Obama's Face On DC Metro Cards
Gearing up for inauguration, the DC Metro has put Obama’s face on Metro cards.
Gregoire’s Stimulus Plan 405/520 interchange, from flickr user jellywatson Our state government is likely to put together a stimulus package, and Governor Christine Gregoire has released her plan for the stimulus spending. There’s more than $800 million in spending, $427 million on construction projects, $390 million for transportation projects, and another $400 million in corporate tax breaks, unemployment benefits and worker training. The transportation spending should be good news for 545 riders and 242 riders like Ben and I: it will nearly all go to help fix the SR520/I-405 interchange in North Bellevue. The unemployment money would come from the state’s unemployment insurance fund, but it’s not obvious where the rest of the money will come from. Obviously, I’m biased since I commute the route every day, but I’m mildly happy with this stimulus. Gregoire could have put a lot of money for rural highway projects or lane expansion, but this is mostly a congestion relief project that will make BRT on 520 more reliable and affordable. University Link Officially Awarded FTA Grant Photo by Bejan, via the STB flickr pool University Link has been officially awarded the $813 million “full funding grant agreement” from the FTA today. This is the largest New Start grant ever awarded – the previous largest was $750 million – and is 43% of U Link’s total $1.9 billion price tag. Construction on the extension is ready to begin this month, and a few demolition contracts have already been awarded. We knew this was coming, but it still lightens the blow of today’s stimulus news. Here are some interesting engineering details from the DJC coverage on the today‘s news:
Going under a single-digit interstate through a major city while the interstate is operating will be a significant engineering feat. I hope it makes it onto Colossal Construction. University Link will open in 2016. House Stimulus Package UnveiledToday Democrats in the US House unveiled a $825 billion stimulus plan that includes $30 billion for highway construction and $10 billion for transit. The rest of the money goes a tax cut ($500 for individuals and $1000 for families), to education, aid to states and unemployment benefits. A comittee summary of the bill is here (pdf). If this is the bill as it gets passed, I’ll be very disappointed. Only about $1 billion will go to New Starts projects. The New Starts program is the funding mechanism that the FTA uses to give grants to projects like U-Link, Central Link or Portland’s Max. The bill has just $1.1 billion for intercity rail. There is a $31 billion provision for making our infrastructure more “energy efficient”, though that would likely be smart power grids and not transportation. Monorail: Little More Than a Ponzi Scheme?Update: I meant the first and last sentences to be read as sarcastic. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. If you read the article by Kammerer, it’s pretty poorly reasoned, in contrast to what Ben wrote. The Monorail was a lot of things, but it wasn’t a Ponzi scheme. This, by Kent Kammerer in a piece on the “Seattle Process”, is the best description two-sentence of the monorail project I’ve ever read (Sorry, Ben):
Emphasis added. The article is from Crosscut, which is of course in favor of the long process Seattle is famous for, except when the process has an outcome. The larger article, which advocates for even more process, is both interesting and mostly dubious, which is an appropriate description of Crosscut itself. More below the fold. (more…) Another Obama Camp VideoThis one starts off talking about transit and high speed rail. More on Transit Oriented CommunitiesWe have much more about the new Transit Oriented Communities bill: First, here’s the whole bill text (pdf) for those of you so inclined. We also have a two-page summary (.doc, sorry) for the lazy. [UPDATE 7AM Jan. 15: I've received word that this is an older version of the proposal. We should get the version that is actually filed by Friday. Here's a more up-to-date version of the two-pager (pdf).] And lastly, Dan Bertolet at hugeasscity saved me the trouble of slamming the Jon Fox/Carolee Colter editorial about this bill. The only thing I might add is that Fox and Colter don’t seem to recognize the dissonance of the idea that the bill would make these communities both “unlivable” and “unaffordable.” To be honest, I was a bit more excited about the bill when Fox and Colter made me think that it called for skyscrapers. Nevertheless, as someone who lives in the impacted area, I say “hurrah” for anything that makes it more likely I’ll get a decent grocery store within walking distance. News Round Up: Economics Suzukakedai station, Denentoshi Line, photo by author from STB flickr pool
Transit Oriented Communities Bill Proposed in the Legislature Washington Capitol Building, From Flickr User Clappstar Yesterday was the first day of the legislative session in Olympia. With the budget issues facing the Legislature, things look pretty bleak all around[1] but there might be one bright spot policy-wise: Transportation Choices and Futurewise are running a bill that seeks to capitalize on the ST2 investment. The bill which will be sponsored by Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-Vashon Island) and Senator Chris Marr (D-Spokane) will encourage transit oriented development around transit stations across the state. The bill is entitled “Creating Transit Communities” and will create land use guidelines and incentives to ensure that dense, walkable, and accessible development takes shape around light rail and BRT stations. More info below the fold. SR-99 News Round-UpUpdate ericn in the comments links to the awesome video. This thing may go way, way underneath the bus tunnel. There’s a lot going on with this viaduct replacement, here are links to some of the highlights.
