[CCCNFBW] BIPOC AND DISABLED WASHINGTONIANS DEMAND SIDEWALKS & TRANSIT FIRST in Vancouver

[Merribeth Greenberg]

MEDIA RELEASE:  March 18, 2021



CONTACT:

Anna Zivarts, Program Director, Disability Mobility Initiative

206 718 8432 - annaz at dr-wa.org

Audio/Video/Photos of press conference
<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1m5QpjJmISitWpK8i_PMWNSl0nQCmDxBL?usp=sharing>

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1m5QpjJmISitWpK8i_PMWNSl0nQCmDxBL?usp=sharing


BIPOC AND DISABLED WASHINGTONIANS DEMAND SIDEWALKS & TRANSIT FIRST

Thursday, March 18th, Disability Rights Washington and Front and Centered
held a press conference with BIPOC and disabled Clark County residents
highlighting the dire need to fund transit and pedestrian infrastructure,
investments that should take priority over building new highways.

Betty Fitzpatrick and her daughters live near the three way intersection of
Minnehaha, St. James and St. John Streets. They’ve been asking the city and
the county for half a dozen years to get accessible pedestrian signals
installed at these major intersections so that blind and low vision
residents of this area can cross safely, but with no luck.

“People are so used to going out their front door and jumping into their
car, and never thinking about the condition of the sidewalk, because they
don't use it. Safety-wise it's critical for people to have good sidewalks,”
said Betty Fitzpatrick. “In my work as a rehabilitation teacher for the
visually impaired I saw how unhealthy it was for people to be
institutionalized. The more people can remain independent, the better
self-esteem they have. It is ultimately less costly to the system for us to
stay in our homes and have accessible transportation to get to doctors
appointments, grocery stores, visit people or go to church.”

“There are rainy days and there are snowy days. I don’t only go out in the
summer and spring during beautiful weather. I have to get out and go places
but it’s not that exciting to stand at a bus stop an entire hour waiting
for the bus,” said Abby Griffith, a blind student and Vancouver resident,
who wishes there was more convenient and frequent bus service for
low-income residents like herself.

“What I discovered when I quit driving is that the world is set up for
cars. When I walked places and had to cross streets, I’d hope there was a
sidewalk — sometimes there wasn’t. But just because you don’t drive, your
life isn’t over. You still have a lot to give your community,” said Harry
Kiick, a disabled  Vancouver resident and chair of the citizens advisory
committee for C-Tran, who quit driving because of a serious seizure
condition.

This press event is the second in a statewide tour of communities
throughout Washington where BIPOC and disabled residents are demanding our
legislators reimagine and reevaluate transportation spending. Read more
<https://www.kuow.org/stories/transportation> about our Tacoma event.

Over the last year, Front and Centered and Disability Rights Washington
have been conducting listening sessions and interviews with our community
members, resulting in a new report, “Just Movement Listening Sessions
<https://frontandcentered.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FC-Transportation-Listening-Session-Report.pdf>,”
and the recently released #MobilizeWA transportation storymap
<http://www.mobilizewa.org>.

“The way we have funded transportation has left out too many people, most
often people of color and poorer communities but everyone who doesn't
drive,” said Paulo Nunes-Ueno of Front and Centered. “Rules that were put
in 1944 -- before the civil rights era -- are still guiding where and how
we invest our transportation dollars. We can do better than this.
Backfilling the human-scale transportation that we need for a fairer,
greener future will take the same tenacity and focus that helped us build
our amazing car-centric highways and byways.

The report and storymap document how the burden of lack of reliable transit
and missing and incomplete places for people to walk and roll falls
especially hard on the full quarter of Washingtonians who don’t have a
drivers license. Black, Indigenous, and people of color (“BIPOC”),
immigrants, poor people, elderly, and disabled people are much less likely
to have a driver license or access to cars and are more likely to be
transit-reliant.

Disability advocates involved with the equity workgroup of the Columbia
River Crossing Interstate Bridge Program want to ensure that pedestrian and
transit access is prioritized. “Securing better pedestrian pathways, public
transportation and safe roads must be core outcomes of any project,” said
Matthew Hines, a member of the equity workgroup.

“Proposals to spend billions of dollars widening the freeway over the
Columbia River before investing in crucial health and safety investments
are antithetical to the values of Oregonians and Washingtonians,” said
Aaron Brown, an advocate with the Oregon-based No More Freeways coalition.
Brown has worked with community advocates to raise opposition to ODOT’s
Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion and push the agency.

Funding for pedestrian access and transit is falling far short of the need.


   -

   The Regional Mobility Grant Program at the Washington State Department
   of Transportation (WSDOT), which supports transit agencies and is
   especially critical for smaller agencies in more rural regions, was
   over-prescribed by more than $30 million (or 60%) for the 2021–2023 funding
   cycle.
   -

   WSDOT received 242 applications requesting $190 million
   <https://wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2020/12/03/2021-2023-Bike-Ped-SRTS-Priortized-Project-List.pdf>
   for Safe Routes to School (SRTS) and Pedestrian and Bicycle Program grants
   for the 2021-23 grant cycle. However, WSDOT anticipates only being able to
   support fewer than 20% of the proposals with available funding. (Here’s a
   map
   <https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1LT_CKjpAmx2DBo9IkhAGmop6KT7KUURJ&ll=32.72154968654055%2C-92.41699249999999&z=4>
   that shows the exact location of unfunded bicycle, pedestrian and SRTS
   projects, statewide.)


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Beth Greenberg
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