Posted on 5/27/08 "Sierra Inspiration"

After the Sierra Club cool state forum on transportation a few months ago, I was feeling rather inspired. My friend Ak and I entered this competition called "Imagine Tomorrow" put on by WSU, where you 'imagine' the future of energy use and apply it to one of 4 categories (behavior, society, technology or architecture). You can read more about the competition here if you want to: http://www.imagine.wsu.edu/

Ak and I entered the behavioral category and set about redesigning transportation. We started with a 200 person survey, asking them about their concern about traffic, where they commuted from, how upset they would be about tolls or reduced parking, how much they would pay for a toll, why they didn't use mass transit... etc. From that information we designed a tolling system throughout the eastside, and made a pilot program called 'Project Dispatch.' Dispatch was targeted at business parks, and was a system under which all the businesses in the park would pitch in a little to provide direct shuttles for the whole park from their respective neighborhoods to work.

Anyways, I could talk for hours about all the intricacies, but the point is that we definitely took first place. I'm crediting the Sierra Club for my new fascination with transportation policy, and I want to thank you personally for inviting me to that meeting. Sorry we missed the last few forums, we've been pretty busy...

Thanks again,

Kate C.

Redmond High Student and Sierra Club Activist