News from King County Department of Transportation
Release date:  May 3, 2006

Metro Transit talks the talk, in many languages

NACo award recognizes Regional Transportation Coordinators for enhancing communities

King County Metro Transit’s Regional Transportation Coordinators (RTC), a team of multi-lingual ambassadors who help non-English speaking residents use public transportation, have been named winners of a National Association of Counties (NACo) 2005-2006 Center for Sustainable Communities Award.

Metro Transit, a national leader in transit, ridesharing and other mobility services, partnered with local housing authorities and social service agencies in developing the RTC program, bridging the gap between non- English speaking residents and the public transportation options in their communities. The RTC program trained neighborhood ambassadors, city staff and 200 social service and housing agency professionals and assists them in offering on-going, consistent transportation information in more than a dozen languages to complement services in job training and housing assistance.

“We are very proud of the progress Metro’s RTC program and ambassadors have made in the many multilingual communities in King County,” said King County Department of Transportation Director Harold Taniguchi. “Public transportation is there for everyone to use and language barriers should not prevent anyone from being able to work, shop or move about in the community using public transportation as their vehicle.”

The awards, presented by NACo’s Center for Sustainable Communities, recognize the most effective and innovative county-led partnerships with private sector, faith-based or community groups in developing economically prosperous, environmentally safe, and socially equitable communities.