Climate Change and Inequality. Two Issues for the 21st Century.

Josh Cohen. Next City.

Elizabeth Bauerle is a research scientist at the University of Washington’s medical center. To get from her home in the north Seattle suburb of Shoreline to her job on the Seattle campus, she can either drive or take two buses.

Like all of us, Bauerle weighs cost, convenience and personal values in deciding how she’ll travel to work. She says the two-bus trip can take as much 20 to 30 minutes longer than driving. That time difference would matter less to Bauerle if she wasn’t paying for the bus out of pocket, but the cost plus time has her grabbing the car keys most mornings, joining the roughly 34 percent of University of Washington employees who drive alone.

Bauerle is part of a campaign to try and change that equation for employees like herself. UW Pass or Fail — a new campaign lead by a broad coalition including university employees, the Seattle Transit Riders Union, 350 Seattle, SEIU Local 925 and others — is pushing the University of Washington to fully cover the cost of transit passes. Currently, university faculty and staff can get an unlimited transit pass for $50 a month. Though that’s nearly half the normal $99 cost for an unlimited monthly regional transit pass, the campaign argues that as a state employer with tens of thousands of employees, the University of Washington is lagging behind other state employers, Seattle universities, hospitals and large companies that provide employees with free transit passes.

Link to the rest here.

Images and Research. Zach Neal.

Image One. Flickr. 

Image Two. Google Street Views.

Thank you for reading.

Editorial Notes.

What would happen if, in a city like Sarnia, a college town, one of 72,000 people, with a newly-diversifying economy and a college that attracts hundreds if not thousands of international students, should provide free transit to all and sundry? While the city would have to forgo certain revenues, there would be some cost savings in the fact that no one would be required to collect, account and audit such revenues. Bear in mind, this system is never profitable, it requires big subsidies every year. What's another thirty percent? That is the big question. And yet the actual benefits, would be inestimable--think of all those foreign students, going home when they have finished school, and telling anyone who would listen about this town in Ontario, Canada, where they have free transit. And they're not going bankrupt, they're actually doing pretty well.

(But if it requires big subsidies, why do they do it at all? - ed.)

There is a distinct possibility that these well-educated. middle-class students would impel some sort of similar program in their own home town or city.

According to the article, there are only a couple of hundred cities in the world doing this sort of thing at the present time. And they're not going bankrupt--they're actually doing pretty well.

One could see ridership tripling, with a resulting increase in simple efficiency. There would be a reduction in overall road traffic, less noise and congestion, less pollution. This would also result in savings due to decreased wear and tear on municipal thoroughfares.

Think of all the folks on social assistance, clients of ODSP who can never go and walk on a beach, because of the prohibitive cost of public transit, and the fact that their ODSP pension is thirty-five to forty percent below the poverty line. And in many cases, the landlord is taking a major proportion of that in rent. The sheer number of people working minimum-wage jobs makes this one kind of a no-brainer, hopefully our city will take a look at it in the interest of reducing inequality, and making this city a more attractive place for that young. sometimes cash-strapped entrepreneurial class that is so important in the diversification of our local economy.

This, is a really interesting idea.

Zach Neal for Wit Ventures.