Equity and sustainability central to Metro’s newly adopted policies

The King County Council’s historic passage of Metro’s policy updates is outstanding news for everyone in our region and delivers a bright vision of what is ahead. Hard work, partnership, and patience made this moment possible. My great thanks goes to the community leaders, elected officials, and other advocates—as well as my colleagues—for getting us to this exciting day.

The Metro Connects long-range plan, the Service Guidelines, and the 10-year Strategic Plan for Public Transportation focus our efforts at a critical time. The Puget Sound region is gradually reemerging from a pandemic and a recession, both of which have had especially severe impacts on Black, Indigenous, and people of Color (BIPOC) communities and residents with lower incomes. We’re also increasingly breathing, feeling, and seeing the dangerous impacts of climate change. These, too, are felt first and hardest by our neighbors with fewer resources.

Thanks to the commitment of countless partners and supporters across King County, our future—cowritten with the communities we serve and teamwork by the Mobility Equity Cabinet—will break from the past.

Together, we’re building healthier neighborhoods, a sustainable environment, and a thriving economy for everyone. That means that getting to an appointment, school, or work is accessible and affordable; that every bus is zero-emission; and that we always have frequent, reliable transit options no matter our destination.

Local knowledge informs the smartest and most effective solutions—and designing with a focus on equity lifts all of us up. These policy updates lean into community expertise and experience, invest in innovation, and allow for flexibility as we expand and improve connections across bus, rail, streetcar, water taxi, and other modes.

Today’s news allows us to continue to build the innovative, integrated, safe, sustainable and equitable mobility network that keeps King County and the Puget Sound region moving forward together.