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News from King County Transportation
Release date:
May 12,
2004
Innovative program links NewHolly
residents with transportation options
Language barriers often prevent non-English speaking residents from
understanding and using the transportation options available in their
community. To help solve this problem,
King County Metro Transit, the Seattle Housing Authority and Flexcar will
introduce an innovative new program to the NewHolly community featuring
multilingual Residential Transportation Coordinators.
The Residential Transportation Coordinator (RTC) program is designed to
utilize the language skills of residents to help educate their neighbors about
the range of transit services available in their community. As part of the
program, five NewHolly residents have been trained as transportation
coordinators. The RTCs speak several languages, including French, Vietnamese,
Arabic, Amharic, Oromo and Tigregna, as well as Native American dialects. Over
the next several months, the new RTCs will familiarize their fellow NewHolly
residents with transportation topics, such as finding bus routes, setting up
carpools and vanpools, or signing up with Flexcar.
The RTC program is administered by Metro Transit. It has onsite support from
Neighborhood House, and was initiated by the King County departments of
Transportation, and Community and Human Services, under a grant from Community
Transportation Association of America.
In addition to learning more about transportation options, NewHolly
residents will also be introduced to Flexcar. Flexcar is a membership-based,
car-sharing program that operates in partnership with Metro Transit. One
Flexcar will be placed at NewHolly –and
is the first to be located in the south end of Rainier Valley. As part of the
Flexcar program at NewHolly, low-income users will be eligible to receive a 50
percent subsidy from the Federal Transit Administration’s Jobs Access program
for job-search and job-training related trips. The NewHolly vehicle will be
available to all Flexcar members starting May 22.
The RTC kickoff event will take place Saturday, May 22 at 12:30 p.m.,
following the Families & Schools "Super Saturday," in the courtyard adjacent to
the NewHolly Community Center, 7054 32nd Ave. S. Representatives
will be available to answer questions and provide information about
transportation options, including the Hyde Shuttle, Metro buses, vansharing,
carpooling and bicycling. Refreshments will be provided, and small prizes,
including free bus tickets, will be distributed to event participants.
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