Proposed All-Day, Two-Way Systems

STB wholeheartedly supports the proposed changes to Eastside bus service on multiple levels.

First we support the process that Metro has undertaken. It has done a good job of reaching out to riders, providing information in an easy to understand and accessible manner in addition to revising the proposal in response to feedback. Metro hasn’t been shy to propose changes that will lead to a much better, integrated transit system, and this is great to see.

Second we support this proposed changes because it leverages the investments made in the B Line. Metro is making significant investments, both capital and operating in the B Line and the last thing Metro should do is compete with its self. This certainly will mean elimination of one-seat rides for some riders, and that’s okay. They’ll complain but the needs of the greater community, and a more frequent and focused transit system, must be paramount. Over the next ten years ensuring network revisions are done with a systems level and focused approach will be important with Lines C,D and E and imperative with U Link and North Link. We see this proposal as a stepping stone, and getting it right is critical.

Third, we support the proposed changes because it emphasizes core routes, where the demand is and where transit service can be competitive. Historically Eastside routes have had a fairly “flat” structure. This proposal starts to move away from this, prioritizing the highest ridership routes above others. This includes the B Line (parts of route 230 and 253) and route 255 and 271. These are Metro’s four most used Eastside routes. This is where Metro needs to go system wide, and this proposal is a good move in the that direction.

We urge you to either submit a comment of support via e-mail at community.relations@kingcounty.gov or in person at tonight’s meeting at Mercer Island Community Center from 6pm to 8pm.

Governor Gregoire shows she doesn’t share our values by telling the New York Times:

“Social engineering works in some places, like banning cigarettes in some places,” said Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat. “Telling people you no longer can ride in your car isn’t going to work because this city is going to grow.”

Tunnel opponents are often accused of demagoguery, and of taking extremist positions. I have to point out that the Surface/Transit/I-5 option that Mike McGinn and Mike O’Brien support costs a total of $3.3 billion, and $2.3 billion of that is dedicated to highways. That level of expenditure, where 70% of the spending is on highways and 14% is transit, is equivalent to “telling people [they] can no longer ride in [their] car.”

To not be a car-banning totalitarian, it’s apparently necessary to support the $4.0 billion deep-bore tunnel project, which spends $3.1 billion on highways and zero on transit. According to our governor, any attempt to increase transit share in the corridor is the path to socialism.

12th Ave and John Street (via CHS Seattle)

This isn’t something we usually dabble in but it absolutely hit a nerve when I read this article on CHS Seattle last week. As someone who loves old buildings in Seattle (I live in one of the buildings used in the post) and aboard as well as modern European architecture particularly in The Netherlands, Germany and all of Scandinavia I get extremely frustrated when people insist that every build must have “modulation” to look good. Modulation does not necessarily equal good design and in this post John Feit does a great job of unpacking this issue, using old and new buildings from around Capitol Hill as examples.  

Contrary to what you might hear, boxy buildings are okay. Even relatively big ones. What is not okay, however, is anti-box propaganda founded upon misrepresentation. There was a time, we are told, that there were no boxy buildings, that buildings were neither massive nor unarticulated, and that in order to have new buildings be good urban neighbors, they need to acknowledge this pre-box precedent. Living in a world of make believe, these Tinkerbells of design (to include architects, Design Review Boards, developers, and concerned citizens) spread their anti-box fairy dust, hoping to achieve the kinder, gentler architecture which existed before big, boxy (i.e. modern) buildings desecrated Neverland.   

The fact is many (most?) of Capitol Hill’s best heritage buildings are boxes, with barely a change in massing or material, and elevations that remain remarkably the same from one corner to another. These best buildings are in fact, about as boxy as a box can be.  

Despite ample, recent built examples to the contrary, the Tinkerbells continue to believe that the modulation of a building’s mass, both horizontally and vertically, and composing it of as many distinct materials and colors as possible, leads to good design. This has not worked, and it is definitely not precedent-based. What this modulation and material mayhem is, is design by check-list. As long as each box is checked, the final result seems to be irrelevant. What is lost in this paint-by-numbers approach is the detail — literally. For it was (and is) in the details of a window opening or in a material transition that human scale and texture of our heritage (and modern) buildings was achieved. It was (and is) those elements of a building that can be held in one’s hand, that can be understood at eye level while passing by, that add scale and ‘humanity’. Not design approaches that, due to their grand gestures, can only be comprehended from across the street or down the block. While it is true that color, material differentiation, and expressive massing can add interest to a building, it is no substitute for the richness added by detail and craft. In fact, I would be more than happy to see buildings such as the one below (designed by pb elemental, on 12th Ave and John) that have some nice detail and are volumetrically and materially expressive. But let’s stick to basics first before we venture into more adventurous design, and have a look at a range of Capitol Hill boxes.  

