On Thursday, King County Metro operator Samina Hameed passed away after contracting COVID-19. She had driven for Metro since 2017. Her husband is also a Metro operator.

Hameed is the first Metro employee to succumb to the virus.

STB wishes to express our deepest condolences to the family.

She joins Scott Ryan, a Community Transit operator, and Esther Bryant-Kyles, a Washington State Ferries employee, among the transit workers claimed by the virus.

An open letter from concerned Metro operators was sent to the King County Council on April 7, nine days before Hameed’s passing. Metro responded to the letter on April 8.

Via CHS.

With the cuts more or less done for now, its getting slooooow in the transitsphere:

• Another way to report badly parked bikeshares. If able bodied, you could just, you know, move it.
• ECB writes about the plight of the bus driver today.
• Seattle and Uber/Lyft reach a deal: not pushing unionization, but a minimum wage for drivers.
• Pierce Transit adds more rider limits per bus; essential employees can now dial a ride.
• Biketown is now way cheaper.
• Dan Bertolet has some smart thoughts about the pandemic.
• Also, Jarrett Walker on the same subject, at length.

This is an open thread.

Frank and I will tape tonight. Please leave your questions for us in the comments.

A lifetime ago, King County floated a countywide 0.2% sales tax increase for the August ballot, to replace Seattle’s expiring Transportation Benefit District (TBD) and expand its benefits to rest of the county. Weeks later, King County Transportation Chair Claudia Balducci had to shelve it as the virus ate everything.

The last day to file a measure for the November election is August 4th. To make that date, committee work would have to start no later than mid-July. It’s worthless to speculate about conditions in mid-July, but it’s also not hard to imagine how a measure would be both compelling and plausible.

The policy case for raising transit spending is strong independent of economic conditions. With strong growth, the robust transit network we don’t yet have countywide is critical to building environmentally sensible living and travel patterns. Seattle’s TBD has dramatically improved the accessibility of frequent transit while frequent suburban lines are scarce. Conversely, when sales taxes implode, transit becomes even harder to use.