Photo by VeloBusDriver

TransitSleuth tweets: “Hmm, what would increase bus ridership in Seattle? I want to create a top 10 list. :)”

I’ve thought about this a bit so I’ll give 11:

1. More density. Density begets ridership.

2. Bus lanes and signal priority. Slow buses are a frequent complaint.

3. Higher gas prices. Tackle the demand side. See 2008.

4. An end to socialized and/or regulated parking, possibly a higher commercial parking tax. Ditto.

5. A branded frequent-service network. RapidRide is a start.

6. More frequency, particularly East-West. Too many dense places in the city are too far apart by bus.

7. Payment reform. This is also part of speeding things up. More off-board payment would help. Popularizing ORCA through a small fare discount would speed adoption and boarding time. There are couple of ways to get rid of the pay-as-you-leave policy, but the important thing is to introduce the board in front/get off in the back and improve flow on the buses.

8. More presence by transit security.

9. Real-time arrival where possible. GPS is being installed over the next year and will improve the accuracy of onebusaway, but RapidRide is the only part of the system that is planning message boards at stops.

10. Stop consolidation.

11. More standing room on crowded routes.

Notably, only items 6 through 9 require serious outlays of cash. 1, 3, and 4 can actually generate more revenue for government. What’s lacking in most cases, is political will, generally on the part of the King County Council but also the City of Seattle.

Photo courtesy Antoni Slodkowski via Reuters.

Who says luxury hotel amenities are limited to spas and room service?  This hotel in Tokyo has something for train and transit enthusiasts as well.

[UPDATE: Please note also at right our links to Oran's and Sherwin's twitter feeds, which are distinct from STB's but quite transit-intensive.]

A big shout out to all of our followers. Thanks for making STB and our twitter feed one of the source that you turn to for your daily transportation nerdom. All of the writers at STB do this because we want to help change the Seattle region for the better and your follows, @Seatransitblog, RTs and #FF all help us know we aren’t wasting our time. Thanks!

Vancouver Bike Lane, by Mike Bjork

Josh Cohen decisively debunks the idea that cyclists are freeloading on the contributions of drivers:

The Seattle Department of Transportation’s 2009 annual report breaks down the agency’s $340.8 million budget by funding source. The gas tax accounts for $13.4 million, or 4 percent of that total. The full budget breakdown (in millions):

Grants & Other: $96.9 (29 percent)
Debt: $77.4 (23 percent)
Bridging the Gap (a property-tax levy passed by voters in 2007): $60.9 (18 percent)
General Fund: $42.3 (12 percent)
Reimbursables: $42 (12 percent)
Gas Tax: $13.4 (4 percent)
Cumulative Reserve Fund: $7.6 (2 percent)

There’s no obvious problem with this funding distribution because we’re all supposed to use the streets. But the corollary is that we’re all supposed to (safely) use the streets — not just people in cars with a right not to be inconvenienced by slower vehicles.

Moreover, the width of many city streets is a function of the space that cars take up. You could get by with one-lane streets, two lanes on roads that carry bus routes, in the absence of cars.

It’s also always worthwhile to mention the enormous subsidy that driving gets in the sales tax exemption for gasoline.

Photo by Oran

As a cost-saving measure, Sound Transit will begin running one-car trains on evenings and weekends when no event makes high ridership likely. The one-car runs will begin as early as 7:30pm on weekdays and in some cases all day on weekends.

Spokesman Geoff Patrick explained:

It is a cost-reduction measure in response to the recession’s significant impacts on agency revenues. Demand during those late-evening hours can be met with one-car trains, and the agency will save about $460,000 annually. We will operate two-car trains when there are sports events or other happenings that will increase rider demand.

The change does introduce some operational complexity in that in-service trains must be split in the O&M Facility or the Pine Street Stub Tunnel, but there is a net savings in doing things this way.

It can be tough to keep the various layers of transportation plans straight, but the Washington Transportation Commission is doing one to cover the next 20 years.

The usual organizational suspects are hosting a public meeting tomorrow at lunch to talk about the plan and receive comments. Details after the jump.

UPDATE 6:05 PM (Adam here) – As a few of our commenters have already pointed out this is a public involvement travisty, with WSTC not even hosting a single real meeting in the Seattle area, home to over half the state’s population. I contacted the WSTC on August 18th saying as much, and they still did not add real meeting in the Seattle area. Below is a response to my e-mail questioning why there wasn’t a meeting in Seattle and below that is my response.

Thanks for your question about WTP 2030 listening sessions.

The five listening sessions have been scheduled to provide broad statewide input. The listening sessions are part of a broader public input plan aimed at gathering input from a diverse range of people and groups across the state – east and west, urban and rural. The public can view WTP 2030 on the Commission’s website: http://wstc.wa.gov/WTP/default.htm and provide comments via a public input tool http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WTP2030DRAFT1or submit comments via email or in writing. The plan also includes outreach to bloggers like you. We’re hoping that coverage in your blog will help us disseminate the draft plan and gather public input.

