— from San Juan County Communications —
The Regional POF Study launched early in 2020 assesses POF service across the 12-counties bordering Puget Sound and on Lake Washington and Lake Union. The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) hosted a webinar on April 15 to kick-off the study.
Since the webinar, PSRC has gathered feedback through a 12-county online survey exploring potential routes and priorities related to POF service. PSRC analyzed the survey input along with other data related to potential POF service to develop preliminary findings. PSRC is hosting a second webinar to share the survey results and preliminary study findings, hear your feedback and provide next steps in the study.
DATE: August 20, 2020
TIME: 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
TO REGISTER: click here
This 1.5-hour online event will include a brief presentation from PSRC staff and the consultant team, followed by a facilitated question and answer discussion. The presentation will be available for review on the PSRC POF Study website following the webinar.
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No-wait fast foot ferry to Anacortes? Direct ferry to Bellingham? Visit Orcas without your car? Works and is popular all around San Francisco Bay’s 450 miles of shoreline; BUT you need a good public/private ground transportation at each end.
We are not the San Francisco Bay Area. We are not even Everett. We do not have public transportation because we are a rural island with only about 5000 people, most of whom live far from any possible bus stop and many of whom have irregular destinations and travel times. Unless I’m wrong, our planning documents have for decades stated that we will not provide urban/suburban level services, because we are rural and wish to remain rural.
Public / private transportation is not just busses. It can include vans like the Senior Center runs, local shuttles, what the Brits call “jitneys”, taxis, locally owned Uber-like services, car rentals and car-shares, all of which could boost local employment. Best of all, it could include a walkable (and bikeable)Eastsound with more people living there. And it could include alternatives to tourists bringing their own cars (along with disincentives to do so). It would also include some imagination and vision.