Cherry blossoms in full bloom against a partly cloudy sky

TRANSPORTATION AND MOBILITY

Prioritize transforming our most dangerous corridors, from Aurora to Rainier, into people-centered streets with great public transit, safe neighborhoods, thriving businesses, and tree canopy that will help clean the air and moderate the urban heat island effect.

Maximize efficient use of Keep Seattle Moving Levy dollars to build new sidewalks, fix our streets and bridges, improve transit infrastructure, and connect our bike network.

Continue and accelerate progress on Seattle’s Bicycle Master Plan. Make rapid safety improvements in the most dangerous spots; and expand bike parking, especially where small business owners or residents have requested rack installation.

Support the workgroup, created during the levy process, to explore a bond measure that would provide more transportation infrastructure funding.

Seattleites deserve mass transit that is fast, frequent, reliable, and affordable — the norm in most of the developed world from London to Singapore to Mexico City. With better leadership we can get from here to there faster.

Expedite the delivery of Sound Transit Link Light Rail projects by providing needed leadership on the Sound Transit Board and using the City’s powers to lead on planning, minimize permitting burdens, leverage existing right-of-way, and avoid excessive process. (In contrast, Bruce Harrell used his Sound Transit Board position to waste resources and almost delay the light rail because Amazon wanted him to move a light rail station three blocks over to benefit them.)

Expand bus service through the renewal of our Seattle Transportation Benefit District in 2026, and work with King County and other partners to chart a path to regional bus service expansion.

Improve speed and reliability with dedicated bus lanes and signal priority, to make bus transit competitive with driving.

Build more bus shelters and seating; studies show that waiting for the bus feels 30% longer without such amenities.

Improve safety and comfort on public transit, in collaboration with our transit agencies and the transit operators’ union ATU 587.

Ensure that residents of subsidized housing have access to affordable public transit, through expansion of the Seattle Housing Authority Transit Pass Program to other affordable housing providers.

Work with King County, the transit agencies, and service providers to streamline and expand our reduced or zero-fare programs to reduce administrative burdens and ensure that everyone who needs to ride transit can afford it.

Grow ridership and expand transit access for grocery workers, educators, hotel workers, janitors, and baristas by requiring large employers to subsidize transit passes for their employees.

Shift away from single-occupancy vehicles by updating and expanding the successful Commute Trip Reduction program for our post-pandemic reality: apply proven strategies to a broader range of sites including worksites with nonstandard hours, schools, and other destinations.

Design and implement a parking cash-out policy, to ensure that employers aren’t inadvertently creating incentives for their employees to drive to work. Washington, D.C.’s Transportation Benefits Equity Act, passed in 2020, requires that employers with 20 or more employees that offer free or subsidized parking also pay the market value cash equivalent of this benefit to employees who don’t use it.

New York City’s recent success with (de)congestion pricing is worth our attention. Seattle may be able to significantly reduce travel times, noise, pollution, and asthma rates, while raising revenue to expand and improve public transit. I’ll work with stakeholders to develop an equitable policy that mitigates the impact on low-income residents and lower-wage workers who must commute into the city.

Washington state’s e-bike rebate program was wildly popular and quickly oversubscribed; research shows that e-bikes reduce car trips and car ownership. Seattle should explore its own rebate program.

Mobility is fundamental to our quality of life. Everyone deserves to get where they need to go safely, affordably, and efficiently. As Seattle’s population continues to grow, we simply don’t have space to keep adding more cars to our streets. Making smart investments in our public transit, bike and pedestrian infrastructure will make it possible for many more residents to move around our city without driving — while also promoting public health and reducing our climate pollution. Seattle should be a world leader in mobility, where people of all ages and abilities can get to work, daycare or the grocery store safely without having to drive.

Seattle launched Vision Zero in 2015 with the goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 2030. But in the last decade, more than 1,850 people have been seriously injured and 253 people have been killed in vehicle collisions. We need city leadership that will prioritize keeping our kids, elders and neighbors safe on our streets.

I’ve built my career as an advocate for better transportation options. The organization I co-founded in 2011, the Transit Riders Union, grew out of a successful fight to save King County Metro bus service from deep service cuts in the wake of the Great Recession. Over the years I’ve led campaigns to expand and improve our public transit system and to make it affordable and accessible to more people — for example, winning and designing ORCA LIFT and other reduced or zero-fare programs that benefit many thousands of riders across our region.

As your mayor, I will build new sidewalks, improve pedestrian safety and accessibility for people who use wheelchairs and other mobility aids, fix our streets and bridges, improve transit infrastructure, and connect our bike network. I will cut red tape to expedite building out light rail to West Seattle and Ballard, and expand and improve bus service. I will pursue programs that encourage people to get around via transit to prevent our traffic from getting even worse.