Mayor To Employees: Get On The Bus

"Mayor Greg Nickels has proposed giving all city employees free bus passes by 2009 to encourage use of transit as a means for reducing the air pollution that causes global warming.

"This is a great incentive to get people out of their cars and using public transit," City Councilman Nick Licata said.

"This is a great step forward."

If the council approves Nickels' legislation, the city will double its employees' transit pass subsidy next year to $30 per month, more than half the $54 cost of a one-month PugetPass good for $1.50 trips at peak times within one zone.

In 2009 and 2010, the city would cover that pass' cost entirely, even if the rates increase. The program is expected to cost $1.1 million over the next three years; the city has been contributing $15 per month to the cost of its employees' bus passes since 1993.

City Councilman Richard Conlin, chairman of the council's Environment, Emergency Management and Utilities Committee, called the proposal a great investment at a relatively modest cost. "