Week Without Driving: Stories from our community

I joined the CAC about 15 years ago at the invitation of an activist who was an avid bicycle/bus traveler. Ever since, I have enjoyed supporting the growth of transit in Skagit County. I rode public transit as a little girl. My mother would put me on the train on Long Island, tell the conductor where I was getting off, and I would go to Grandma’s house, about a 20-minute ride. Grandma waved to me from her apartment window when I walked out from the train!

I moved up to Skagit Valley from Seattle and have continued to advocate for good connections from Mount Vernon to Seattle as an alternative to driving. For many years, I took the Monday morning 90X to Everett, then Sound Transit to stops where I could transfer to the bus to take me to work.

We had a great “commuter community” of folks who took the 90X together. We had our share of birthday cupcakes, and once coffee and donuts were served to everyone on board in honor of a rider who was retiring. Those were the days!

I needed to get my car worked on in Burlington. I live in Sedro-Woolley.

I checked out the bus schedules and picked a trip from Burlington back to Sedro-Woolley so that I could drop my car off to be repaired. I caught a bus three blocks from the mechanic.

My return stop was about 50 steps from my driveway, which is pretty good.

When I retired and moved north from Renton to Mount Vernon, I worried I’d lose touch with my friends, especially my best friend, Rhonda, in North Tacoma. Driving through Seattle traffic was exhausting. I dreaded making the trip.

Now that Link light rail reaches Lynnwood to the north and Federal Way to the south, I never imagined traveling from one end of the Puget Sound to the other could be so easy.

I just park at the South Mount Vernon Transit Park & Ride, sometimes overnight, hop on the 90X to Everett, transfer to the 512 and connect to Link light rail in Lynnwood. From there, I ride straight to the end of the line. It’s a simple, comfortable trip all the way to Federal Way.

And the best part: the entire one-way journey costs me just $3. I pay $1 with my senior Skagit Transit Umo card, $1 on Community Transit and $1 on Sound Transit’s Link light rail using my senior ORCA card. If I drove, that 162-mile round trip would cost about $35 in gas plus wear and tear on my car, not to mention the wear and tear on my nerves.

I utilize Skagit Transit’s Paratransit service for short trips in and around Anacortes to attend functions at our senior center, exercise at the gym, join friends at lunch in a downtown restaurant and take part in various volunteer activities. I’ll also take Paratransit from Anacortes to doctor appointments in Mount Vernon. Periodically, my wife leaves town and Paratransit is my lifeline to the outside world. I’ve used Paratransit for over nine years, taking 130 trips in 2025.

I have multiple sclerosis that progressed to where I use a wheelchair and no longer drive. I don’t live in close proximity to a bus stop, so Paratransit is an ideal solution for me.

My wife can and does transport me and my wheelchair when we are doing things together. However, my wife is my primary caregiver, and so much of her day is spent caring for me and our home. Paratransit provides me with the independence of traveling to events without having to rely upon my wife. As a result, I’m more likely to attend events because I won’t burden her. My time away also provides her freedom to do things without worrying about me, providing health benefits for both of us.

As a blind adult, I have been a lifelong mass transit rider since 1979. Transit has allowed me to hold down a job, participate with my church, go shopping, connect to other transportation modes for travel and leisure, and raise our daughters, making sure they could participate in school, extracurricular activities and leisure events such as birthday parties and church activities.

When buying a home, my husband and I have always felt it essential to strategically locate close to a bus stop in order to maintain our independent mobility. The first thing we did when finding that desirable home was call the transit authority to make sure bus service was available both weekdays and weekends.

I take fixed-route service plus Paratransit, depending on whether I have access to a fixed-route stop. My greatest barrier is right-on-red traffic that causes me to lose the light.

Nondrivers are not just people with disabilities. Better mass transit is a win-win for everyone.

I am totally blind and use Skagit Transit Paratransit for local transportation. This includes shopping at places such as Costco, Fred Meyer or Haggen, as well as going to medical appointments or the hospital.

I primarily use Skagit Transit Paratransit because I cannot drive and do not have many people to ask for other consistent transportation needs.

I have also used commuter services such as Route 90X to Everett and Route 80X to Bellingham.

Soon after my wife and I moved to Sedro-Woolley, I contacted Skagit Transit to begin the eligibility process so I could ride on an ongoing basis. Previously, several years ago, we had both been actively using and involved with Pierce Transit, serving Tacoma and the surrounding area. I wanted to encourage others to ride Skagit Transit, and I have officially been part of the CAC since January 2018.

In about May 2018, I made arrangements to travel to a job interview in Redmond and learned that day that there had been an error from Skagit Transit that would have made it impossible for me to get to the interview on time. The agency extended itself by sending a driver to take me and bring me back home. Agency personnel consistently work diligently to serve the public.