Immigrants receive help finding their way via bus
The Seattle Times
May 12, 2006 Friday
Fourth Edition
Kayla Webley
Seattle Times Eastside bureau
George Chang was used to going out of his way to help non-English speakers learn about riding the bus. For years he has been helping his parents, friends and other relatives map out the often difficult task of getting from here to there.
But over the past five months, Chang became a bus-rider expert, attending training sessions to learn the ins and outs of every Metro program so that he could help other Chinese-speaking members of his community.
It’s all part of a Metro program designed to boost bus use among non-English speakers. The program targets neighborhoods with high concentrations of foreign-born residents, training bilingual residents to help their neighbors use Metro services.
Chang spoke to community groups, set up booths at community events and answered questions from residents on a toll-free call-in line. He was one of five resident transportation coordinators in the Crossroads neighborhood who together spoke Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese and Cambodian.
“We have had significant growth in residents who are foreign-born,” said Franz Loewenherz, senior transportation planner for the city of Bellevue, which was a partner in the program. “We are trying to help these people understand how to get around.”
With the success of the Crossroads program in Bellevue, which ended this month, four identical programs will begin this summer in Kirkland, Redmond, Rainier Valley and Kent.
“Many people see the [Metro bus schedule] materials, but they are in English and most people who need the service are not English speakers,” said Chang, who came to the U.S. at age 13 from Taiwan.
The Crossroads was the third site for the program, with the other two at housing developments in White Center and Rainier Valley. Metro funded the program with help from the city of Bellevue and Hopelink, a nonprofit community-action agency. Metro just received a federal grant that will go toward funding the program in other cities.
Crossroads residents who received assistance are being surveyed to determine the effect of the program on their riding habits. The feedback has been very positive so far, the coordinators say.
During the five months of the Crossroads program, the coordinators assisted 118 people on the phone, attended 35 events, and served a total of 454 hours, said Bob Flor, Metro’s transportation planner. The number of people assisted is likely much higher since there is no way to measure the impact of the community sessions and word-of-mouth, he said. Chang estimates he helped about 250 people through phone calls, events and just running into people on the street or at bus stops.
“One person reaching that many people alone is just phenomenal, when you think of all their friends and co-workers that it will rub off on,” he said.
Along with helping hundreds of strangers, Chang said he also changed the transportation habits of his family.
When his wife, Audrey, left on a recent trip to Beijing, instead of driving her to the airport, Chang worked out a bus route.
“It only cost $2.50 and I don’t have to spend an additional 25 minutes to come back,” he said. “Think about that.”
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