Go here to read the entire post.

Photo by EBoperator

A fair amount of commentary on STB laments routing decisions that Metro has made in the past, or lamented the comments coming from interest groups that have derailed what might have been a sensible change.

Well, Tuesday is your chance to influence the process. Metro is going to rearrange service on the Eastside, and the County Council is listening. As we reported previously:

The Metropolitan King County Council’s Transportation, Economy and Environment Committee will take public comments on proposed changes to Metro bus service in Bellevue, Redmond, Clyde Hill, Medina, and South Kirkland at a meeting on April 12. The meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Mercer Island Community Center, 8236 SE 24th Street on Mercer Island.

Inspired by the viaduct, but actually true across the board:

Old Green Line Route

Last week, Mayor McGinn announced that he intends to ask for $10 million to get to 15% design for 8 miles of westside light rail.

This sounds great in theory. But Sound Transit plans to do basically the same work in a few years – they have $12 million set aside around 2015 to study the same corridor.

Stepping back outside the political arena, what makes the most sense here is for McGinn to ask voters for money to accelerate Sound Transit’s work. Having study work done a few years sooner gives us more time to build public support and look for grants.

It makes sense for several reasons to have Sound Transit as lead on a West Link project: they have experience in planning and building light rail, and they’re experienced in winning federal funds. A partnership here would save millions – if not tens of millions – and could result in a line built with both Sound Transit and city of Seattle funds, rather than a low capacity option likely to be the result of city funding alone.

The Mayor has said before that he doesn’t want “Cadillac” light rail, but we already know from previous study work that the West Seattle and Ballard corridor would develop more ridership than any of Portland’s lines, and these neighborhoods will only become more dense with time. The monorail project was right to want grade separation, at least in the city center.

We can’t afford to be in the position Portland is today. Their light rail is already running into serious limitations, only twenty-five years into a hundred year system. Trains are packed at peak times on the older lines, and there isn’t room to run them with more cars or more often.

While I applaud the Mayor’s initiative in pushing to build more mass transit, I’d like to see him work together with Sound Transit on this issue, rather than going it alone.

'Amtrak' by Atomic Taco

Yesterday, an official funding agreement was signed between WSDOT and the Federal Rail Administration for $145 million in additional high-speed rail funds originally destined for Ohio and Wisconsin.  The agreement effectively guarantees that Washington will get the money regardless of any political maneuvering that goes on at the federal level.

According to WSDOT, the amount is slightly lower because of an FRA decision to exclude one project from receiving funds:

Earlier WSDOT reported the most recent award amount as $161 million. After review, the FRA chose to exclude the Centralia Station Modifications project, dropping the award amount by $16 million to the current $145 million. WSDOT resubmitted the project for funding as part of the application for the Florida money.

Earlier this week, WSDOT announced that the State officially applied for Florida’s rejected rail money.  If the same agreements are signed for those funds, Washington pool of federal funding for upgrading the mainline may potentially increase to a total of $855 million.

For anyone who’s marked down their calendars for Metro’s trolley open house, pick up a pen because the meeting has been rescheduled for Wednesday, April 27th, from 5 to 7pm at Plymouth Congregational.  Same location, different time.  If the change has derailed your plans to attend in person, there is still always the opportunity to comment online.

For anyone who really likes the trolley buses and wants to keep them, this open house should not be missed.

Community Transit

With tax revenues collapsing, and no legal authority to raise new revenue, Community Transit CEO Joyce Eleanor yesterday announced a 20% service cut to occur in February 2012, on top of last June’s 15% cut that eliminated all non-ST Sunday service.

CT will release a detailed plan in June:

On June 2, Community Transit will release to the public three alternatives for achieving the 20 percent cut. Two of those alternatives will focus on reducing the frequency of trips, while a third alternative will propose a complete restructuring of bus service in Snohomish County. At least one of the alternatives will restore a skeletal level of Sunday service, which will mean deeper cuts the rest of the week.

The month of June will be filled with lots of public meetings about the three alternatives. The board will make a final decision in September.

Ms. Eleanor’s speech ruled out the elimination of Saturday service.  She also mentioned, while in no way expecting or relying on it, a regional mobility grant in the House budget that would restore 30% of Sunday service by spending $1m a year for four years.

The speech also emphasized the cost-cutting measures that have occurred at CT, including 100 layoffs. This is probably a direct response to Senate Transportation Chair Mary Margaret Haugen’s assertion that only Metro would get relief in the emergency transit funding bill because only Metro had made the necessary efficiency reforms.

photo by litlnemo

UPDATE 1:16pm: I’ve received word that Metro is adjusting a Route 36 trip so it connects with the last Link train from the airport at Beacon Hill Station and extends it to downtown. More information when I get it.