Original image moved below the fold. I Hate This Tunnel
The more I think about the tunnel to replace the viaduct, the less I like it. I am certainly glad that it isn’t a new elevated option, but that’s only a small consolation. I wanted the surface option. My reasons are below the fold. Southwest King County Service Changes Tukwila Station photo from the ST website Southeast Seattle isn’t the only area of the county that’s going to see big bus service changes when Link opens: the Pacific Highway corridor will see not only light rail service, but soon afterwards RapidRide. Our coverage of the first proposal is here. There are changes proposed to the 126, 128, 140, 154, 170, 174, 179, 180, 191, 194, 574, and 577.
Another round of public comment concludes on February 6, after which the County Council will approve the final plan. The Metro website has maps, pros and cons, and details on service frequency, as well as feedback methods. Southeast Seattle Service Changes
 Photo by the author in the STB Flickr Pool Comments about the first round of proposed Southeast Seattle service changes have been incorporated into a new proposal that should appear in Rainier Valley mailboxes over the next few days. Key changes from the previous proposal:
What happens next is another round of public comment, followed by a King County Council decision by this spring. For those of you just joining us, the changes from the status quo are after the jump. Tunnel it is Tunnel! From flickr user Addicted Eyes The P-I is reporting that Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, Governor Christine Gregoire and King County Exec Ron Sims have come to an agreement that the Alaskan Way Viaduct will be replaced with the tunnel option:
It’s good that an agreement has been reached, and the surface option did have at least one draw-back: pedestrian access. My biggest complaint is that the difference in cost between the surface options and the tunnel options is around $2~2.5 billion, which could buy a lot of light rail, possibly elevated rail from West Seattle to at least Uptown if not Ballard. I’d prefer that to a great big freeway underground. Plus, the more tunnels you put down there, the harder it is to get even more tunnels, and more tunnels will likely be needed if light rail from Ballard or West Seattle is going to be submerged downtown. Update: The Times has more info and a graphic. Apparently the total cost for this option is $4.25 bn, though it’s not obvious from the Times piece that whether that includes the already underway projects for strengthening the sections of SR-99 north and south of the viaduct. Update 2: This tunnel is very far from being funded. That Times piece mentions $2.8 bn in state funding for the viaduct. Gregoire has put only $2.4 billion in her budget through 2017. Unless the state legistlature comes back with more funding than the $2.4 billion, there’s a significant gap in funding. This on top of $1 billion in city funding that hasn’t been raised, and some King County money for transit. And we all know how much money King County has… No, Highways Are Never Growth Management Highway Insominia by flickr user Nrbelex This morning, I’m saddened to see King County Councilmember Larry Phillips drawn in by backwards arguments for a Viaduct tunnel. His heart seems to be in the right place, but his conclusions do not follow. Paradoxically, the Viaduct is actually bad for mobility. Because it allows people to entirely bypass downtown, it encourages spread out development, and results in commutes that go from a neighborhood on one side of the city to a neighborhood on the other. This has two impacts. First, it encourages businesses to sprawl, instead of staying in the accessible downtown core. This has always been the problem with highways – they break down the efficient hub and spoke structure of human settlement. When someone can take a trip from Ballard to West Seattle for work, that’s great for them, but then someone in Ravenna or Mount Baker can’t get to that job as easily as if it were in the core. Net mobility is lower. Multiply by a hundred thousand, and you create congested arterials all over town, as we have today. Second, these through trips the Viaduct generates are generally not replaceable with transit. Again, the only way it’s cost effective to build transit is in a hub and spoke layout, and for most of these trips, that means an uncompetitive downtown transfer. Right now, Phillips says, 70 percent of traffic on the Viaduct is pass-through. In the next sentence, he refers to ‘that traffic’ being pushed through the downtown core by the surface-transit option. He’s partly right – when the Viaduct is brought down, whether for good or for replacement, most of those trips will go onto downtown streets and I-5.  