WA: Getting there: A Spokane group argues STA should install bus benches, so volunteers made and installed them over the weekend

Ahead of a campaign this week to highlight the challenges faced by those who walk, bike and bus, a Spokane group over the weekend quietly tried to make it a little bit easier to sit.

On a balmy Saturday afternoon, Erik Lowe and Sarah Rose hauled a hefty purple bench a few stops west of Minnehaha Park, where a Route 31 sign stands next to a narrow stretch of sidewalk, a wide patch of dead grass and a four-lane thoroughfare — but, other than a stray lawn chair evidently left by some other rider, no seating.

A hand-built, hand-painted bench was installed in each of the city's 29 neighborhood districts over the weekend by volunteers with the transportation safety advocacy group Spokane Reimagined. The benches are the group's kickoff for the national Week Without Driving challenge, and are installed in almost every case next to a bus stop without existing seating, and without the permission or foreknowledge of either the city of Spokane or the Spokane Transit Authority.

"We specifically have not asked permission," Rose said.

Many of them are painted simply, some professionally by Rose and other artists. The Minnehaha bench was painted over by children passing by at Unity in the Community this year, including one splotchy yellow scribble that presumably a parent signed "Zara, 2 1/2 years old," and a couple dozen others that fill the bench- like composition notebook doodles.

Rose, who together with Lowe leads Spokane Reimagined, said she hopes the benches serve as both a "love note" to Spokane and to shame local officials into providing more amenities to those who either can't or choose not to drive. These asks run the gamut from protected bike lanes to free bus fare to better crosswalks, and Lowe and Rose are frequent faces at City Council and Spokane Transit Authority board meetings, testifying to this effect.

With its guerrilla bench installation, Spokane Reimagined hopes to underscore its calls for the Spokane Transit Authority to invest in widespread installation of seating at bus stops.

"It's just a matter of the public stepping up and saying, 'Give us what we deserve,' " she added. "We all have a right to wait for the bus and be able to sit."

A week without driving

The Week Without Driving, which runs from Monday to Sunday this week, is an annual event started in 2021 by Seattle-based disability-rights activist Anna Zivarts, not to show people how easy it would be to live without their cars, but how hard it is.

"Having to drive during the challenge does not signify failure," states the Week Without Driving website. "Sometimes the best reflection comes when someone participating in the challenge has to drive. The point is to consider how someone without that option would have coped, and what choices they might have made."

Zivarts argues that policymakers often do not face those choices and do not weigh them properly when planning out cities. A significant portion of their constituents have to navigate cities that aren't built for them.

A 2023 report to the state Legislature estimated 6.2% of Washingtonians over the age of 16 don't have a driver's license and 5.2% don't have a car in the household. Another 18.4% are too young to get a driver's license. 19% of respondents to a statewide market research survey reported a disability that limited their driving. Others face financial barriers to drive.

There are at least two local events planned for the week, including a presentation about commuting by bike at Lunarium at 6 p.m. Monday and a walking tour of Spokane's historic trolley system at Made With Love Bakery at 11 a.m. Saturday. With a new bench in every neighborhood, Lowe and Rose hope to highlight another aspect of the city's public transportation system and its gaps.

"As great as STA is — and don't get me wrong, it's a phenomenal agency — there's also blind spots," Lowe said. "And one of those blind spots is how they treat their bus stop infrastructure."

Lowe argues the daily ridership requirements before STA will greenlight bus stop investments are too high and that change is too complaint-driven. He believes more people would use the bus stop if they were more pleasant, with serviced garbage cans, seating and shelters.

In some cases where amenities do get built, they are unpleasant, Rose argues. She points to antiloitering "seating" at some stops that allows people to lean but not sit which Rose argues is designed for people of a certain height range and generally "insulting" to riders.

The transit agency, meanwhile, said it was encouraged by Spokane Reimagined's project but otherwise did not comment on the group's criticism.

"We applaud Spokane Reimagined for their resourcefulness and their genuine concern for bus riders of all abilities," wrote Spokane Transit Authority spokeswoman Carly Cortright in a statement.

The Spokane Transit Authority is independently participating in the Week Without Driving. One rider this week who uses the agency's automatic fare cards and has a registered online account will be drawn from a raffle and will win a free 31-day bus pass and a gift bag.

"We're excited to participate in it this year, highlighting that this was homegrown in Washington state," Cortright said.

City Hall is also encouraging residents to take the challenge.

'Love notes'

Earlier this year, Rose attended a presentation by Peter Kageyama, author of "For the Love of Cities: The Love Affair Between People and Their Places," hosted by the Spokane City Council in March.

"He spoke about 'Love Notes' to the city and gave examples of different art installations from around the world, including the Peaceful Valley cyclist sculpture which was displayed without permission but has since become a city-sanctioned neighborhood gem," Rose wrote in a text.

After Kageyama's emphasis on the importance of guerrilla art in placemaking, Rose walked up to City Council President Betsy Wilkerson after the event, who invited Kageyama.

"Hey Betsy, you taking notes?" Rose recalled saying. "Because it's going to be me next."

Inspired by a similar guerilla campaign in Chatanooga, Tennessee, to replace and expand public seating throughout the city, Spokane Reimagined applied for a $3,000 grant from Disability Rights Washington and America Walks, the latter of which helped popularize the Week Without Walking.

Out of the garage of Rose's mother, "volunteers put in hundreds of hours — Rose alone probably put in 80 just in prep work, Lowe estimated — to construct the benches with lumber donated by Ziggy's Home Improvement and gallons of paint donated by the Town and County Ace Hardware location.

Now that they've been installed, Rose said she had concerns they would be removed by local officials, but hopes they instead get the blessing of the city and STA.

Cortright said in a brief interview that it would be the city, not the transit agency, that would determine whether the benches were allowed to stay.

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown said in a brief interview Sunday that she was looking forward to a discussion with Spokane Reimagined, the Spokane Transit Authority and city officials before deciding whether the city would respond.

"I'll meet with the members of my cabinet and see what the issues would be (with leaving the benchs)," Brown said, before expressing a broad support for public art. "Sometimes small things can be very meaningful to people. I'm open to a dialogue, for sure."

© 2025 The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.).
Visit www.spokesman.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.