I missed last night's Seattle Transit Blog meetup, where Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl and state transportation secretary Paula Hammond talked about the role of women in transportation policy---because I decided to go home and make dinner instead, which I guess makes me a double bad feminist.

Fortunately, STB's Sherwin Lee has a report on last night's discussion.

Both Hammond and Earl talked about the evolving role of women in transportation, the shrinking gender gap, and cited a few examples where women now occupy traditionally male-dominated positions.  Earl mentioned that 25% of Sound Transit’s senior management is comprised of women and that the CEOs of both Pierce and Community Transit are both women too.  On the highway side, the project managers of the State’s three mega-projects – the Deep-Bore Tunnel, Columbia River Crossing, and 520 replacement – are also women, according to Hammond.

Transportation funding and revenue sources also dominated the discussion for much of the night.  Repeated jabs were made at Tim Eyman and his incessant war on transport funding.  But what was most interesting was Hammond’s unfavorable view of the gas tax, which, according to her, has lost 49% of its purchasing power over the last ten years since the tax isn’t tied to inflation.  When asked if she supported defining transit as a “highway purpose” in context of the 18th amendment, Hammond iterated her support for a more user-based fee, like a VMT tax, and stressed that using gas tax money to fund transit wouldn’t likely work out in the long-run.

Also worth checking out: STB's Twitter feed.