In 2022 The King County Mobility Coalition hosted four virtual meetings with an average attendance of 55 participants.  We enhanced membership by recruiting seven new members, one new alternate, and 49 new partners to the Coalition. 

Our Committee and topic-specific work continued throughout 2022. We hosted six Access to Healthcare Committee meetings and four Access to Work and School Roundtable meetings, with an average attendance of 14 and 22 members, respectively.

Access to Work and School Roundtable Topics:

• Strategies for Equitable Transportation Demand Management
• Let’s Talk About Reduced Fares
• Campus Connections
• Success in a Rural Setting 

Our Coalition continues to distribute a monthly Coalition newsletter to nearly 500 subscribers. 

Our staff served on the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Special Needs Transportation Committee, King County Disability Consortium, Transportation Choices Coalition: Transportation Advocates Call, Sound Transit Digital Assistant Taskforce, Northwest Universal Design Council Steering Committee, and more on behalf of the KCMC. 

We spent 2022 continuing progress on implementing phase one of the One-Call One-Click system. This project establishes a centralized multi-modal trip planning and ride-requesting system, including all specialized transportation services in the Central Puget Sound region. Phase one funding includes the creation of the first iteration of this platform – a complete trip planner with all transportation options discoverable!

To support this project and collaboration across the mobility sector, we hosted the Rider Profile Workshop to advance the national and international conversation on rider profiles in public and specialized transportation. 

2022 saw the continuation of the One-Call/One-Click Advisory Committee, a group to offer governance and guidance during the phase one process of the One-Call/One-Click project, with the launch of a User Testing Taskforce. The task force aims to advance accessibility and usability standards in software development. 

The King County Mobility Coalition published findings of the COVID-19 After Action Report, which highlights the lessons learned and all efforts of the Regional Alliance on Resilient and Equitable Transportation (RARET) Workgroup and the King County Mobility Coalition to reduce barriers to Vaccine Access for specialized transportation users and keep people safe, and connected to community.

Our team launched the Community Transportation Navigators program with a pilot in the Tagalog-speaking community. The pilot was launched in partnership with the South King County Mobility Coalition, Hopelink, and King County Metro. The pilot hired three peer outreach partners to connect community members to transportation options in a culturally inclusive manner. We look forward to the findings and connections associated with this project.

The King County Mobility Coalition supplemented our 2021 Community Transportation Needs Assessment by convening a series of focus groups for Diverse Communities. 

The Diverse Communities Focus Group Findings (2022)document the efforts of the King County Mobility Coalition partnership with the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center, with similar work completed by the Eastside Easy Rider Collaborative. 

These focus groups centered on the experiences of diverse older adults, adults with disabilities, and caregivers. 

Three themes arose from these community conversations. (1) Transportation options must be easily discoverable, affordable, and accessible. (2) The current transportation system needs to meet community needs. Due to lack of service, many trips are impossible or difficult to complete. This includes few options in suburban and rural areas and few viable options for cross-county or long-distance trips. (3) Public Transit Operators must be equipped with training and tools to support diverse riders. This includes assisting people using mobility devices as they enter and exit the vehicle and cultural training to ensure the safety of all riders.

 To build on these successes and continue toward our vision, the King County Mobility Coalition began the 2023-2025 Action Plan project. This Plan will serve the King County Mobility Coalition and our partners by highlighting region-wide strategies to increase mobility for all communities.

The King County Mobility Coallition hosted four virtual meetings with an average attendance of 54 participants! Throughout the year, our coalition continued adapting to virtual engagments and the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these adjustments, we welcomed three new members, one new alternate, and 41 new partners to the Coalition. 

Clear, timely, communications have been a central effort for the year. In 2021, our network distributed a monthly Coalition newsletter to nearly 400 subscribers. and maintained an active blog, telling the story of mobility in our region. 

In addition to King County Mobility general meetings, we also maintained two  topic focus areas. In 2021, we hosted six Access to Healthcare Committee meetings and four Access to Work and School Roundtable meetings, with an average attendance of 13 and 22 members, respectively.

