Committee on Modernization of Electric Transportation.

Citizen action group.

The Committee on Modernization of Electric Transportation (COMET) was incorporated on January 15,1963, with Charles K. Ittner, an engineer and community activist, as its president. The committee was originally formed to oppose a 1964 Seattle charter amendment which would approve the replacement of the existing electric trolley system with diesel on grounds that a diesel bus system would not be profitable. Despite COMET's efforts, however, the amendment passed and the prediction proved correct: Seattle Transit was threatened with bankruptcy by 1970. Throughout the next decade COMET initiated several ballot measures, often with the support of environmental groups who were concerned about the air pollution created by deisel exhaust. These efforts were mostly unsuccessful until 1979 when an entirely rehabilited electric trolley system was finally inaugurated.

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