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The state of Washington has
been known for its pro-environment views and laws, so it was interesting to see what actions the city of Seattle has
taken to support their environmental goals.
Examples include:
- The One Less Car Challenge,
in which people give up the use of one car for a month. The city not only provides information on alternative
transportation methods, but free use of Flexcars
when necessary.
- Reduce minimum parking spaces for certain areas.
- Connect all bike trails within the city.
- Increase the number of bike racks on public
transportation vehicles as well as provide more free racks to the public.
- Development of
“Green streets” and giving pedestrian traffic priority when developing land use.
[Update:]
Autoblog reader (and former Seattle resident and now SoCal jetsetter) jamie provided the
following additional tidbits (and commentary) about Seattle:
- All the traffic lights
are set for 29 mph.
- Bus lanes and free bus fare. (It’s really a pain to sit
in rush hour traffic, so the city fathers opened bus lanes so that bus patrons could “fly” by the disgruntled
masses in traffic jams. Result: many new bus patrons. Another thing they are trying is “free fare” bussing,
supported by a penny tax at the pump. Needless to say, something for nothing is quite a hit about town!)
- Express lanes. (It sure would be nice to commute from, say, Orange County to L.A.,
without a bunch of on-and off-ramps slowing down traffic. In Seattle, Interstate 5 has express lanes (2 lanes each
direction) down the center divider with only ONE exit per city. That would work soooo well on Orange County and L.A.
freeways.)