Mayor Nickels is back in the act of encouraging people to consider alternatives to car ownership in the city. The City will provide the following incentives to encourage carless commutes:
To find out more about how to participate, go to www.seattlecan.org. Seattle residents who commit to reduce car trips at the Web site are eligible for the following:
• Commit to eliminating a few car trips, and qualify for a drawing for a $50 gift certificate for bus passes or REI.
• Commit to reducing commute trips for several months, and receive a $150 cash card.
• Sell or donate a car, and receive $200 in gift certificates for bus passes or REI; a $100 discount to Tiny’s Organic; $50 off a Zipcar membership; free membership in the Cascade Bicycle Club and Bicycle Alliance of Washington; and a signed proclamation from the mayor.
• For those who already bike, walk or take transit, the city will hold a quarterly drawing for an iPhone.
There used to be flexcar incentives, but when zipcar bought flexcar, they decided to not participate in the program. That’s kind of a shame, zipcar is a great way to ween people off car ownership, but I guess that option is still available.
Well, let me just say this about that- what an effing stupid idea. Like people need incentives to ride transit when parking and gas costs are rising in tandem in Seattle.
Here are the incentives the Mayor should be offering- double frequency and air conditioning on buses to city parks, especially on the weekends. Headways under ten minutes and bus-controlled traffic signals on at least ten major routes in the city. Give SPD officers free passes and stand-by pay when they ride the bus to work in their uniforms. Make the sidewalks safe and level at the bus stops, and add a shelter with a roof wherever grocery shoppers wait for a bus to take them home.
A gift card for REI? Have any of these people actually tried to get to REI on the bus in the past ten years?
As for that ‘signed proclamation’ from the Mayor, I just hope they print it on super-soft Downey, so that it can be *recycled* effectively.
Frankly, the whole thing is a bit ridiculous coming from a mayor whose standard commute consists of two round-trip car trips between West Seattle and downtown.
It’s also a little insulting that the rewards seem to be heavily weighted in favor of those who don’t already go carless to work — it’s a guaranteed $50-200 gift certificate or cash card at least for those folks, whereas I might win an iPhone, which I don’t want or need.
And honestly, if folks aren’t put off by the cost of gas or parking at the Zoo or SAM, I don’t think a $2 discount is going to do much for them.
This idea just pisses me off. I’m considering moving to Seattle, and I’ve never owned a car, and never to own one. Do I get any incentives? No. Why not? Isn’t not having a car at all better than having one and giving it up? Or is that not the american way?
Instead of criticizing his idea, why don’t you step up to the challenge? Is there anyone here who normally drives to work, school, the store, etc., who would be willing, even for just one day, to try taking public transit, or biking, instead?
And please, save me your “I already take the bus to ….” back-patting and excuse-making. What ELSE are you willing to do? Name something. I will step up to the plate. I am willing to try biking to work. I normally ride my bike for recreation, but I am willing to try bicycling to and from work sometime in the next week. I know that’s not exactly what Nickels was talking about, but you have to start somewhere.
I always “take the challenge” when I move to a new place. That way I know what I can do if I don’t have a car.
Or when I change what I do. If I was going to bicycle to a new employer I would first of all make the trip on a weekend, with a watch, and make notes of how long it took. Cycling is a much more pleasant activity when you build in a nice time-cushion, and one of the best things to do with the extra time is move over and use side streets to ride on instead of heavy-traffic main roads.
But the city should take the challenge too, by adding more service for the new riders who are getting sore feet from standing during their rides.
Same thing for “take your vacation in the city”. Make the bus to that “vacation spot” run a little more often than once an hour. Maybe even – gasp!- an express service that only stops a few times between downtown and the park.
I mean, really, this is a chance for Seattle transit to grab some major market share simply by providing transit. They oughta do it.
The Mayor has little to no impact on bus service, since that’s a county responsibility.
What he could do is set aside dedicated bus lanes on heavily traveled routes. That would make a big difference.
The City can and is influencing frequency of bus service. Seattle is paying Metro for some service increases. http://www.metrokc.gov/kcdot/news/2008/nr080404_TNpartnerships.htm
It is a start, but it does need to be expanded. At a quick glance I didn’t see any improvements to some of the most busy lines in the City (I am CH biased, forgive me): 43, 49, 10, 11, 12…
I agree, I don’t need an REI card to stop riding the bus. But, at least the City is paying attention to the need to get people out of their cars.
amen catowner
The link to SeattleCan.org is broken.
If the city did nothing, people would be complaining about that.
Sometimes I think we miss the forest for the trees. I rarely agree with sam, but in this case I do.
A Buddhist monk once said “don’t look for faults in others, but instead look inside yourself and seek to cast YOUR faults aside like bad blood”.
It’s not gonna get solved overnight, folks. Complaining about a pro-transit program is the stuff of transit lunatics.
We are better than that. We should be working together not yelling about stuff like this. It’s hard enough to pry Jenny’s hands from the wheel of her SUV without having to hear this crap from the supposed ‘friends of transit’.
Now is the time for programs like this. Keep people tipping in the direction of transit, and catch as many as possible!