This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
So I saw $1.99 gas at an Arco station the other day, making me think that people might start driving more.
Well, they might be buying more gas, but they aren’t driving more miles, notes Calculated Risk:
As the authors note, gas was still $3.50/gallon in September, so maybe driving will take off again next month. Somehow I doubt it. I wonder if WSDOT will revise their ever-rising estimates and eventually stop ignoring human behavior.
In case you’re not up on your acronyms, Sound Transit’s draft 2009 Service Implementation Plan is up on the web. There’s over 100 pages of stuff; some of it (as the name implies) is the service plan for next year and several years afterward. The big service changes in 2009 are the route modifications to the 554, 555, and 556. You may not have heard this, but there’s apparently some sort of train opening up next year as well.
The real meat, however, is extremely detailed ridership data for every route in the system. If you have a couple of hours to spare, it makes for pretty informative reading.
Contra Ben’s post, chalk me up as doubtful we’ll get anything out of Olympia. I gave up on that place a long time ago, and the current budget situation means we’re getting nothing for a good long while. I’d be thrilled if they just fixed the bridges that are about to fall down.
On the other hand, President-elect Obama has declared his intention to put forth a $500 ~ $700 billion infrastructure plan that would generate some two to five million jobs. To be an effective stimulus, of course, the money has to be spent soon, so projects that require years of public hearings aren’t going to be helpful. Obama has set a time frame of two years for for the projects.
Here’s a handy guide to some things that could be done right away, if only the money were in the bank, helpfully organized by Congressional District:
This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
We definitely need better coordination between transit agencies, even beyond implementing ORCA (which will be a huge first step). The goal should be a seamless “user experience,” to borrow a phrase from the software world, including unified fare collection, maps, schedules, etc.
I recall not too long ago walking into the Whole Foods on Denny Way and overhearing two people discussing the Seattle Streetcar. One said to the other, “oh, that’s the new Sound Transit thingy…”
Point being, most people don’t differentiate between agencies, and they shouldn’t be expected to. Agencies should create a high-quality experience across the board, since poor service by one will reflect upon them all.
Photo of BART from blmurch on flickr.
Not governance reform, but just governance. Andrew Villeneuve went to San Francisco and was surprised by the number of transit agencies in the Bay Area. Andrew notes about 27 transit agencies in the area, compared to, by his count, just four (Metro, Pierce Transit, Community Transit and Sound Transit) here.
I think Andrew’s a bit off. He goes way outside of what would normally be considered the Bay Area. Rio Vista? Healdsburg? Cloverdale?? That’s 94 miles out of San Francisco, and 140 out of San Jose. Vancouver, BC is 110 miles out of Seattle.
We do have a bit more than four transit agencies here. An incomplete list of others that he is missing here: Everett Transit, the Seattle Streetcar, Amtrak, Intercity Transit and Island Transit. He is also counting specific branding of transit services in the Bay Area as separate agencies. In reality most of the agencies in the Bay Area are planned and governed under the Metropolitan Transportation Commission or Caltrans.
Enough with the nitpicks: he has a great point about ORCA. As our systems grow and become more and more intertwined, we need more and more coordination, and a more and more seemless experience commuting. It might be difficult to get a single agency in charge of transit in our area, as the MTC does in the Bay Area, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.