State GOP Demands ‘Greatest Generation Lane’ on Link Light Rail, Citing Decades of Loyal Highway Use

OLYMPIA — Republican lawmakers unveiled HB-2049 this morning, the “Senior Mobility Restoration Act,” which would carve out dedicated driving hours on Sound Transit’s Link light rail tracks for Washingtonians aged 65 and older.

“My constituents are tired of being told where they can and cannot drive their personal vehicles,” said Rep. Carl Brenneman (R-Spokane Valley), speaking from the driver’s seat of a 1998 Park Avenue parked diagonally across the 1 Line. “These are the people who paid for I-5. They’ve earned the right to use any flat parallel surface they want.”

Under the bill, qualifying seniors would be permitted to drive personal vehicles along Link tracks between 9:00 and 11:00 AM on weekdays, provided they display an orange triangle and “do their best” to pull off at stations when a train approaches. Sound Transit would be required to install rubberized strips between the rails to reduce undercarriage damage, and to broadcast a 90-second warning klaxon before any train enters a senior-occupied segment.

“This is a freedom issue,” Brenneman said, gesturing at a Link train idling 40 feet behind him while transit officers attempted to flag him down. “Trains and cars used to share the road all the time. That’s just historical fact. Look at any Western.”

Asked whether physics might pose a problem, Brenneman called the question “woke” and added that his late father drove a Studebaker across the Cascade Tunnel in 1962 “and was fine for the most part.”

The bill includes a carve-out allowing the seniors’ adult children to also use the tracks, provided they are “driving Mom to an appointment,” with no requirement to specify what kind, where, or whether Mom is in fact in the car. A companion measure, the “Pickup Truck Sidewalk Parity Act,” is expected next week.