[Update at 4:55 pm: The Board unanimously approved the motion and picked options 2 and 6 (all options here), west-side running alignments that would either feed into an at-grade downtown segment or a tunnel. Bellevue mayor Don Davidson did not withhold his stiff criticism from ST prior to the decision.]
The Sound Transit Board is expected today to approve new preferred alignments for South Bellevue. The two options would run along the east or the west side of 112th Ave. As of 3:30, readers can stream the board meeting here — the 112th Ave decision is on the agenda (item 8B).
The Bellevue City Council earlier rejected considering any of the six 112th Ave alignments, but Sound Transit will almost certainly approve one of the alignments on that road. More backstory on the six options here.
Rendering of the wall from Sound Transit (via U-District Daily)
While we eagerly await the construction of U-Link, a partnership between the University of Washington and Sound Transit will allow real ordinary people around the region to partake in the art project that is to embrace the face of the University Station construction wall. The U-District Daily blog reported about this last month, and Sound Transit is now setting up photobooths in the area for people who want to participate.
Tomorrow and next week, the photobooth will show up at Tukwila International Boulevard Station and on the UW Campus in an effort to get ordinary Link commuters as well as UW students, faculty and staff:
Friday, July 23, 4pm to 8pm:
Tukwila Station (TIB), ground or mezz level: 15426 35th Ave S. / Tukwila
Wednesday, July 28, 8am to 5pm:
UW Hospital café, main/1st floor: NE Pacific Street. / Seattle
Last night Josh Cohen touched on a very salient point that I have felt for a while. Put simply the four year old Bicycle Master Plan (BMP) feels incredibly out of date. Check out the whole piece here.
The BMP language does illustrate how fast the best practices for building bike facilities have evolved and how important the BMP five-year review (scheduled to begin in 2011) will be for Seattle’s bike infrastructure.
Portland and New York City are leading the way in America’s experiments with separated on-road bicycle infrastructure. Portland has a parking-protected cycletrack similar to the proposed lanes on Dexter Ave. and Admiral Way in Seattle. NYC has a few cycletracks separated by raised cement islands and raised lane-divider poles (as seen in the photo above). But these separated facilities were all installed within the last year or two. When Seattle set to work on the BMP in 2006 and 2007, Portland and NYC’s separated infrastructure was but a twinkle in some ambitious planner’s eyes.
Bicycle infrastructure planning has come a long way in the four years since the BMP’s was introduced. With goals to “increase the comfort of bicyclists on roadways” and “indicate the appropriate location to ride on the roadway with respect to moving traffic and parked cars,” it’s clear that the vehicular cycling school of riding had a major influence on the original draft. Though the tenets of vehicular cycling are useful for safe bicycling, the school’s opposition to separated facilities are fairly outdated. Unsurprisingly, Portland’s own BMP has a thorough and detailed facilities best practice section (a valuable read for the geekiest of our transportation-loving readers).
If you want to learn more about the BMP and segregated facilities come to the Great City brown bag today. It promises an interesting and very well attending meeting.
The Fremont Historical Society will be holding a historical walking tour of the Fremont area’s streetcar history on Thursday, July 22nd from 7PM to 8:30PM beginning in front of the old Car Barn on 34th and Phinney Ave. N. The Fremont Historical Society will also have a number of historic photographs on display for your viewing pleasure. (more…)
McGinn proposes $20 car-tab fee, higher parking taxes. This would fund basic road maintenance, and a few bike and pedestrian projects. It also makes it a little less likely Ballard/West Seattle light rail is going to happen. Downtown Seattle is the seventh most expensive in the U.S. to park in, which may mean we’re doing something right.
In an expected move, the city council sent a letter to the Sound Transit Board asking them to pay for conceptual engineering on the First Hill Streetcar extension – backstory here.
Bellevue Council votes 4-3 to ignore the question of the 112th alignment and reaffirm support for B7; also, more about those condo owners that want to sell.
Councilmember Clark proposes turning part of Pike St. pedestrian-only during bar time on weekends. We should try it.
Overrun-amendment sponsor clarifies his thinking, is less threatening than certain other legislators.
Two new open-air markets downtown. I believe the area above C/ID station was intended as a market area, but that seems to not have panned out.
Crossing the tunnel tracks could cost you $66, even some time in jail.
From Tacoma Tomorrow: another freeway atrocity in planning, Hertz may start car sharing, Intercity Transit will ask voters to bring their sales tax from 0.6% to 0.8% on August 17th.
Burien TC garage now funded, but I wish we could abolish the term “transit-oriented garage” unless they store buses in it.
Yesterday, Link Light Rail had its first birthday, one year after revenue service was inaugurated on July 20, 2010. One year has passed by extraordinarily quickly, and while the past 365 days have not gone by perfectly, I think most of us can conclude that this was a good inaugural year. I’m not one of the lucky thousands that get to commute by Link daily, but I often spot the trains in the downtown tunnel, and every day they get fuller and fuller. Whenever I am on the trains, the atmosphere is generally bubbly. People are chatting. Kids are gazing out the windows. And you always have someone enjoying a book. People are glad that there’s finally some form of rapid transit here in Seattle.