Beyond our own Coalition, the KCMC staff presented our work to multiple stakeholder groups, including PSRC’s Special Needs Transportation Committee, King County Hospitals for a Healthier Community, and Healthy King County Coalition. Our staff served on the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Special Needs Transportation Committee, SDOT Inclusive Mobility On-Demand Steering Committee, King County Disability Consortium, Transportation Choices Coalition: New Mobility and Equity, and more on behalf of KCMC. 

2021 was a monumental year for centralized trip planning in our region! Hopelink and the King County Mobility Coalition received funding for phase one of the One-Call One-Click system. This project establishes a centralized multi-modal trip planning and ride requesting system inclusive of all specialized transportation services in the Central Puget Sound region. Phase one funding includes the creation of the first iteration of this platform and beta testing in Summer 2022. More information can be found on the project webpage.

Spreading the word about this project and its goals - spreading excitement and building partnership- has been an important first step for this work. Throughout 2021 KCMC staff presented on the project, its goals, and desired impact in the community to several stakeholder groups, including the Indian American Community Services youth group; Tribal Transportation Planning Organization; Snotrac; King County Metro’s Transit Advisory Commission; WSDOT’s Transportation Demand Management Technical Committee, and all subregional Mobility Coalitions and Committees.

As we advance this work, we are committed to using inclusive planning practices and hearing from community members about their needs. In 2021 our project team launched the One-Call/One-Click Advisory Committee, a group to offer governance and guidance during the phase one process of the One-Call/One-Click project. The group meets monthly to carry forward the community-led and inclusive structure of this project.

The King County Mobility Coalition staff worked alongside the Regional Alliance on Resilient and Equitable Transportation (RARET) Workgroup to field mobility gaps, needs, and barriers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This included standing up the cross-sector King County Vaccine Mobility Task Force, publishing the Vaccine Transportation Needs Memo, and standing up the Coordinated Vaccine Transportation Helpline. These efforts aim to reduce barriers to vaccination and ensure transportation does not stand between someone and their ability to get vaccinated. At publishing, the Helpline has served over 140 community members. 

We heard throughout the pandemic that volunteer services  played a critical role in supporting folks and connecting community members to one another. KCMC staff partnered with the Eastside Easy Rider Collaborative’s Volunteer Driver Project, a coordinated effort to increase the volunteer pool for transportation programs through a shared promotion. The project also developed resources for riders to find programs that best fit their needs. Promotional and information resources can be found on this dedicated webpage. This work will expand in 2022.  

We partnered  with the South King County Mobility Coalition to run the Care Mobility Rewards Program, an innovative pilot to reduce hospital readmissions in South King County. 

We have continued our partnership with King County Metro and the University of Notre Dame Lab for Economic Development to launch the Community Transportation Navigators program. In support of this effort, hosted two community focus groups to learn about specific community needs and barriers to transit and began program design.

In 2021, KCMC published the King County Community Transportation Needs Assessment. This document identified 21 total needs and seven trends. Top needs include more options and better connections to employment and medical centers for rural and suburban populations; more options and better connections within rural and suburban neighborhoods; greater emphasis on culturally competent and diverse education and outreach engagements; increased options during off-peak hours. The Needs Assessment is a tool to support advocacy and informational sharing, in hopes of  creating a better connected and more mobile King County. Supporting the Assessment's efforts, KCMC staff presented these needs and trends to ten area agencies and coalitions. 

The massive switch to virtual engagement made it clear KCMC needed to update our resources. The Inclusive Planning Toolkit  now includes accessibility best practices for virtual engagement. This document remains a living resource for fostering inclusive and accessible engagement. 

Our staff and Coalition members provided feedback on PSRC’s Coordinated Mobility Plan and WSDOT’s Human Services Transportation Plan.  

Many changes have come through our transportation network over the last year! Our staff and Coalition partners work together to share information on transportation services modifications, including the opening of Northgate Link Light Rail extension, Snoqualmie Valley Coordinated Awareness Campaign, and outreach to Spanish-speaking community members. In addition to these, we continued to share and distribute news on service changes occurring in response to COVID-19.

