Fa'aumu Kaimana

Metro has set a tentative date for the conclusion of fare-free rides and rear-door boarding: May 31. But the question on nobody’s mind: If I have a non-employer ORCA card, should I load a June pass on it?

The best way to approach this is to load—online, that is—the amount of prepaid value (“e-purse”) that is equivalent to a monthly pass ($54 for ORCA LIFT, $99 for Metro and Sound Transit Express) to your ORCA card. That way, you’re ready to convert the e-purse to a monthly pass once the reinstatement of fares become more certain, and you’re ready to ride again.

When the pandemic subsides, convert e-purse to a monthly pass by calling Customer Service, or by using any of the Ticket Vending Machines (TVM) at train stations and select park and ride lots. See hours and locations: https://www.soundtransit.org/ride-with-us/how-to-pay/orca-card/how-to-buy-orca-card.

See Metro’s news release: https://kingcountymetro.blog/2020/05/04/metro-adds-trips-and-seat-signs-no-fares-through-may-31/

Some time ago I contemplated whether our buses—wherever they are on Coast Salish lands—would bear place names in dxʷləšucid (Lushootseed), the language of indigenous Coast Salish peoples from Nisqually all the way to Skagit. It was early winter of 2018 when I began packing for my trip to the Samoa archipelago. Something caught the corner of my eye outside the faculty offices of the UW Anthropology department: the Burke Waterlines Map. I perused the map, pinned to the bulletin board unfolded, and, curious as to where the Lushootseed place names belonged on the map, began to piece together village by village, water site to water site, into my head already deeply colonized by the more familiar English place names I was taught to know, love and sometimes hate.

What if public transportation can bear these place names?

All posts by Fa'aumu Kaimana

King County Metro may reinstate fares on May 31

dxʷləšucid signs