The people I talk to are eager to see Link built out to the U-District, then to Northgate, south to Federal Way, and to the Eastside. I often say that our younger generations have a greater stake in this region’s future than anyone else. This isn’t age bias– it’s a fact. Link isn’t just for us to use at the tail-end of our lives. It’s for the whole lives of the babies and will-be babies of 2030, 2060, and further in the future. By the time North, South, and East Links are completed, we’ll all be a little bit older and perhaps wiser, but I don’t think any of us will change our minds about how building Link was a good thing. Hopefully we can all say, “I’m glad we finally got this done.”
Link has had its share of critics. Make no mistake about it. They’re still around and they’ll be around for a while. They’ll be poring over documents and EISes, conducting peer reviews and studies, and will spend their whole lives proving something that people no longer care about. But 2008 was living proof that voters across this region are seeing mass transit as a real alternative. Critics alleged that Sound Transit falsely advertised the ST2 plan with bloated facts and figures. Come 2030 and ask any transit rider: will they really care?
Looking back at the pile of posts we had on opening weekend, it’s clear that this is something we were and continue to be excited about. When we’re all old and frail, and Union Station is lined with portraits of Link’s conception, wouldn’t it be worth it to say, “I was there. I saw it happen. I helped make it happen.”? Happy first birthday, Link.
Post your personal Link experiences below. We’ll be sharing them for the rest of our lives.
Link at Convention Center – Tacoma, WA by Dave Honan
TCC will be talking Tacoma Streetcar:
How much rail can $80 million buy? What’s the difference between streetcars and light rail? What are the benefits of rail?
For the event’s location and directions, Click Here.
Officials from Sound Transit, the City of Tacoma, and the Transportation Choices Coalition are holding a public forum on Friday, July 23rd to discuss the future of Tacoma Link, expansion plans for Tacoma Link, and streetcars in general. Various officials will be present to answer any and all questions.
What: Tacoma Streetcar Friday Forum When: Friday, July 23, 12:00pm – 1:30pm Where: University of Washington Tacoma, Garretson Woodruff Pratt Building, Tacoma Room (Room 320)
Yesterday King 5 released a poll of Seattle voters. The poll shows that Seattle voters are evenly split 47%/46% for or against the tunnel with a 4.5% margin of error. While these results are a toss-up, all of the other results bode poorly for tunnel supporters. For example 81% of voters are very or somewhat concerned about cost overruns. 52% think that the state should be responsible for cost overruns, 63%want to wait till the state agrees to pay for cost overruns, and 58% want a public vote on the issue. More after the jump.
They’re decidedly more low-tech than the ones that used to be at Tukwila, but ST now has next train signs at Seatac. It’s a nice feature to have, although it’s astonishing how rarely ST uses the variable message boards for this kind of thing.
[UPDATE 10:29pm]: Meeting recap and thoughts are at the very bottom.
[UPDATE 1:41am]: I’m told the meeting finally adjourned close to 1am. Though the council was expected to choose a 112th Avenue option, they did not do so, instead drafting yet another letter to Sound Transit reiterating support for B7. The vote was 4-3, as expected. A disappointing move, considering everyone else outside the magical world of B7 has moved on.
I’m currently at the Bellevue City Council meeting to cover the council’s study session regarding East Link discussion. On the agenda tonight will be reports from the independent B7 studies and some discussion of the 112th options. A large number of B7 supporters are here, and there is word that a petition is to be delivered supporting B7. Follow the stream.
6:14pm: Steve Sarkozy, city manager, introduces a briefing on the B7 studies, giving the context of the current stage in East Link planning. He reminds the council that all the new alternatives that have surfaced since the DEIS will be carried forward into more updated analysis in the SDEIS, and finally the FEIS.
6:17pm: Bernard Van de Kamp, regional projects manager, takes over and introduces the four contracts that were executed to study B7. Potential salmon impacts between B3 and B7 will also be discussed in a report from a Utilities department representative.
Sound Transit recently announced yet another Link Light Rail service curtailment for maintenance work. Here’s the notice ST has given riders:
Central Link light rail will operate every 20 to 25 minutes from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Sunday and Monday due to track maintenance. Signs at the Beacon Hill, Mount Baker and Columbia City stations will direct both northbound and southbound riders to use the southbound platforms for boarding during the maintenance.
I have lost track, but this must be at least the sixth or seventh time that there has either been a period of reduced frequency and/or closure of a portion of Link Light Rail for various construction or maintenance purposes – and the line has been in operation less than one year.
If Link is to be a high capacity spine of our regional transportation system, then I feel that ST must make a far greater commitment to operating the full scheduled service 7 days per week. ST should adopt the following principles, below the jump:
The rightmost map shows the City's preferred B7 route.