The King County Mobility Coalition hosted four meetings in King County, half of which were held virtually in response to COVID-19. In 2020, the KCMC had an average of 51 attendees per meeting! Three new members and three new alternates joined the Coalition in addition to 27 new partners. Over 385 subscribers received the monthly King County Mobility Coalition newsletter. The Coalition hosted six Access to Healthcare Committee and five Access to Work and School Committee meetings, both averaging about 13 attendees per meeting. Adding onto the resource of the KCMobility website, the Coalition added the KCMobility Resources page, which offers a centralized archive of coalition materials. Staff served on various stakeholder groups throughout the year, engaging in ongoing conversations about mobility and COVID-19.

The Coalition officially wrapped up it's multi-year Transit Planning 4 All Inclusive Planning grant. In 2020, Round 2 of these efforts concluded. The three projects worked on during these efforts -- One-Call One-Click, Community Transportation Navigators, and the Inclusive Planning Toolkit -- all pursued separate integrations into KCMC work.

With the publishing of the One-Call One-Click Buisness Plan, the KCMC has continued conversations about One-Call One-Click and efforts to strengthen buy-in. In 2020, the KCMC applied for multiple opportunities for funding to support a OCOC in King County and beyond.

The Community Transportation Navigators project was able to carry on through extended funding into a pilot. While COVID-19 significantly impacted the ability of the project's Navigators to perform outreach, the project team learned a lot about recruitment and administrating a Navigator program. Later in 2020, Hopelink Mobility Management was invited to continue its Navigator work in partnership with King County Metro on their own peer-to-peer model.

The Inclusive Planning Toolkit has been shared and will remain a living document, to be updated on an annual basis in order to reflect new lessons learned. Planning to include virtual engagement into this resource began at the end of 2020!

The Access to Healthcare Committee and South King County Mobility Coalition successfully planned, piloted, and evaluated the Care Mobility Rewards Program, which ran from February to October of 2020. The program sought to reduce hospital readmissions due to transportation insecurity for Medicare patients.

The Coalition also worked alongside the Regional Alliance for Resilient and Equitable Transportation (RARET) to field mobility needs, gaps, and barriers during COVID-19. This included supporting RARET-led events and coordination with partners.

Lastly, the Coalition began a conversation around supporting volunteer driver program recruitment, to be developed into project-status alongside the Eastside Easy Rider Collaborative in the new year.

In 2020, the Coalition worked on various tools, research, and understandings to evaluate virtual engagement and accessibility. These findings will be compiled into an Inclusive Planning Toolkit update.

The Coalition also participated in education and information sharing with national stakeholders, presenting  webinars titled Inclusion: Planning and Operations of Transportation Programs, hosted by the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center, and Human Services Transportation Reboot, hosted by the Community Transportation Association of America.

The King County Mobility Coalition supported the Snoqualmie Valley Mobility Coalition's 5-Year Transportation Plan, published in 2020.

KCMC also started its own county-wide needs assessment, the Community Transportation Needs Assessment. The Assessment was informed by a thorough literature review and feedback on needs, gaps, and emerging trends. The last resource of its kind was produced in 2014. 

The Coalition joined City of Seattle's Department of Transportation's project team for their Inclusive Mobility On-Demand project, a program being developed through Inclusive Planning (Transit Planning 4 All) funding. 

Lastly, the Coalition continued to share information related to COVID and service changes, like King County Metro's North Eastside Mobility project, Sound Transit's Connect 2020 changes, North Link service adjustments, and King County's Renton-Kent-Auburn Area Mobility Plan.

The King County Mobility Coalition hosted four meetings in four separate regions of King County, bringing in an average of 48 attendees per meeting. Five new members and ten new alternates joined the Coalition, while over 380 subscribers received the monthly King County Mobility Coalition newsletter. The Coalition hosted six Access to Healthcare Committee meetings, averaging 14 members per meeting, and five Access to Work and School meetings, with an average meeting attendance of 9 members. To house information and provide a consolidated King County Mobility Coalition resource, the KCMobility website was launched. Staff also served on five different stakeholder groups to provide insight and contributions.

