our Membership Meeting last Monday, we approved a paper summarizing what we believe a Low Income Reduced Fare should look like. Here it is (a PDF is here):

Read more

Reagan Dunn, one of the two County Councilmembers who opposed the car tab fee last summer, is now advocating for a reconsideration of the elimination of the Ride Free Area:

Here is Mike Lindblom’s post on the Seattle Times website: https://blogs.seattletimes.com/politicsnorthwest/2012/10/05/reagan-dunn-lets-consider-making-downtown-seattle-buses-free-again/

And here is Dunn’s letter to the Mayor and County Executive: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/453826-rfaltr-2.html

Sign the email petition to County Councilmembers here: https://transitriders.org/rfa_petition/

*** Friday, September 28 ***

Funeral March for the Ride Free Area

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

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 3^rd Avenue sidewalk to the County Courthouse
• 4:30 pm:  Petition delivery and march back up 3^rd 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/

This coming Tuesday the Transit Riders Union is hosting a public meeting and workshop on the elimination of the Ride Free Area. We’ll have a few people speaking briefly about the history of the RFA, how and why the decision was made to eliminate it, and what the consequences will be. After that there will be time for questions, comments, and discussion about the next steps we can take.

Join us, and bring a friend!  6:00 – 7:30 pm at the Capitol Hill Public Library meeting room, 425 Harvard Avenue E. (served by Metro routes 8, 60, 49, 10, 11). We’ll have some light refreshments.

Here’s the Facebook event page – and don’t forget to sign our email petition to the County Council!

(This event is not sponsored by the Seattle Public Library.)

Sign the petition

At our Members Meeting last Monday, the Transit Riders Union decided to change course in our campaign around the elimination of the Ride Free Area. Rather than focus our efforts on demanding a better free downtown circulator, we believe the Ride Free Area should be preserved. Here’s what changed our minds:

1. A really good free circulator – a full size bus, arriving frequently, 12 hours per day, seven days per week – would cost almost as much as Metro is expecting to gain by eliminating the Ride Free Area in the first place. The RFA increases mobility for everyone downtown: it’s effective and actually it’s a really good deal.

2. The problems that will result from eliminating the RFA go far beyond the effects on low and no income riders. The increased boarding times downtown are expected to cause a congestion nightmare on 3rd Ave and in the tunnel, resulting in bus delays and longer commute times for everyone. When you add up all our lost time, it’s just not worth it.

So we are doing a petition to tell our County Council Members and County Executive Dow Constantine to reconsider their decision. You can join us on Thursdays throughout August and September, when we’ll be gathering signatures on 3rd Ave (contact us or check our calendar for details). Please send the electronic version of our petition to the County Council and Executive now! You can change the suggested text however you like:

[emailpetition id=”1″]

The Transit Riders Union is gearing up for a campaign around the elimination of the Ride Free Area, details to be hashed out at our upcoming August 6 Membership Meeting. Stay tuned! In the meantime, here is our letter to County and City Council Members:

July 26, 2012

To:
King County Council Members
King County Executive Dow Constantine
Seattle City Council Members
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn

Dear County and City Council Members, Mayor, and County Executive:

We are writing concerning the impending elimination of the Ride Free Area on September 29, and the plans to introduce a free downtown circulator.

We are writing, first, to register our displeasure at the manner in which the decision to eliminate the Ride Free Area was taken. The RFA has performed admirably in its original purpose of easing congestion and increasing mobility downtown, to the benefit of shoppers, tourists, businesses, and commuters. Since its inception in 1973, numerous human and health services for low income and homeless people have located themselves in and around the RFA, knowing they would be accessible by bus for free. That the decision to destroy this venerable institution should be made, not through a transparent public process and based on a reasoned assessment of how well it is working, but as a hasty concession in the political bargaining over the Congestion Reduction Charge, is wrong.

We understand that Metro expects the elimination of the RFA to result in a net savings of a little over $2 million per year, mainly in new fare box revenue from rides currently taken for free. However, according to Metro’s estimate, 1.7 million rides annually will no longer be taken once the RFA is eliminated, because these people either will choose not to take the bus or cannot afford it. How will they get to where they were going? Presumably some will walk, and others will drive, but many will simply not take the trip: out to lunch, or to the grocery store, or to the clinic, or to visit family or friends. In other words, this additional revenue comes at the cost of a significant loss of mobility. This is a move in the wrong direction: we should be encouraging, not discouraging, the use of public transit. And of course, this loss of mobility is most serious for those who will no longer ride Metro downtown because they have little or no money.

So we are writing, second, to encourage you, our County and City Council Members, Mayor and County Executive, to do whatever is in your power to fund a free downtown circulator that will adequately mitigate the effects of the RFA’s elimination on low income riders. In the view of the Transit Riders Union, a circulator should meet the following conditions:

1. Full size 40-foot coaches.
2. Free of charge and open to everyone.
3. Operates 12 hours per day, 7 days per week.
4. Frequency no less than every 20 minutes.
5. Runs from Jackson to Denny and up to Harborview, routed to serve the low income and disabled housing and resources that are currently served by the RFA.
6. Operated by Metro.

We understand that a circulator program of this scope would cost well over $1 million per year to operate, as well as resulting in a loss of projected farebox revenue, thus greatly reducing the anticipated cost savings of eliminating the RFA. Considering this, and considering the congestion and reliability problems that are also likely to be in store after September 29, not eliminating the Ride Free Area in the first place begins to look like the superior option. It was actually a pretty good deal.

We appreciate whatever steps you can take to move the current circulator plan closer to the standards enumerated above. In the longer term, we encourage you to pursue a regional low-fare and no-fare transit pass program for individuals with low or no income.

Sincerely,

The Transit Riders Union