UPDATE 3:22pm The last train/bus connection change begins Tuesday, June 14, 2011. Details from Jack Lattemann, Metro service planner:

On weekdays, the inbound/northbound trip on Route 36 leaving 39th Avenue South & South Myrtle Street at 1:04 a.m. is being rescheduled to leave 5 minutes later in order to allow a connection with the last northbound Link train at Beacon Hill Station. Route 36 will be scheduled at the 15th & Beacon timepoint at 1:21 a.m. This should provide about a 7-minute window to make the rail-bus connection. This Route 36 trip will then be extended to continue to 3rd Avenue & Pike Street in downtown Seattle instead of ending at 5th Avenue South & South Jackson Street. Making this change will make early morning weekday inbound service on Route 36 more consistent seven days a week.

The latest issue of Sound Transit’s RIDE newsletter gave a preview of bus and train service changes coming this June. Most of the bus changes are the same as previously anticipated. One new change not seen before is:

Central Link—Night trips that currently end at Mount Baker Station will be extended to Beacon Hill Station

Under the current schedule, this change would affect three nightly trips leaving SeaTac/Airport Station at 12:20 am, 12:35 am, 12:50 am, Monday through Saturday, and at 11:20 pm, 11:35 pm, 11:50 pm on Sunday and holidays. All of these trips leave after the last train to Westlake has departed.

If I remember correctly, when Link opened, trains used to end at Beacon Hill before they changed it to Mount Baker for some reason. I have not received a response to my question from Sound Transit I asked a few days ago. Martin told me “that Beacon Hill had to be cleared and shut down for the night” so someone might get locked in overnight but Mount Baker, as an elevated station, needs to follow a similar procedure so I’m not convinced with that answer.

Photo by Atomic Taco

[UPDATE: TCC has a political action page to preserve service on Routes 1, 2, and 3 at the expense of other service.]

Commenter Tcmetro has the scoop:

Pierce Transit has announced the details of their service cuts. The booklet of proposed changes is available here: http://www.piercetransit.org/pdfs/Reduction_Booklet.pdf

In summary:
- Fairly similar to what is described in PT Tomorrow.
- 20% cuts to take place on June 12th, with another 15% cut on October 2nd.
- Reduced emergency service will continue until June 11th.
- Most routes will operate every 30 minutes during rush hours and every 60 minutes at other times.
- Hours of operation significantly reduced. (~5 am-8 pm on the weekdays and 10am-6pm on the weekends).
- The main lines (1,2,3) will operate with more hours and frequency than the other lines.

The CNG explosion has, predictably aggravated PT’s budget situation. The booklet runs through all the changes route-by-route.

Public meetings start Monday.

CT double decker's stairwell, photo by Atomic Taco

• Westlake Centre closes bottom floor, connection to Westlake Station until next year.
• 24 states apply for Florida’s rejected HSR money, Washington one.
• A tale of two train stations.
• Talking trains with IBM’s Global Rail Innovation chief
• Sounder, open for eight years now, is news to some.
• Tunnel Initiative likely has enough signatures.
• Port could choose not to pay its tunnel share.
• Port says AWV replacement tunnel important to hay producers.
• State House approves renting of park-and-ride spots to vendors.
• Jarrett Walker planning two-day course on transit planning in Vancouver BC.
• Bellevue residents frustrated over council in-fighting about light rail.
• I-405 toll lanes legislation getting complicated.
• Do tolls have odd second order effects?
• How far should the bike and transit alliance go?

Home page of redesigned Sound Transit website

Sound Transit’s completely redesigned website went live on Tuesday evening. My first impressions are mostly positive despite the glitches, which should be worked out soon. The design is modern, fresh, and clean. Key customer information is logically organized and easily accessible right from the home page and menu bar. There is a brand new trip planner and interactive mapping system. Check it out and let Sound Transit know what you think by clicking Submit Feedback in the top right corner.

More initial impressions after the jump. (more…)

Rep. Reuven Carlyle

PubliCola reports that Ballard Rep. Reuven Carlyle is challenging the supermajority requirement in the emergency transit bill, SB 5457. The bill’s current form requires six of nine County Councilmembers to approve a $20 license fee that basically avoids Metro cuts for two years. Assuming all five Democrats vote for it, it would need the support of one Republican, likely Jane Hague of the inner Eastside suburbs.

On Carlyle’s blog he outlines his philosophical objecti0n:

In my view, it is unacceptable for the Legislature to institute supermajority rules for local and county governments. This sort of structural change that goes to the heart of how governments function is not trivial. As in medicine, the first rule of the Legislative Session should be to “do no harm.” This idea fails that responsibility.

