Make Your Voice Heard At the Washington State Senate Listening Sessions

Updated to add three more sessions announced Sept. 12 and with change of location for Oct. 2 Spokane event, Oct. 7 Vancouver event, and Oct. 14 Seattle event. See also What to Tell the State Senate About Bike Transportation

Washington State Senate transportation leaders recently announced their schedule to hold bipartisan listening sessions to gather input on what Washingtonians want in a transportation revenue package.

pedbikeimages.org/Carl Sundstrom

pedbikeimages.org/Carl Sundstrom

Now is our time to let them know that Washingtonians want a balanced transportation package that invests in safer streets for our schools, and that investments in walking and biking provide cost-effective and common sense solutions to congestion, improving safety for people who drive, walk, bike, and take transit.

Bicycling is here to stay. We need the Washington state legislature to craft a transportation package that looks forward—not one that keeps us looking in the rearview mirror. Investments in biking and walking infrastructure make streets safer for drivers too, while providing a healthy workforce and children who are ready to concentrate and learn when they get to school. Everyone benefits.

But the state legislature needs to hear from you. They need to hear the message that Washingtonians want the freedom to get around safely and efficiently.

The legislature needs to hear that every community in the state will lose out on the chance to make their streets more inviting, increase their real estate values and thus their local government revenues, make their school zones safer, and support the local businesses that benefit from increased commercial activity when people can walk or bike in a welcoming environment. That’s the real bottom line for the taxpayers.

Join us at one or more of these transportation listening sessions to tell the Washington state legislature you value smart transportation investments in biking, walking and school safety. Each meeting will begin at 6 p.m. and last until 9 p.m. and will include presentations from regional transportation officials, and public comment.

Sept. 17 – Bellevue. Stevenson Elementary School, 14220 NE 8th St., Bellevue, WA 98007

Sept. 18 – Everett. Snohomish County, Robert Drewel Building, 3000 Rockefeller Ave., 1st floor, Everett, WA 98201

Sept. 23 – Wenatchee. Chelan County PUD Auditorium, 327 N Wenatchee Ave, Wenatchee, WA 98801

Sept. 24 – Yakima. Yakima Area Arboretum, Garden View Rm., 1401 Arboretum Dr., Yakima, WA 98901

Sept. 26 – Tri-Cities. Columbia Basin College, 2600 N 20th Ave., Pasco added

Oct. 2 – Spokane. New location! Central Valley High School theater, 821 S Sullivan Rd., Spokane Valley

Oct. 7 – Vancouver. New location! Department of Transportation Southwest Region Office, 11018 Northeast 51st Circle, Vancouver 98682

Oct. 9 – Tacoma. Evergreen Tacoma Campus, Lyceum Hall, 1210 6th Ave., Tacoma, WA 98405

Oct. 14 – Seattle.  New location! First Presbyterian Church at 1013 8th Avenue (8th and Spring) added

Oct. 15 – Bellingham. Port of Bellingham Cruise Terminal, 355 Harris Ave. added

Sign up for our email alerts for continuing updates and stay up-to-date on the hearings via Twitter @BikeWA.

You can also submit comments at senatetranspofeedbackforum.org. You’ll need to enter Biking/Walking in the “Other” field where they ask for your primary transportation concern. (Perhaps your first concern is that it’s an “Other” instead of being on the list!)

This article was posted in Advocacy, Alert, Complete Streets, Economic Impact, Events, Everett, Funding/Policy, Infrastructure, Issues & Advocacy, News, Politics, Safe Routes to School, Safety, Seattle, Spokane County, Tacoma, Transportation, Vancouver, Wenatchee, WSDOT, Yakima County. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are closed.

One Comment

  1. Chris Voges
    Posted September 6, 2013 at 12:04 pm | Permalink

    Looking forward to it.

One Trackback

  1. By Seattle Bike Blog on September 16, 2013 at 2:11 pm

    […] More details on the meetings, from Washington Bikes (who have also made some handy signs and fliers you can print to show your support at the meetings): […]