Seattle City Councilmembers set to ride, and blog about buses that will see specific Prop 1 transit corridor improvements.
SEATTLE – Over the next week and a half before the November election, Councilmembers Bagshaw, Burgess, O’brien and Rasmussen will be blogging first hand about the speed andreliability improvements that Prop 1 would fund on their respective local bus rides.
Nearly half the money ($100 million) raised by Prop. 1 is dedicated to transit improvements to help buses move up to 20% faster and on schedule. Improvements like signal priority for buses, bus bulbs, dedicated bus lanes and signals that let buses jump ahead of traffic are all effective ways to help get people where we need to go easily and efficiently by bus.
“Our buses are an affordable alternative to paying high gas prices, but too often, people think that the bus is too slow or that they can’t depend on it consistently,” said Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen. “Prop 1 can fix this and make transit work better by making our buses faster and more reliable. These blogs are a fun, simple way to highlight the specific ways Prop 1 helps our transit work better for everyone in Seattle.”
The Councilmember blogs will get posted to the Seattle Transit Blog, the Streets For All Seattle website and the Streets For All Seattle Facebook page. The first entry, written by Councilmember Rasmussen, is up now and can be viewed at: http://seattletransitblog.com/2011/10/28/tom-rasmussens-commute/
“No one enjoys riding the bus and hitting every single light, waiting at the bus stop and not knowing when the next bus will actually arrive, or standing there waiting for a bus that’s already fifteen minutes late,” said Craig Benjamin, Co-Chair of Streets for All Seattle. “The bus blogs are a fun way to illustrate how Prop. 1’s thousands of smart, simple improvements will fix these problems and help our buses move up to 20% faster.”
Designed by a citizen panel, Prop. 1 will implement a $60 annual vehicle license fee in Seattle for 10 years to pay for better transit, increased road maintenance and pedestrian and family-friendly bicycle infrastructure.