FOLLOWUP: ‘Flip Your Trip’ details finally out, puppet and all

Back in August, when the start date was announced for Highway 99 tunnel tolling, SDOT’s downtown-mobility director Heather Marx mentioned a commute-related campaign to be launched under the title “Flip Your Trip.” She mentioned it again at last week’s Southwest District Council meeting. She said it would have something to do with a puppet. She wasn’t making that up – here’s the official Flip Your Trip video, unveiled today:

Aside from the video, the campaign description is fairly simple:

To reduce the number of people driving alone downtown during peak commute times, we launched a new campaign called #FlipYourTrip on October 7 to encourage people to commute car-free at least once a week to downtown Seattle. Our message is simple: if you usually drive into Seattle by yourself, commuting car-free once a week is an easy way to do something good for yourself, your city, and your planet.

Visit FlipYourTrip.org to learn more about the campaign and find helpful tips for changing commute behavior.

The August mention suggested this would be a campaign involving “large employers” but as launched, it appears to be targeting anyone and everyone who works downtown.

6 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: 'Flip Your Trip' details finally out, puppet and all"

  • Alki Mom October 7, 2019 (3:09 pm)

    Yeah, it’s actually pretty funny, but I don’t think guilt tripping people for riding their car is going to do anything for our commute… Can Heather Marx and her staff make it easier an nicer to commute instead? The buses are gross and full of Homeless people, timings are not reliable (in the morning it’s ok, but coming back is a different story). How about a permanent park and ride for the Water taxi (not just during Viadoom)? When it will be easy, clean and reliable, people will “magically” leave their cars at Home.

    • Sarah October 7, 2019 (4:13 pm)

      I take the bus every day and it’s fairly reliable and not full of homeless people [assuming one has the ability to recognize homeless people by sight and it’s somehow not OK to sit next to them] Bus timing can sometimes be a challenge but there are apps to track them which solves the issue most of the time. Adding a park and ride at the water taxi sounds like adding a lot of traffic between say the neighborhoods and the water taxi.  If you live on Alki, this means your neighborhood would be impacted… be careful what you wish forPersonally I don’t find anything easy or nice about sitting in my car in traffic and find that transit is much easier and nicer – I’m hoping maybe other people will give it a try and take our west seattle congestion down a few notches!    

  • AMD October 7, 2019 (3:20 pm)

    At least there was a short mention of carpooling in that video.  I think it’s an underappreciated and underutilized way to take cars off the road.  Every traffic thread seems to have dozens of comments from people who have to drive for whatever reason (faster, no bus to their house, cost of bus pass, etc.).  But they’re all coming to and from West Seattle during rush hour every day.  There are probably more of them that live in proximity to one another than they realize.  What resources does SDoT have for carpoolers?  How would someone find out if they have neighbors who are going to almost the same place as them every day?  Unrelated, that fish is super cute.  I’m a sucker for a PSA puppet (even one that’s low on solutions).

  • WSJoy October 7, 2019 (4:48 pm)

    With as many flipped cars as we’ve had lately, couldn’t they have found a better name for this campaign?

  • anonyme October 8, 2019 (8:10 am)

    Puppets are always a substitute for content.

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