King County program gets Redmond Ridge residents In Motion

Published 10:35 am Tuesday, November 24, 2015

For about a dozen years, King County’s In Motion program has worked with different urban and suburban communities to encourage people to utilize different modes of transportation besides driving alone.

But in those 12 or so years, the program had not done its outreach to the more rural areas — until now.

Since September, In Motion has been working with the communities of Redmond Ridge, Duvall and Carnation.

Sunny Knott, program manger for In Motion, said they sent mailouts to the communities, providing information on how people can get started. She said they are asking people to make a commitment to try something new — whether that is taking the bus, walking, bicycling or carpooling — and the King County program is making tools available to them to help make that possible.

Through the program, people can log their trips and Knott said they are asking participants to tell them what new ways they have found to travel. She said with past In Motion programs, they have distributed surveys to participants at the end of the program, asking them various customer service questions.

“We see a pretty significant shift in drive-alone travel,” Knott said.

The current In Motion program with Redmond Ridge, Duvall and Carnation is still underway so the county has not distributed the surveys yet. Residents can sign up through Dec. 6.

When residents make the pledge and sign up for In Motion, they will receive a free ORCA card good for two weeks of unlimited travel or a travel mug. Participants can also request information such as neighborhood maps and transit schedules.

Knott acknowledged that the program is coming to a close, so for those who are signing up now, they will still receive the ORCA card or travel mug and receive the same information. They just won’t be able to log their trips as much as those who signed up earlier in the program.

“We would at least get them started,” Knott said.

Cindy Watanabe-Mezs, project manager for In Motion, said they have about 270 participants in the program currently. She said since they began the program in September, they have been able to prevent about 24,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. So not only does In Motion encourage people to take their cars off the road, it is also good for the environment.

Knott added that nearly 3,200 trips so far with their current In Motion program — which includes all three communities — have changed from driving alone to another option.

The county is aware of the different needs and as a result, Knott said In Motion is promoting the Valley Shuttle in partnership with Snoqualmie Valley Transit. This shuttle provides all-day service between Duvall, Carnation, Fall City, North Bend and Snoqualmie. In addition, a Duvall Community Van is coming later this year and will offer pre-scheduled group trips to get residents where they need to go.

Jeff Switzer, a public affairs coordinator for the county, added that transit options in different communities can be a mixed bag, so they have to look at what those options actually are and go from there.

In addition, Knott said the county has organized and held community events with the idea of garnering more program participants as well as motivating people to look at alternative modes of transportation.

Redmond Ridge resident Beth Sigall attended one of those events with her oldest son. She said she first learned about one of the In Motion meetings a couple months ago. Alternative modes of transportation are something her family has been interested in learning more about. She and her family have been living on Redmond Ridge for about eight years and since they moved there, her oldest son — who is now 16 — spent a lot of time exploring the area’s trails.

Both Sigall and her son are signed up with In Motion.

Sigall, who works from home, said on Redmond Ridge, sometimes it is necessary to use a car to get from one place to another — especially when traveling further away from the community. However, she said if you’re staying in the neighborhood, walking along the local trails to get from one place to another can be nice. For example she said one of the trails leads to the community’s main shopping plaza area where the QFC, Starbucks, Mod Pizza and more are located. Sigall said the trail’s signage does not say this, but it would be nice if it did.

Encouraging people to walk on the local trails is just one example of In Motion encouraging people to explore other modes of transportation.