Specifically regarding the location of the listening sessions  – the Everett and Kitsap sessions will provide opportunities for outreach to the broader Puget Sound region including urban and rural areas north to the Canadian border.  The other three listening sessions provide outreach to Southwest Washington in the Vancouver metropolitan area and to Yakima and Spokane in Eastern Washington.

Finally, the Transportation Commission also regularly meets in communities throughout the state. (The Commission’s July meeting was in Seattle and the November meeting will be in Bellevue.)  These meetings are open to the public and they usually take public comments on transportation issues.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions about WTP 2030 or the public input process. We really appreciate your interest in WTP 2030.

… and my response…

I have to say though this is a major oversight. Everett is not Seattle and to not have a listening session in the largest city of the state is ridiculous and begs the question of whether or not the commission is trying to skew results. I doubt that is the case but I wanted to tell you that is how it looks from an outsiders perspective and certainly is a juicy headline. If they wanted to cover the north they should of had an event in Bellingham, but don’t shortchange the largest city in the state.

(more…)

"Link, SB SODO Station, 4:39pm, Monday", by Oran

• Sound Transit Board approves the agreement to lease the center lanes of I-90 from WSDOT. Basically, the money ST is putting into building the outer HOV lanes is offsetting the rental cost, and then some.
• ST awards D-to-M Sounder contract to low bidder MidMountain, after initially spurning them for PCL because some forms were late. The $40.8m bid is $800,000 below PCL’s and $26m below the original estimate.
• Ballard resident petitioning for a Sounder station. STB’s previous discussion of infill stations is here.
• John Fox seeks to get Yesler Terrace declared a historic landmark, preventing its redevelopment.
• SDOT bringing the evidence on road diets.
• Attempt of private bus lines to sue Metro for competing with them falls short.
• New lawsuit alleging that purchase of BNSF Eastside corridor was illegal.
• It’s official: Bellingham (not the Whatcom Transit District) to vote on 0.2% sales tax increase in November to save bus service. More background here.
• SDOT counting bikes and peds, needs volunteers.
• Tacoma way ahead of Seattle in enabling urbanist development.
• WSDOT looking at HOT lanes on 50 miles of I-405, for the second time.
• APTA circulating a petition to Congress for more transit funding.
• Dog patrols on Amtrak Cascades this month.
• Stabbing at the South Hill Transit Center.
• Bikes on buses are great but I’m not sure about cars on buses.
• Fun with next train signs.

This is an open thread.

Photo by Atomic Taco

Facing a steep cut in service in 2012 and planning a February ballot measure to stop the bleeding, Pierce Transit is making some non-service cuts, mainly by hitting their non-union employees.

On August 26th PT announced the elimination of management positions. Nonunion employees will also not get wage increases in 2011, and will have to pay more for their health care. The savings will amount to $1.2m through 2012, a fraction of their $50m annual long-term deficit. That’s in addition to $72m in savings through 2012 achieved with previous staff cuts, fare increases, and deferred capital projects. And of course another fare increase is coming down the pike.

The TNT has more about PT’s main labor cost:

Those cuts, however, will not apply to the bulk of Pierce Transit’s work force. Some 845 transit union members won a contract that calls for a 4 percent hike this summer. Agency officials wanted to renegotiate; union leaders refused, saying their members earned their wages and benefits – and suggested there are other places to cut.

“We’ve asked (to renegotiate) twice, and they’ve said no twice,” said agency spokeswoman Treva Percival. “Their contract is up again next year. Negotiations will probably start in the spring.”

Tour Group at YMCA

Last night Feet First (great pedestrian advocacy group) hosted their second Walk & Talk tour guided by Tom Rasmussen. The tour started in the Triangle of West Seattle (bounded by 35th, Alaska, and Fauntleroy) and headed east stopping at destinations along the way, ending at a casual reception.

The first stop was the YMCA followed by the new “Link” development. The Triangle is an interesting area. Up until just a year or two ago the whole area consisted mostly of light manufacturing and auto dealership, a large number of which are out of business now. The area is prime for redevelopment, due to its location and underlying zoning. As a casual observer of developments in this area over the last few years it’s interesting how omnipresent the themes of transition and parking are.

More after the jump. (more…)

xkcd

Critics of transit investment – especially rail investment – frequently cite a failure to achieve a budgeted ridership estimate as evidence of the ineptitude or corruption of the agencies planning the lines in question.  While I never wish to discourage due criticism, ridership estimates are constructed via theoretical models, and critiquing a model for being wrong is tautological, akin to critiquing a human for being mortal. Frustrated at popular confusion over the nature of modeling, I thought I’d write a post on the limitations and capabilities of models.  To my mind there are four main points:

More after the jump…

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