#TAD2012 – Transportation Advocacy Day 2012

For those unfamiliar with Twitter lingo, #TAD2012 is the “hashtag” being used to help promote Transportation Choices Coalition‘s Transportation Advocacy Day 2012.

What’s that?

I’ll let this quote from TCC’s site explain:

You as [a] citizen lobbyist are the most powerful tool we have to be successful in pushing forward good policies in Olympia and we need your support.  We are shooting to have the largest transportation advocacy day ever. This will be an all day event, register today.

Our morning will be a great time to get trained and informed on what is going on with transportation in Olympia this year.  It is also a great time to connect with like minded advocates from across the state.  The afternoon will be dedicated to meeting with your legislators.

The whole point is to show the legislators of Washington State that we the citizens care about transit, and want them to care about transit too, by “[bringing] Washingtonians more and better transportation choices — real opportunities to take a bus, catch a train, ride a bike, or walk.”

The west side of the state, being more liberal-minded and friendlier to transit, tends to be well represented at this event each year. The east side of the state, including the Tri-Cities, is more conservative-minded and isn’t as friendly to transit. That’s not to say that this side of the state doesn’t have people who truly believe in the power of transit and everything it encompasses (I think the existence of my blog helps make that point). Via tweets sent from @TranspoChoices, I found out that participants from Zillah, Dayton, and Dixie (all small Eastern Washington towns) have signed up for TAD2012. For my part, I’m working on seeing if I’ll have the chance to attend and participate. However, I fully encourage anyone and everyone who lives in Washington, especially Eastern Washington, to sign up and go to Olympia on January 31st to make your voice heard.

To sign up and learn more about TAD2012: http://transportationchoices.org/action/transportation-advocacy-day-2012