08/18/2026
Public transportation, in many ways, is like a bridge: you may cross it every day without giving it much thought, but the moment that bridge is no longer there, you realize just how essential it truly was.
For the past 14 years, I have been fortunate and honored to serve the Dayton community by helping provide the public transportation services our residents depend on. Throughout those years, I have also had the privilege of getting to know transit professionals and agencies across Washington State, people who, like us, are passionate, compassionate, and deeply committed to the communities they serve.
Transit is more than buses, routes, and schedules. We are a lifeline. In times of crisis, we do everything we can to find a way forward and be part of the solution. For many of the people we serve, public transportation is not simply a convenience, it is their only connection to medical care, family, work, essential services, and their community.
The photographs in this post are from Spokane Transit Authority during the devastating wildfires and evacuations. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed, families lost their homes, and more than 60,000 people were forced to evacuate.
What Spokane Transit Authority did during this crisis was nothing short of heroic. Working alongside emergency responders, their operators and staff helped evacuate the Spokane VA Medical Center, nursing homes, and residents in neighborhoods under evacuation orders. They stepped forward when their community needed them most.
This is what public transportation does.
We may not always be noticed when everything is working as it should. But when disaster strikes, when roads close, when families need to evacuate, and when people have nowhere else to turn, transit becomes a lifeline and the people behind those buses become part of the emergency response.
I am incredibly proud to be part of this profession and proud to stand alongside the transit agencies and dedicated people throughout Washington State who show, every day, that public transportation is about so much more than getting from one place to another.
We move people. We connect communities. And when our communities need us most, we show up.
