Lastest Stimulus News

December 2, 2008 at 2:29 pm
by Andrew Smith

Based on the $250~$500 million number the State Transportation Department spokesman Lloyd Brown said the state would likely get for transportation funding from the stimulus package, I estimated that about $50~$100 billion would be spent on transportation nationwide. My sums were off: the state population is about 6.6 million, and thus 2.2% of the nation’s population. I used the numbers from our region, which is a little more than half the population of the state. Assuming the money is awarded on a proportional basis, which of course there is no gaurantee, that would mean about $12~$25 billion for transportation nationwide.

States want $176 billion from the stimulus package, $40 billion for medicare, and $136 billion for infrastructure projects. I understand that a lot of infrastructure is not transportation. Levees, water systems, flood-plain drainage systems, seawalls, and emergency systems are all “infrastructure” as well. But if $136 billion is spent, I have to guess that more than $12 or even $25 billion would go to transportation, which means I hope that something more like $1 billion could get spent here.

I’ve contacted several people in state and local governments, and I’ll work to keep you posted on this as it develops.

Bus Violence

December 1, 2008 at 9:33 pm
by Martin H. Duke

Thursday’s P-I had an interesting article about rider-on-driver violence and Metro’s efforts to combat it.  Basically, they’ve shifted from off-duty police officers to a dedicated transit police force, and seems to have some positive effects.

It should surprise no one that the No. 7 is by far the worst route, with ten times the usual number of assaults.  That’s partly because the 7 has the heaviest ridership in the system, but it’s also because of socioeconomic problems in the Rainier Valley.

Since the 7 and Central Link will serve more or less the same population, there’s both a danger and an opportunity here for Sound Transit.  Because there’s a limited number of stations and many more riders per vehicle, it’s much more cost-effective to provide comprehensive security at stations at ground zero of a low-intensity gang war.  On the other hand, if ST lets these kinds of problems develop on the train, just a few incidents will gain Link a reputation for being dangerous and other neighborhoods will become hesitant to give “that element” easy access to their neighborhoods, opening the door for Tim Eyman or the legislature to come in and mess everything up.

We have a situation where the cost of prevention is small and the consequences of failure could be fairly severe.  I suggest they invest in the prevention.

Barely Transit Related: Convention Center

December 1, 2008 at 5:45 pm
by Andrew Smith

The Seattle Times today had an article discussing two alternate uses for the 7 cent hotel/motel tax: expanding the Washington State Convention Center or refitting Key Arena. I don’t really care which gets built, but the first plan raises an interesting transit question. That Convention Center station is part of downtown Transit Tunnel, but is not a Link station. What will happen to it in the event that Link trains become so frequent buses need to be taken out of the tunnel?

The on/off ramp from the I-5 express lanes is useful at very least, and expanding the convention center - as some in the state want to do - may not be a bad use of the airspace above the convention center. Another crazy idea I once thought about was putting a streetcar barn there, assuming more streetcars are built in the city. The current SLU barn, really only holds about three or four cars. What are other good uses of that space?

A last, little thing from the article:

Ceis said redirecting a portion of the 7 percent hotel tax could prove more palatable because it is collected only in the city of Seattle and primarily from out-of-town guests. (King County hotel rooms outside of Seattle are charged a 2.8 percent tax for the convention center.)

…

Although the convention center’s hotel-tax money is not part of the state’s general-fund budget, lawmakers have raided it before.

Two years ago, the Legislature grabbed $65 million from the convention-center account for the general fund — redirecting surplus hotel-tax funds to pay for other state services.

If Seattlites want to get riled up about being ripped off from a tax standpoint, look to this tax, especially if it’s being spent on the state’s general fund.

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