King County Metro, the largest transit agency in the Seattle region, is guided by the principle that “mobility is a human right.” For Metro, that means reducing barriers to frequent, reliable transit that connects people to jobs and other opportunities. Chris O’Claire is Mobility Division Director at King County Metro. In this episode, Chris details how the agency applies an equity lens to service planning and fare policy. Chris also tells us about Metro’s Equity Cabinet and how it has led to more inclusive decision-making at the agency.
King County Metro, the largest transit agency in the Seattle region, is guided by the principle that “mobility is a human right.” For Metro, that means reducing barriers to frequent, reliable transit that connects people to jobs and other opportunities.
Chris O’Claire is Mobility Division Director at King County Metro. In this episode, Chris details how the agency applies an equity lens to service planning and fare policy. Chris also tells us about Metro’s Equity Cabinet and how it has led to more inclusive decision-making at the agency.
“One of the most important things that we're hearing is that it's not just the individual that needs to travel to their job, but that families are dependent as a whole on public transportation.”
For more on King County Metro’s Mobility Framework, click here.
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Disclaimer: Political views raised by guests on the podcast do not reflect the views of TransitCenter.
Hosted by Kapish Singla
Edited by Ali Lemer and Kapish Singla
Produced by TransitCenter
Music: “Comma” - Blue Dot Sessions
Kapish [00:00:02] From TransitCenter, I'm Kapish Singla. This is High Frequency. In season two of High Frequency, we're having conversations on how cities and transportation agencies are learning from past mistakes and remedying inequities in transit. King County, home of Seattle, is one of the fastest growing areas in the country, adding nearly 300,000 residents in the past decade. But not everyone has benefited from that growth. This is especially true for residents who have been displaced from neighborhoods with reliable transit. King County Metro, the local transit agency, recognizes this growing inequity, and it's been guided by the principle: mobility as a human right for the agency. This means doing its part to make sure that residents have the ability to use transit to access jobs and other opportunities. King County Metro's 2019 Mobility Framework Report highlights that exploding housing costs have exacerbated mobility challenges as riders get pushed into less dense parts of the county with less frequent transit access. The agency is also attuned to cost barriers in accessing the transit system. Recent initiatives like the Orca LIFT fare program provides half fare cards to households that make less than double the federal poverty level. The agency has also set up more inclusive public engagement processes. In 2019, Metro created an Equity Cabinet consisting of 25 community leaders representing Black, native and people of color, limited English speaking populations and people with disabilities. The equity cabinet has influenced agency decisions on matters like service changes and fare policy. To learn more about how the agency has been investing resources where needs are the greatest. I spoke with Chris O'Claire, Mobility Division Director at King County Metro.
Kapish Chris, perhaps this is a good starting point. How does King County Metro define equity?
Chris We shouldn't define it ourselves. We need to be actively working with our community to ensure that we all have a common understanding of where our needs are greatest and understanding where we want to serve and provide our services. When we define who are priority populations are, we look at key areas and we look at those that are high percentage of low income, BIPOC communities, non English speaking immigrant communities, and people with mobility challenges. We go beyond the federal requirements. We don't just look at race and income. We look at a myriad of indicators that help us understand how we can reach our populations that are underserved.
Kapish What changes to your fare structure have flowed from this commitment to equity?
Chris : I think one of the most important things that we're learning about our customers is really that it's not just do they have a frequent service, but it's also can they afford to pay? Can they afford to ride the system so we King County Metro are doing a lot of work around this. And the first step that we did was really to simplify our fares and really making sure that we're in coordination with our partner agencies. Right now, about 30 percent of our trips transfer between multiple agencies. And I think it's really critical that as they're doing this, that people can ride the entire system. The second most important step that we did was to start to look at the needs of the low income populations and we started with our ORCA LIFT program, where people that make two hundred percent of the federal poverty income level don't have to pay the full fare. But during this past year, during the pandemic, we launched a new program that goes even further, that if you make 80 percent of the federal poverty income level and are enrolled in a certain state benefit program, we'll provide you with a free annual pass. And what we know is that it's critical to do this in partnership with our public health organizations and our community partners, and that really being able to reach these communities in need requires that collaboration together [00:04:21][70.4]
Kapish Can you describe how you team up with other county social service agencies
Chris When we're looking in reaching populations that are in need, we reach out to our housing departments, our social service departments, and those departments that already have built those relationships. Not everyone feels comfortable talking to government. And so we're trying to find ways in which they're already getting services to say: "Hey, you're in here to get some food. Would you also like to know more about our free pass program?" That collaboration is essential because it breaks down the barrier to get to the customer, but it also helps us save money. We then don't have to build the infrastructure and the organization to deliver that. We're just leveraging what's already out there.
Kapish And how would you say those fare reforms have aligned with the agency's goals on equity?
Chris We have been very fortunate to have about 25 percent of our revenues coming from our fare program. And in this we have had one of the largest employer pass programs in the country. Many of the large employers are required by a law called Commute Trip Reduction to look at getting people out of their single occupancy vehicles. We have partnered for years in building a program where the employers can buy passes. This has been a big part of how we can leverage those dollars then to look at populations that can't afford to pay. When we look at equity with our fares, we acknowledge that not everyone has the fortune of being part of a large employer. Not everyone has the fortune of being able to pay not just for their own pass. But most recently I've been struck as a mom with two young kids. You know, to get on a bus is expensive and my whole family gets on the bus, but I can afford to pay for it. Imagine if you're a single mom with four kids getting on the bus. How do you make it work if you're not taking the medium income? So what we are making sure that we do is that we look at those individuals and really saying we need to get a free pass in your hand. We are also doing a very comprehensive study to not just understand the impacts and the outcomes associated with ridership, who's using it when they're using it, but also understand and survey populations on the outcomes. If you get this card, does this allow you to get to where you want to go? To your jobs, to your food. Does allow you to move your family? And this is the center of what we believe in, that mobility is a human right. And our role is to figure out how to ensure everyone has the ability to move in this county.
