Keep Washington connected to opportunity
Washington State Legislature
Keep Washington connected to opportunity.
A petition for continued public stewardship of Washington’s statewide sidewalk and accessibility inventory. We ask separately that you join the alliance to see how the data is useful to you, your community and your organization.
What happens next?
- Your petition support is added to the campaign record.
- Signers who check the founding-member box receive an invitation to a working conversation.
Founding interest is not enrollment
Founding-member interest is an invitation to shape the Alliance. It does not enroll an organization or create a public endorsement beyond the permissions selected above.
Evidence supporting the petition
OS-CONNECT has clearly show its public benefit, implementation pathway, and accountability terms. Please visit the Open Pathways Alliance site to find the Use-case portfolio and Operating and Accountability plan
Petition by
Sponsored by
To:
Washington State Legislature
From:
[Your Name]
To Washington State leaders:
Washington has built a statewide, connected source of pedestrian and accessibility information that can help communities understand whether people can safely reach transit, healthcare, schools, jobs, food, parks, public services, and one another.
This public resource is more than a map. Its value depends on the people, standards, quality assurance, update pathways, technical support, community feedback, and operating relationships that keep the information current and useful.
The current OS-CONNECT project period ends in June 2027. Without continuity, Washington risks retaining pieces of a dataset while losing the stewardship and capacity that make it usable. Sidewalks and crossings change. Construction alters routes. Curb ramps are added. Barriers emerge. Local agencies need practical ways to correct information, contribute new facilities, validate community observations, and use a common resource rather than rebuilding isolated inventories.
We call on Washington State to continue these functions through 2027–29:
** Statewide stewardship. Maintain the shared pedestrian and accessibility data model, infrastructure, documentation, public access, provenance, and quality standards.
Regular updates. Support practical correction, validation, construction close-out, local contribution, and priority-area refresh workflows.
** Jurisdiction support. Provide onboarding, training, office hours, implementation assistance, and tools that help cities, counties, tribes, transit agencies, and regional organizations maintain and use their own data.
** Community-to-action pathways. Use accessible companion methods to translate lived experience into structured observations, operational review, data updates, agency response, and public outcomes.
** Access-to-opportunity accountability. Make the information useful for measuring whether people with different travel needs can reach essential destinations and whether public programs are improving those outcomes.
** Open, reusable public infrastructure. Preserve interoperability and public benefit so that communities, agencies, advocates, researchers, and service providers can build on the state’s work.
The public promise
Continued stewardship should include clear reporting on what is maintained, what is updated, which jurisdictions are supported, how community concerns are handled, where access remains limited, and what measurable improvements result.
We urge Washington State to sustain this infrastructure as a living public resource and to work with community organizations, disability-led groups, jurisdictions, transit providers, regional agencies, technical stewards, and other partners to establish durable governance and accountability.
By signing, we affirm that people who cannot or do not drive deserve public systems that are maintained, measurable, responsive, and accountable to their daily lives.