Candidates’ Responses to Transit Funding Survey

Last week the Transit Riders Union sent out a short survey on transit funding issues to all candidates for State Legislature positions for King County districts. Below is a link to our letter and survey questions, and links to the responses that have come in so far. Below that is a list of all candidates who received the survey. At our 10/1 Membership Meeting the TRU voted to endorse Kshama Sawant in her run against Frank Chopp for District 43 State Representative.

Transit Riders Union letter and survey for candidates

Responses so far:

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Progress Toward a Low Income Reduced Fare?

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):

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An Interesting Development

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

RFA March Photos!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Funeral March for the Ride Free Area on Friday! Here’s the front page of Saturday’s Seattle Times, in case you missed it. Below are a few of the awesome photos taken by Alex Garland. These and others can be found here, and another series by Rick Barry are here. Stay tuned…

Marching with the band: Tubaluba!

Marching with the bus
Unrolling the petition scroll…
County Councilmember and Chair Larry Gossett, receiving our petition

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:

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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/

Public Meeting on the RFA: Tuesday, September 4th

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.)