An Empty Viaduct, from flickr user Slightlynorth But ‘that traffic’ will change dramatically. Even on the first day of closure, many ‘soft’ trips will switch to transit. That’s not just the viaduct trips – when viaduct users switch to other corridors, a lot of soft trips on I-5 will also switch to transit, as will many that were previously taken on surface streets. I’ve pointed this out before – over months and years (and even a construction closure will be years long), leases expire and jobs are gained and lost, so many of those through trips will disappear through attrition when they’re no longer effectively subsidized by the free trip through downtown. The benefits of not rebuilding a bypass are many. Average commute mileage decreases, reducing emissions. New non-through trips are more often replaced with transit. Every time a business chooses to locate downtown instead of in a neighborhood or suburb, mobility increases for the huge number of people who have transit access pointing to the urban core. And I think Larry Phillips can appreciate that. With downtown office space dropping in price due to the recession, but several more downtown office towers under construction, we have a lot of space available and getting cheaper. Remove a subsidy to sprawl, and we take advantage of the recession to concentrate development downtown. That’s smart growth. News Round-Up: Light Rail Everywhere Everyone's getting into the act, light rail construction in The Hague
Couple of Images of Arizona LRT below the fold. Sound Transit Stimulus Request Joni Earl On January 7 Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl sent letters to the local Congressional delegation requesting funding of a number of projects within the framework of the planned economic stimulus. STB has obtained a copy of one of these letters. The attached project list
There’s nothing here that isn’t either in Sound Move or Sound Transit 2, so this is mainly about bringing forward projects. After all, that’s the point of the stimulus. All of these projects have received federal environmental approval, but only four (Mountlake Terrace, Lakewood, Tukwila, buses) are “shovel-ready” in the traditional sense. The others would allow acceleration of the planning or design stage and ultimately quicker delivery. So that’s the demand side. The supply side (what’s going on in Congress) is after the jump. Gibbs – Transit, Intercity Rail Will Be A Major ComponentA few months ago, I posted about a video from the Obama Transition Team that mentioned the need to invest in Mass Transit. Since then, we’ve become increasingly worried about if the Obama administration will include transit projects in the stimulus package. Fortunately, incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs answered this question in a video just posted by the Transition Team, and although we’d certainly like to hear this from Obama himself when he talks about roads and bridges, it’s still very good news (pertinent question starts at 1:58): What sort of transit projects could we see in our region as part of the stimulus package? Stay tuned. Not Transit Related: P-I News is Bad NewsUpdate: It’s offical, at very least, the print P-I will be shut down. Supposedly the P-I is going to be shut down in a month or so. The rumor goes something like this: The Hearst Corp, owner of the P-I, was waiting for the Seattle Times, owned by the Blethen family and the McClatchy Group, to go out of business before making a decision on the fate of the P-I. It looked pretty certain the Times would go under, but recently Frank Blethen seems to have secured some sort of agreement with local investors to turn the paper into a non-profit. At this point, Hearst had no reason to keep the P-I around, so they have decided to shut down shop. If you want to read what I have to say about the newspaper business and the P-I shut down, it’s below the fold. A Week of Strong OpinionsWe at Seattle Transit Blog know that our readers like to play the role of transit planner and many others like to think of themselves as a model urban planner. This week we’ve presented many opinion pieces covering a range of transit and urban issues:
And we have pretty big news from Sound Transit coming up around 5 this evening. Stay tuned… |
AdvertisementContact UsFollow STB STB on Facebook STB on Twitter
Blog Entries (RSS)Recent PostsSearchBest ArgumentsBest Reference PostsArchivesThe Atlantic Cities BlogrollNationwide BlogsSystem MapsTransit OrganizationsTrip Planning |
is more along the lines of what we’d been hoping for, rather than the crumbs we’d heard about to date: