Council & Mayor Love Their Cars

Stefan Sharkansky over at Sound Politics has been doing some digging into Seattle city officials to find out whether they practice what they preach with regards to commuting and "trip reduction." Unfortunately, the answer for most of them is a resounding no.

The highlights: Nearly all of the Councilmembers drive to work. When they travel around the city on official business they usually take cars, although some occasionally travel by bus or bicycle or walk to nearby appointments. To his credit, Councilmember Richard Conlin practices what he preaches and reports the lowest overall auto usage among his colleagues and that he usually takes the bus, walks or bikes to work. Some of the other members to their credit, at least don't charge the city taxpayers for their automobile use. And the most prolific automobilist on the Council? It appears to be Peter "trip reduction" Steinbrueck himself.

Mayor Nickels seems to quite like his cars, too:

I've been curious about Mayor Nickels own automobile usage, so I recently submitted a records request for all of his city-paid auto expenses for 2005-2006. The city responded late yesterday: Nickels has been driving enough in the last 16 months to fill 168 pages of expense records.

In Seattle, what's good for the goose is apparently quite beneath the gander.

(Stefan Sharkansky, Sound Politics , 04.24.2006)
(Stefan Sharkansky, Sound Politics, 04.25.2006)