For Andrea Smith, a Seattle resident who commutes to her job at a nonprofit theater daily by bus, the latest fare hikes for a monthly transit pass were making the trek unaffordable, particularly as business slowed after the Great Recession.
“I was paying cash, ride by ride, since I couldn’t afford a monthly pass,” she says. “I commute to work every day, often six days a week, and I was spending far more…, just because I couldn’t afford to pay all at once.”
A new pilot program launched three months ago by the King County Department of Transportation provided a fix that so many residents who rely on public transit (yet found they couldn’t afford it) desperately needed. The first of its kind in the nation, Seattle’s ORCA Lift offers fares directly tied to a person’s income. For anyone below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $23,340, riders only need to pay $1.50 a trip — reduced from the standard $2.75 fare (though that number changes based on distance traveled and time of day). That means a person who rode the bus to and from work, five days a week at peak travel times could save up to $910 a year.
“The ORCA Lift reduced fare for low-income riders is an important step forward in making public transit affordable for everyone in King County,” says Katie Wilson, the General Secretary of the Transit Riders Union, an organization of working-class individuals who lobby for affordable and reliable public transit.
According to numbers provided by King County officials, nearly 9,000 riders have signed up, accounting for around 54,000 weekly boardings on the bus system.
While the program is a good first step, Wilson says, but there’s much more that could be done. Before the recession in 2008, standard adult fares remained stable around $1.25 — lower than even ORCA Lift’s new total, Wilson points out. “Standard adult fares have doubled since then, and on March 1, the same day as the ORCA Lift program was introduced, fares were also raised again for youth, senior and disabled riders,” she says. “The ORCA Lift program is not enough. We’re still a long way from a public transit system that is affordable for everyone.”
A New Yorker for 16 years, Smith says she loved “how you could get around so easily on public transit” in Manhattan. Even thought transportation in the Emerald City still lags, she’s telling all her friends to sign up. Though it’s tough seeing how many of her colleagues qualify for the reduced fare, at least she knows they’re all still able to get to work. “The ORCA Lift card has been a godsend for me.”
Tag: King County
Meet The Woman Putting a Personal Touch on Health Insurance Enrollment
With all the intricate details of the health care system, it’s easy to get bogged down and overwhelmed, making it next to impossible to choose the best insurance option. Which is why King County, Wash. is taking a different approach — they’re letting the people that know the community take the lead.
So instead of residents hearing about health care options in a general format, a representative of the community presents information catered to the individual area’s needs.
The woman behind the idea? Daphne Pie, King County’s manager of access and outreach at the Public Health Department for Seattle and King County. Her group of workers consists of 24 community leaders, including representatives from Cierra Sisters, Arms Perinatal Doula Program, Gay City health project and the Asian Counseling and Referral Service.
All of this began about four years when the County Council put forth their ‘equity and social justice’ strategic plan, according to National Journal. The measure has each county department focus on reaching the communities where there is the greatest inequity in their respective area of expertise.
For Pie, that meant finding a way to reach diverse groups about their health insurance choices. Her solution? For every community that had above average rates of uninsured citizens, a leader that spreads the message: “you can have health care insurance for free or at a very low cost.”
Communities in King County are quite diverse, featuring African-Americans, Native American tribes, Latinas and homosexuals, among others. Therefore, it’s useful to have a member of that community who can understand and address each group’s specific needs — whether it be HIV medication or natural childbirth.
The County’s commitment to this project isn’t just on paper, either. In 2013, out of the $1.6 million of federal grants King County received, $1.3 million of it went to community partners.
“You have to reach the uninsured where they live,” Pie tells National Journal. “We can’t expect these people to always come to us.”
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