Kapish King County Metro is in the midst of revamping its service guidelines. Where else go and what communities it serves. How is Metro been reexamining those service changes through the lens of equity?
Chris Traditionally, over time, it was based on a balancing act of where we were serving around the county. So our geographic distribution, ridership and equity. But what we recognized is that we needed to double down and build the equity index even further. So what we did is we put together an equity cabinet, a group of individuals that aren't traditional public transportation experts. They aren't the usual people that come to the table and testify in front of council. This is a group of people that really represented the communities they lived in. This Equity cabinet spent years with us, telling us what the needs are in the community. And what we heard is that we were not going far enough around equity. They really describe the suburbanization of poverty, how a lot of the frequent services were based on historic land use populations where people who could afford to live in dense urban areas had good public transportation. They described that we had these areas and gaps where people didn't have good sidewalks or lighting or ability to connect to the system. And they've really told the story on behalf of the communities on where we were not doing and delivering where our needs were greatest. But I want to highlight one thing for you, if I can Kapish. We just passed our service change ordinance for our North Link restructure. So as Link light rail run by Sound Transit is growing, we are going further north into King County and we as a bus agency are integrating with the system to try to feed that trunk line. We've been working with the community for over two years and really listening deeply to the voices in the community. We took that information and we then rebuilt a system. This is different than we've ever done it before. And this is the first major example that we can say that we are beginning to implement our policies around equity.
Kapish How do you plan to continue to recover and add service that aligns with those agency values on sustainability and equity and investing where it needs are the greatest
Chris During the pandemic...what we know is those who are using public transportation, were not just essential workers. They were actually reliant. They needed us in order to get to the grocery store, to see their family because they didn't have any other mode of transportation. With that, we were able to see that the south King County area, the area which has the largest populations of those priority populations I described, is where we have had the highest ridership retention. Those routes are retaining ridership at about 70 percent. We've been able to really understand who is dependent on public transportation. And with this, we've also been able to collect many stories, one of the most important things that we're hearing is that it's not just the individual that needs to travel to their job, but that families are dependent as a whole on public transportation and really understanding how we can help kids get back into school that need public transportation, really understanding how we can connect the entire family.
Kapish Can you talk a bit more on how you're using stories to guide post pandemic service? And what are some of the trends from the South King County area?
Chris That storytelling has been critical. It is a big element and very robust element in when and how we're bringing back our services and how we're connecting with our electeds. Telling that story of the many so that not just the loudest voice gets the next service, but really telling what we're hearing, many multiple voices has been a big part of the change in what we're looking at and how we're rebuilding our services. We were able to look at a new area down in South King County called our Renton Kent Auburn Project. During the pandemic, we committed to this community to not just restructuring the system, but actually adding new service. These populations are in an area that have been underrepresented and do not have good frequent transit service. So during the pandemic, when we had huge financial challenges, we said it was important to grow the system in these areas. As we look at recovery of our system, we're going to have to understand how we shift our resources to no longer be what I like to call hub and spoke system, just serving downtown Seattle. But we look at an integrated web so that we can get people not just in the peak periods, so that we can get people all day using the system. A lot of our ridership retention has not been in the peak period. It has been throughout the middle of the day and even nights and weekends, because that's when people who are getting to their shift jobs. That's when people that really need to connect to families or to food services need us to make sure that we show up and are reliable.
Kapish Do you have any advice for leaders at peer agencies?
Chris Yeah, I think one of the biggest things we need to do in public transportation is to stop talking about our values, particularly on equity and sustainability, and to begin to demonstrate it. One of the biggest challenges is everyone is talking about it, but who is really acting upon it? So that's something I asked myself on a regular basis. What have I done today to act on the words that I use regularly?
Kapish And how would you answer that question for yourself? How have you acted?
Chris Number one, in ensuring that we're embedding equity into all of our decision making processes? So we have things such as an equity impact review. We have things that we're building as looking at where our needs are greatest, such as tools and data. So every decision we stop at the onset and say: "Have we properly evaluated that equity impacts associated with this?", whether the decision is small, such as hiring a new employee or large, such as where we are delivering our next service change. The second thing is it is our mission to ensure that as a leader that I do elevate the voices of my employees. So I'm actually going down into the work groups and listening to where the challenges are. And it's my role to spend time. I can not isolate myself as a leader. I need to make sure I can take actions on the issues that are happening even on the front line. And then finally, I'd say it's really sticking up in the long run, even when we know the politics are sticky and really ensuring that we do not compromise when we're looking at going to our council and going to our elected officials. And that's been a challenge. It's challenged me as a leader, but I cannot compromise and really trying to take action and elevating those voices.
Kapish Thank you so much for your time, Chris.
Chris Thank you. It's been a great pleasure.
Kapish That's all for today's episode. I'm your host, Kapish Singla. This episode was edited by Ali Lemer and Kapish Singla. High Frequency is a TransitCenter production. For more information, please visit us at TransitCenter.Org
Correction June 17, 2021: A previous version of this episode misstated the income requirements for 2 separate King County Metro fare programs. To qualify for ORCA LIFT half-fare cards, residents must have less than 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL). To qualify for a free annual pass, residents must meet an 80% of FPL threshold.