OUR WORK:
TRANSPORTATION
"We're only one part of a larger solution, but let's add our voice and add our muscle to make Seattle a greater global city"
- Steve Davis, Former President and CEO of PATH
SPARKING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS THAT KEEP
OUR REGION MOVING
Seattle is one of the fastest growing regions in the world. Our infrastructure must keep pace. Our transportation system connects us together—and together, we must find innovative ways to move more people and goods, more quickly and efficiently. Our quality of life depends on it.
Challenge Seattle is committing its expertise, insights, and resources to this challenge. In partnership with transportation leaders, Challenge Seattle seeks to bring stakeholders together to think creatively, take action, and create the transportation system for the future.
ENGAGING PARTNERS:
We all share the same goals for our transportation system – one that is safe, reliable, sustainable and serves the entire community. Challenge Seattle is bringing together private and public sector leaders around this common vision and finding new ways for agencies, businesses, and other stakeholders to more effectively partner. Our efforts are centered on six strategies:
1) Create an I-5 system for the 21st century.
2) Integrate operations and planning.
3) Focus on the end user.
4) Proactively maintain transportation assets.
5) Establish a sustainable funding model.
6) Integrate Land-Use and Transportation Planning.
TAKING ACTION:
REDUCING OUR IMPACT ON TRAFFIC
Challenge Seattle represents some of the region’s largest employers with a collective 100,000 employees commuting to work through the region on any given day. We are committed to doing our part to reduce this strain on the transportation system, implementing and sharing best practices for getting more work commuters to stop driving alone.
In Seattle, we set an initial goal of no more than 35% of employees driving alone by 2035 in the city of Seattle. We surpassed that target in 2017 – and it is only the beginning. Within our own companies, we are expanding trip reduction programs from employee shuttle services, carpool apps, flexible work options, transit passes, and the like. We are sharing best practices and partnering with other employers on new strategies. Additionally, we are leading community efforts to reduce commute trips, partnering on events like “Transit for the Win” and collaborating with state and local transportation agencies on how employer communication systems could be harnessed in emergencies.
See our 2017 annual report on transportation.
Challenge Seattle has created a new multi-disciplinary center at the University of Washington to bring together the region’s leading business, government, and academic experts work on real-world transportation problems facing the Seattle region.
The Mobility Innovation Center delivers projects on a 6-12 month timeline that produce technology and policy solutions that can be applied in the real world. All projects have the support of local transportation partners who agree to test and implement prototypes and recommendations. Whether developing pilot apps to providing jurisdictions with practical advice, the center’s projects have tackled issues from autonomous vehicles to incident response.
