Many high school and grade school students in Seattle have been riding the city's Metro for free during the school year, now to encourage ridership during the summer, the city has been offering steep discounts for riders between 6-18 years old.
A pilot program in Seattle cut Metro fares for youth fares over the summer and the transit system saw big ridership gains. "Riders from ages 6 to 18 could hop on Metro for 50 cents and light rail for $1 rather than the usual $1.50 youth fare," Josh Cohen reports for Next City. Compared to the previous summer, the system saw significant ridership increases across all its transit modes, "Metro bus youth ridership jumped 35 percent over the previous summer for a total of 376,000 boardings. Light-rail ridership increased 42 percent," Cohen reports.
Council members who supported this program hope its success in generating additional ridership will mean that the pilot becomes permanent. The increased youth ridership has been part of a wider growth story for Seattle public transit over the past year.
FULL STORY: Seattle Transit Gets Ridership Bump From Reduced Youth Fare

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

San Francisco's School District Spent $105M To Build Affordable Housing for Teachers — And That's Just the Beginning
SFUSD joins a growing list of school districts using their land holdings to address housing affordability challenges faced by their own employees.

The Tiny, Adorable $7,000 Car Turning Japan Onto EVs
The single seat Mibot charges from a regular plug as quickly as an iPad, and is about half the price of an average EV.

Seattle's Plan for Adopting Driverless Cars
Equity, safety, accessibility and affordability are front of mind as the city prepares for robotaxis and other autonomous vehicles.

As Trump Phases Out FEMA, Is It Time to Flee the Floodplains?
With less federal funding available for disaster relief efforts, the need to relocate at-risk communities is more urgent than ever.

With Protected Lanes, 460% More People Commute by Bike
For those needing more ammo, more data proving what we already knew is here.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Smith Gee Studio
City of Charlotte
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
US High Speed Rail Association
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)