As part of the multi-year Inclusive Planning funding from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, the King County Mobility Coalition accomplished a lot during Round 2 of the grant. This included establishing an Inclusive Planning Steering Committee and three Workgroup Committees (One-Call One-Click, Community Transportation Navigators / Marketing, and Inclusive Planning Toolkit) to address projects elevated from Round 1 findings. The Workgroups and Steering Committee met bimonthly to pursue these accessibility-centered projects on Mobility for All.

The One-Call One-Click Workgroup collaborated with Kevin Chambers of Full Path LLC to serve as the Coalition’s technology consultant. The goal of the Workgroup was to hold stakeholder interviews with key institutional players, receive feedback on features and accessibility through surveying and public input, and begin conversations with transportation providers in our region all to inform a One-Call One-Click Business Plan. The Business Plan will be an essential tool in securing funding and buy-in as One-Call One-Click efforts progress.

The Community Transportation Navigators / Marketing Workgroup sought to formulate a peer-to-peer model program to engage with hard-to-reach populations on transportation information they may not be receiving through traditional methods of outreach. In inform this program design, the Workgroup worked with The Vida Agency to conduct stakeholder interviews and compile a Qualitative Interview Findings Report. 

The Inclusive Planning Toolkit Workgroup met to discuss essential topics to cover and Inclusive Planning lessons learned in order to produce a manual for incorporating inclusive practices in Coalition, meeting, and community standards beyond Round 2 funding.

The King County Mobility Coalition worked with Kevin Chambers of Full Path LLC as a One-Call One-Click technology consultant to begin coordinating with regional partners about the pursuit of a Puget Sound One-Call One-Click service. Included in this coordination was the One-Call One-Click Prototype, which lasted for three weeks in November 2019 and partners with 10 service providers in the Bothell/Kirkland and South Seattle areas. 

Additionally, the Access to Healthcare Committee partnered with the South King County Mobility Coalition to pursue the Care Mobility Rewards Program through the Community Transportation Association of America grant funds. This project introduces an innovative pilot to be launched in 2020 that aims to reduce transportation as barrier to health in a way that causes hospital readmissions. 

To strengthen the impact and reach of the King County Mobility Coalition, Staci Haber, Director of Mobility Management, presented on the value of mobility coalitions at the 2019 WSTA Conference on behalf of the KCMC. 

The King County Mobility Coalition organized three Community Transportation Field Trips to offer a total of 83 attendees the opportunity to learn more about local services. These field trips showed guests King County Metro’s Via 2 Transit and Ride2 programs, Sound Transit’s Connect 2020 changes, and King County Metro’s North Eastside Mobility Project. 

Through the Access to Work and School Committee, the Coalition developed and distributed the “Which ORCA Card is Right for Me?” comparison tool. This resource provides concise, visually appealing information on the different types of ORCA cards individuals are eligible for receiving; a summarized deliverable like this had not previously existed for the public. The tool was translated into nine languages and distributed at various public-facing outlets. 

The King County Mobility Coalition aided in honoring Aaron Morrow, community disability advocate, for the 2019 Governor’s Award after his nomination (and win) by a KCMC co-chair. 

The KCMC continued to share the King County Accessible Travel map in English and Spanish. In 2020, the KCMC will update the Accessible Travel map to enhance outreach with this item. 

As part of the Coalition’s One-Call One-Click efforts, surveys were distributed at 7+ community events to garner feedback on the important design features of a One-Call One-Click system. 

Throughout these efforts and more, the King County Mobility Coalition has invested in centering the concerns, access, and needs of the community while working with partners to strengthen broader outreach.

The King County Mobility Coalition worked with the University of Washington’s Evans School Capstone Team to produce the Transportation Barriers and Needs for Immigrants and Refugees Exploratory Needs Assessment. The Coalition also supported the compilation and production of the Snoqualmie Valley Transportation Coalition’s 5-Year Transportation Plan, to be published in early 2020. The KCMC disseminated information on transportation service changes continuously, including King County Metro’s North Eastside Mobility Project and Sound Transit’s Connect 2020 changes. In One-Call One-Click efforts, partners from across the Puget Sound were interviewed as key stakeholders for a regional system. 