Tonight, the Bellevue City Council will discuss the results of a few independent studies it contracted out regarding further analysis of East Link’s B7/BNSF alignment, the City’s “preferred” alternative. Though not an unexpected move, I last balked at a few decisions, including the feasibility of moving the South Bellevue Park & Ride further south to connect with B7 at I-90. As if that was our only concern. Over the weekend, Bellevue city staff released documents that highlighted the reports of these studies. While there was some new information brought to light about small-scale concerns with B7 and the DEIS, the fireworks that the City may have been expecting to launch B7 to stardom were not there.
You can find the PDFs of the reports at the City’s website here, and attached summaries in the packet (PDF) for tonight’s study session. More below the jump.
Link ridership set another record in June, with an average weekday ridership of 23,396 (Saturday 17,510; Sunday 13,919), and a daily range of 9,827 to 28,820. This represents a 7.5% increase over May’s average of 21,774, and a 16% increase over April’s 20,129. June represented the sixth straight month of >5% month-over-month growth. Even with the usual caveats regarding sampling and modeling error, this is very encouraging news.
Ridership tends to follow a logistic growth model, in which ridership grows exponentially until it slows as it approaches a theoretical saturation point. We’ll probably see ridership stabilize at its “natural level” well before University Link restarts the growth cycle, but it will be exciting to see just what that level is. In the meantime, even with seasonal variations, we are likely to see continued year-over-year growth. (Just for fun, a continued 7% rate of growth would yield ridership of 35,000 by the end of the year.)
As promised on Tuesday, Pierce Transit yesterday released their plan for spending a proposed additional 0.3% sales tax. It has the same number of service hours as the old “growth” plan, but apparently the distribution is a bit different.
The website breaks out the impact — in path and frequency — for every route in the system. Kudos to PT for the tremendously informative website, of which I hope Metro takes note in their next big service change.
I can’t say anything intelligent about these routes, but Tacoma Tomorrow sure can.
ST Capital Committee has taken all center-running options out.
On Thursday, Sound Transit’s Capital Committee held a meeting to discuss the 112th Avenue options that have dominated the “airwaves” recently. There was heavy turnout, roughly 60 to 70 in attendance. The comment period was long and featured a variety of stakeholders. Due to heavy “public interest,” Fred Butler, chair of the capital committee, moved the public comment period ahead of the committee presentation and discussion. Because the issue at hand was about the 112th Avenue and Hospital Station options, Butler heavily emphasized having comments focus on “those alternatives” alone (in other words, he didn’t want to hear anything about B7). You can view the meeting in full at ST’s website. More below the jump.
To synthesize several posts that have been bouncing around the local blogosphere, including Zach’s, it’s kind of unfortunate that the argument has degenerated into assessing the probability of overrun, made necessary by the blithe assertion of tunnel supporters that there wouldn’t be any.
If the gas tax was covering this project, no one who thought that replacing the viaduct with the tunnel was a good idea would suddenly oppose it if the cost escalated from $4.2 billion to $4.7 billion. Likewise, no one who thinks the tunnel is counterproductive would change their minds if the cost came in at $3.7 billion or $3.2 billion. More after the jump.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabio_eniac/ / CC BY-NC 2.0
Mayor McGinn’s new nightlife initiative has gotten some attention for its proposal to add more late night service. In the near to medium term, simply adding service is out of the question, and of course would trigger 20/40/40 restrictions, meaning 80% of the service would go to East and South King County. In general, new routes will be less productive than existing routes. Other sensible skepticism here.
However, planners can sidestep all of that by simply shifting dollars in the West subarea to beef up late-night routes. But does that make sense from a productivity standpoint? Answer after the jump.
Yesterday Mayor McGinn held a press briefing with Thom Neff, a Strategic Infrastructure Management Consultant that the Mayor had retained to complete a risk analysis on the likelihood of on-budget, on-time completion of the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel. Neff, with a 40-year vocational history managing large tunneling projects (including Boston’s Central Artery, the “Big Dig”), offered a cautiously pessimistic assessment of the project. Noting that the tunnel represented technology “at or beyond precedent” in the “worst geologic environment [he'd] ever seen,” Neff said that the project presents a substantial risk of exceeding budget and a moderate risk of not being completed at all. Among the geological anomalies, historical glaciation was so extensive that there is “residual lateral stress at depth” that “exceeds the vertical pressure.”
Everyone expected our anti-tunnel Mayor’s hand-picked consultant to say such things, but Neff was impressive and decidedly apolitical, stressing that, “I love tunnels, that’s what I do. But some tunnels shouldn’t be built.”
Seattle Transit Blog signed a letter sent to Seattle leaders yesterday that encouraged the city council to allow city staff move forward on the Transit Master Plan. You can find the letter at Slog, and the back story here.
