In a virtual news conference, Durkan, who is in Glasgow, Scotland, attending the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference — announced an executive order that will expand the existing ORCA Opportunity Program to provide free, unlimited-use ORCA cards to 8,000 additional Seattle Public School students.
Durkan said that by expanding the program to cover both middle and high school students, the city is investing in the future of public transportation, and a reduction in personal vehicle use.
"This will do multiple things. One, it will make sure that we are creating a culture of transit-use and getting kids when they're young and getting them to use it, so it's a lifelong habit," Durkan said. "Second, every time someone takes transit, they will be reducing the greenhouse emissions in our city."
According to SPS spokesperson Tim Robinson, more than 13,500 high school students in the city participate in the current program. With the inclusion of middle schoolers, Robinson said the program will also help address transportation issues within the district.
"Obviously, you know, it has an impact on transportation, which has an impact on the environment. But another thing for us that's very helpful is that we have a school transportation problem with not enough drivers for our buses," Robinson said, explaining that some routes have been suspended recently due to a shortage of drivers.
"With the addition of the ORCA cards, it helps give families other options for transportation that may have been interrupted by the suspended route, if it impacted them."
Under Durkan's order, the Opportunity Program, founded in 2018, will be available to up to 8,000 middle school students, 15,000 high school students, and more than 1,000 Seattle Promise students, according to the mayor's office.
The order also instructs the Seattle Department of Transportation to study expanding free transportation, with an emphasis on "equity and climate implications" for minors, including Black, Indigenous and other students of color, those from low-income and unhoused families and youths with disabilities.
In addition to encouraging public transportation to reduce vehicle-related emissions, Durkan's order calls for the city to come up with ways to incentivize the electrification of vehicles and to promote pedestrian travel.
In the short term, the mayor has called for the city to create its first urban pedestrian zone — an area that restricts or completely bans vehicle traffic. According to the order, sites for the urban pedestrian zone will be identified by Dec. 31, for implementation in the summer of 2022.
Durkan said the conference has inspired her to "change how mobility works and get people out of their cars."
"I'm really excited about the work that SDOT will do to identify pedestrian-only zones, very inspired by some of the things that I've seen in London and other places here to really think about how do we rework our city," said Durkan, whose term as mayor ends in December. She chose not to seek reelection.
"We've seen over the last 20 months that we are so connected to every other community through that global pandemic. And climate change is a greater threat to us as a planet."
The order also includes establishing a $1 million program to convert heavy-duty diesel trucks — including school buses, garbage trucks and drayage port trucks — operating in the Duwamish Valley to electric to reduce carbon pollution and diesel emissions.
"We know that the drayage and those trucks moving in and out of the port, sometimes idling, has a huge impact on those neighborhoods," Durkan said. "And the Duwamish Valley really has shouldered so much of the environmental burden in the city of Seattle. And they have led the way in the fight for environmental justice. So this work will help them do that."
In addition to addressing vehicle emissions, Durkan's latest order:
* Directs the Office of Sustainability & Environment to create legislation for carbon-based building performance standards for existing commercial and multifamily buildings 20,000 square feet or larger in 2022. According to the mayor's office, this standard is estimated to reduce building greenhouse gas emissions 27 percent by 2050.
* Prohibits fossil fuels in city-owned buildings by 2035.
* Establishes a clean energy workforce committee to further goals outlined in the order.
(c)2021 The Seattle Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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