Frequently Asked Questions

West Seattle Travel Options Program

What are main goals of the West Seattle Bridge Travel Options Program?

  1. Ease traffic impacts of the West Seattle Bridge closure by reducing drive alone travel in and out of West Seattle.
  2. Encourage, support, and increase the use of transportation options in and out of and around West Seattle.
  3. Support communities impacted by detour-related traffic congestion through mobility subsidies and support. 

What languages are supported?

The West Seattle Travel Options Program is available in nine languages (English, Spanish, Somali, Oromo, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Khmer).

Where can people go for general information?

To explore your travel options, check out the great resources on the West Seattle Travel Options pages.

Flip Your Trip Campaign

What is Flip Your Trip?

The Flip Your Trip campaign encourages people to commit to replace car trips with other travel options that work for them, such as transit, vanpooling, biking, scooting, staying local, or driving at non-peak hours. The campaign includes a variety of support tools, including:

  • $25 in free transit rides to start
  • First month free on vanpools + low bridge vanpool access
  • Trip planning assistance
  • Campaign updates and new promotions
  • Special events

How do people sign up?

Go to FlipYourTrip.org where you may sign up by completing a simple form to verify your eligibility (live or work in West Seattle, South Park, or Georgetown) and pledge to replace at least one drive-alone trip with another option.

What happens next?

After signing up, you will receive a Welcome Email with a unique Invite Code and information about accessing your sign up bonus of $25 in free trips on transit, the water taxi and e-scooters. This includes both instructions for accessing the free rides via Metro’s Transit GO Ticket app for smartphone users and an ORCA card option for people without smartphones.

Why is the campaign using an app?

The Flip Your Trip campaign is using Metro’s Transit GO Ticket platform because the app includes a rewards feature that adds points to your account each time you use it for transit fare, including for using your free trips. In fact, your first transit trip on the app will earn you an extra $5 in free trips. The Transit GO app also allows us to provide free rides with local scooter share partners, Lime, Link, Spin, and Wheels. If you have any difficulties using the app, our step-by-step guide can walk you through the process of setting up the app and redeeming your points for rides. Available for Android or iOS/iPhone.

How do I access my free rides in the app?

Transit GO uses points as currency that riders redeem for rides. So your $25 in free rides will appear in the app as 2500 points in the Reward feature of the app that you can use to “purchase” rides. Our step-by-step guide can walk you through this process.

What if I don’t have a smartphone or data plan?

If you don’t have a smartphone or a data plan, please email info@FlipYourTrip.org to receive a new ORCA card loaded with $25.

If I already have an ORCA Card, can I get the $25 loaded onto my existing ORCA card?

We’re so glad you love your ORCA card! However, we are unable to add funds to existing ORCA cards. For smartphone users, we encourage you to give the Transit GO app a try, considering it another travel tool at your disposal. If you don’t have a smartphone or data plan, email info@FlipYourTrip.org to request a new ORCA card loaded with $25.

How does the campaign support vanpooling?

We’re supporting vanpooling in several ways: the first month is free, vanpools have access to the low bridge, and it only take 2 riders to start a new vanpool. Furthermore, riders can apply for subsidy beyond the first month, focused on workers at small businesses and nonprofits. To learn more, check out the West Seattle Travel Options vanpool information. To view listings of existing West Seattle vanpools or carpools, check out RideshareOnline. You do NOT need to use the Transit GO app for vanpooling.

Why are children under the age of 18 not eligible for the Flip Your Trip campaign?

Flip Your Trip is intended for adults 18 years of age and older for several reasons.

  • Youth are already eligible for transit subsidies that far surpass the $25 available through this campaign (see next Question for more information).
  • We want to protect youth and others from physical, legal and financial risk. The Flip Your Trip free rides include local e-scooter companies that are available only to adults 18 years of age and older.

What forms of transit support are available for Youth?

All Seattle Public Schools middle and high school students are eligible for a free unlimited ORCA Opportunity Youth Pass. South Seattle College students are eligible for a deeply discounted student ORCA pass, and all Seattle Promise Scholars are eligible for a fully-subsidized ORCA card. Further, some private schools offer students ORCA cards and many organize carpools; see your school for more information. If none of these apply to your case, all youth ages 6 – 18 are eligible for deeply discounted fares via ORCA Youth cards. Children 5 and under ride free.

Troubleshooting

I signed up for Flip Your Trip but did NOT receive a welcome email or invite code.

You should receive a Welcome Email within 45 minutes of completing the Sign Up form. First, check your Spam or Junk Mail folders for an email with the subject “Welcome to Flip Your Trip” from “West Seattle Travel Options.“ If you still can’t find it, please email us at info@FlipYourTrip.org and we can re-send your code.

The invite code in my Welcome Email isn’t working.

We have discovered that some Invite codes are confusing because they contain characters that look similar, such as

  • Upper case “i” or lower case “L”
  • upper case letter “O” and the number “0”
  • upper case letter “S” and the number “5”

If this may apply to you, please try your Invite Code both ways. If that still doesn’t work, drop us a line at info@FlipYourTrip.org.

Step by Step Guide