The King County Mobility Coalition (KCMC) hosted four meetings in four different regions, bringing five new members and seven new alternates to the table. Behind each coalition member—new or veteran—is an organization, provider, or community looking to engage deeply with the unique opportunities and challenges of ensuring mobility in our rapidly growing region. The feedback, resources, and plans developed by the coalition and its stakeholders were shared out to more than 350 partners through the monthly newsletter. Hosting two additional sessions for information and brainstorming for the WSDOT Consolidated Grant program brought more than 20 people into the conversation.

The coalition continued providing support for the newly-formed Snoqualmie Valley Transportation Coalition. This new sub-regional coalition launched the Duvall-Monroe Pilot Shuttle, began a communications campaign, and began preparing for a new a five-year transit plan.

Working alongside the goals and plans set in motion by the King County Mobility Coalition, the coalition’s two subcommittees—Access to Healthcare and Access to Work and School—hosted another six meeting each, bringing in partners, community representatives and advocates, and other stakeholders to dive deep on the specific needs of healthcare-related and work/school-related mobility. In partnership with the Access to Healthcare subcommittee, we received a national grant to initiate an inclusive planning process. This work focused on how older adults, people with disabilities, and caregivers find and secure transportation. Process improvements and action items were distilled from two Mobility for All Summits with over 130 attendees, three listening sessions, and more than 400 survey responses. Implementation of these action items will begin in 2019.

Looking forward to what it would take to develop a robust “One-Call, One-Click” system for our region, the KCMC issued a Request for Information to transportation software companies, asking what software is currently available for community transportation scheduling/program management. Thirteen companies responded and a full consumer report will be issued in 2019.

Partnering with coalition members, we also applied for a $750,000 federal grant to develop a coordinated web-based system, geared at improving the user experience when finding and securing special needs transportation services. This “One-Call, One-Click” system would allow riders and their assistors to connect directly with transportation providers and optimize their choices. We were not awarded funds but will look at applying again following the completion of a business plan in January 2020. 

For the fourth year, we continued our partnership with the Seattle Stand Down, a community resource event for hundreds of veterans experiencing homelessness. This is the third year that we have also partnered with King County Metro and Sound Transit to offer “free fare days” to lower the barriers to participation, providing veterans a free transportation option to the two-day event through public transit. 

Field Trips. More than 70 individuals participated in the year-long series. Following the field trips, summary sheets for each of the twelve transportation providers were developed and shared out to attendees and to recipients of the newsletter. Another resource distributed by the coalition and its partners was the King County Accessible Travel Map in Spanish and English, which has been popular with providers, clients, and stakeholders.

On behalf of the King County Mobility Coalition, Staci Haber presented on transportation equity at the King County Sustainable Cities Roundtable, and on transportation software at the Community Transportation Association of the Northwest’s Community & Specialized Transportation Summit. 

The Access to Work and School Committee, looking at the need for a better resource to explain ORCA options, began development of the “Which ORCA Card is Right for Me?” flyer with support from King County Metro and coalition partners.

Using the work we do, our networks, and the feedback of our communities, the King County Mobility Coalition also advises and assists on projects related to mobility in Washington State.

In that advisory capacity, we participated on the PSRC Special Needs Transportation Committee and the WSDOT Human Services Transportation Plan Advisory Committee. Additionally, we provided feedback on the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Coordinated Public Transit Human Services Plan.

Working to support short- and long-term planning for the greater Puget Sound area, we also disseminated information on transportation service modifications to our partners and networks, particularly regarding King County Metro’s Northeast Mobility Project and the SR 99 Viaduct closure. We also successfully applied to host a UW Evans School Capstone Team to undertake the Coalition’s 2019 Needs Assessment, focusing specifically on the mobility barriers and needs of immigrant and refugee communities. The Access to Work and School Committee also finalized the King County Fare Structure Needs Assessment.

For additional details, check out the KCMC 2018 Highlights.