Share the Ride!The Need for Alternatives to I-5 Driving by Robert Lovitt I had lived in seattle for 10 years, but my wife and I wanted to move to Olympia to get out of the big city and so she could finish up her degree at Evergreen. In the process of making many car trips down here to check out Olytown, look for housing, sniff around the Food Co-op, etc., we would inevitably get caught in the I-5 nightmare at one end of our trip or the other. So, we were very aware of the growing congestion (now rated sixth worse in the nation!). Once settled in here, I began checking around to see what programs existed to address the I-5 congestion and to make travel connections between Olympia and Seattle easier. We still were very close to the community we had left behind in Seattle, but grew to hate making the trip up there. Outside of posting a notice on the bulletin boards at the Co-op or in the CAB building basement at Evergreen, there was no easy way for people to find out about rides offered or rides needed. Also, there was no one place to go to to find out about existing mass transit options. Can you get to Seattle by Greyhound? How often does it leave? How about Amtrak? The idea for a one-stop transportation information project arose and I started to check on its feasibility and consulted with local transportation experts. Another friend joined with me in the pursuit and we decided to organize ourselves as a nonprofit organization called Transportation Connections so we could apply for funds to make a program happen. We pursued this slowly, as volunteers, almost as a hobby outside of our paid work. We got some advice from Energy Outreach Center and Intercity Transit and some start up funds from the local Community Sustaining Fund. I am thrilled that some three years later, we about ready to offer our service through our upcoming Web page site. When we obtain more funds, we'd like to open an information kiosk, a site where people could walk in or phone for transportation information. Eventually we envision other kiosks in Tacoma and Seattle and an expansion of our service throughout the Northwest. P.S.: We could use some volunteer help! If you are interested, please call 456-1826 for more information. Robert Lovitt is the Board President and Administrative Director of Transportation Connections.
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