Drafter
Clerk 05/29/2020
Title
A MOTION relating to public transportation, commending the Metro transit department and its employees for providing essential transportation services during the COVID-19 pandemic, requesting that the Metro transit department provide cloth or disposable masks or other facial coverings for passengers who do not have them and asking the Metro transit department to report on these efforts to the King County council and other partners and stakeholders.
Body
WHEREAS, the Metro transit department ("Metro") is the largest public transportation agency in the Puget Sound region, in 2019 providing nearly five hundred thousand rides each day throughout King County through a combination of fixed-route, contracted, shared and flexible mobility services, and
WHEREAS, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Metro's services are vital to essential workers, including health care workers and first responders, traveling to their workplaces, as well as to people who rely on public transit to shop for groceries, medications and other essential needs, and
WHEREAS, in response to declining ridership during the pandemic and to ensure safe operating conditions for its employees, Metro has implemented several rounds of temporary service reductions, which have resulted in service cuts of up to seventy percent, and
WHEREAS, Metro has been following guidance from local, state and national public health agencies regarding employee and passenger safety, including the local health officer face covering directive that took effect on May 18, 2020, and that requires that all individuals must wear face coverings over their noses and mouths when they are in indoor public settings or in outdoor public locations at which they cannot maintain distancing of approximately six feet from others, and
WHEREAS, Metro has implemented a number of operational changes to provide greater safety for its employees and passengers, including but not limited to undertaking enhanced daily cle...

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