I’m actually sympathetic to the point Mr. Carlyle is trying to make, although I wouldn’t sacrifice $26m of annual Metro funding to make it. I’m not equipped to handicap the politics of this, but the questions to ask are:

• Would a Carlyle amendment pass the House but then get the whole bill killed in the Senate? Carlyle seems to think it’s a possibility.
• Is Jane Hague really going to vote for this thing? What concessions would she require for a yes vote? Metro has a package of administrative reforms on the table that requires Council approval, and the budget issue adds an extra dimension of bargaining.

Map of the Seoul Metro System

The SDOT Blog, Grist and the Slog all have posts covering a lecture about how Seoul torn down an elevated highway and replaced it with a stream, finding parallels with the Alaskan Way Viaduct. From SDOT:

One of the most interesting things we learned from Dr. Hwang is that, in total, 14 lanes of traffic were removed, to be replaced by only four lanes of traffic. Recently these were further reduced to two lanes. The city system has been able to absorb this level of capacity reduction. For context, these lanes carried about 160,000 vehicles daily for a city with a population of 10 million.

Whether or not you agree with the tunnel project, I think comparing Seoul to Seattle is absolutely and utterly ridiculous in this context. Seoul is the largest city and capital of the 11th largest national economy in the world, Seattle is the largest city in a state that makes up just 2.4% of the US economy. By another measure, Seoul is the third-largest city in the world, Seattle barely cracks the top 100.

More below the fold.
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Photo by Wings777

The first 23 double-decker buses, funded by the feds to replace aging 60-foot articulated ones, entered service on Community Transit’s Route 413 on Thursday.

The buses have 77 seats, and fit more people for less maintenance and lower operating cost than their predecessors.

CT had leased a double-decker for experiments from 2007-2009.

'Amtrak Cascades Ad' by Oran

Yesterday, WSDOT announced that it has officially applied for $120 million of the $2.4B high-speed rail funds rejected by Florida back in February.  The money would be used  to improve the Cascade corridor, including environmental and engineering work for much-needed slope stabilization.  Combined with the money WSDOT has already been awarded –  $590 million in original stimulus funds and $161 million rejected by Wisconsin and Ohio – the total funding package could top $870 million.

According to WSDOT, the funding has different criteria which effectively reduces the amount the state can apply for:

The Florida-related funding has more stringent “readiness” requirements, narrowing the list of p1rojects eligible for consideration. Projects in WSDOT’s application are primarily for environmental and engineering work to stabilize hillsides, add capacity to reduce conflicts with freight, and replace an aging trestle. All projects funded by the ARRA rail grants must be completed by September 2017.

Assuming the Republican-controlled House fails to cancel Obama’s HSR program, these dollars will be a welcome addition to improving the Cascades, which is already one of Amtrak’s more popular corridors.

Photo by Oran

Sound Transit’s annual Citizen Oversight Panel report is always a good read. Written by an unpaid group of interested and technically qualified citizens who are given inside access to the agency, the report won’t satisfy Sound Transit’s most dedicated detractors, but is usually a candid assessments of agency problems without too much press-release happy talk.

This year’s entry focuses a lot on internal organization issues that don’t directly impact riders much. However, it does mention “ the need for better systems to handle service disruptions and [how] the agency actively responded to this need with increased staffing and new procedures, especially in Central Link.”

We’ll have to see, but at this point I’d have to give them an incomplete. The reaction to service disruptions has undoubtedly improved, but it’s only with tonight’s track work that we’ll see if ST is following through on its reported commitment to make Link usable during maintenance times.

The COP also has some issues with cost reporting, ORCA customer service, and the delays in picking an East Link alignment, including the final EIS that was supposed to be done last year.

The appendices are especially interesting for in depth progress reports. U-Link and East Link are below the jump.

(more…)

Route 41 and 73 Stop Consolidation

Metro has announced it is planning to consolidate stops on the northern end of route 41 and 73 starting April 30th. From Metro’s press release:

Metro is planning to reduce the number of closely spaced bus stops on the Route 41 and 73 corridors, affecting some stops that also serve routes 48, 242, 243, 71, 72, 73, 77, 79, 83, 347, 348, and 373. The changes will help buses move faster and operate on a more reliable schedule, reduce energy consumption and emissions, and reduce Metro’s operating and maintenance costs.

Route 41 has 43 bus stops north of Northgate Transit Center. The plan will remove 12 bus stops, increasing the spacing between stops from about 785 feet to about 1,110 feet.

Route 73 has 85 bus stops north of NE 50th Street, and the plan will remove 33 to increase the average spacing between stops from about 715 feet to 1,180 feet. This total includes 14 of the bus stops on 15th Avenue NE that were closed in February 2010 and are not planned to reopen.

As a result of the changes, about 16 percent of Route 41 riders who board north of Northgate Transit Center and Route 73 riders who board north of NE 50th Street will have to catch their bus at a different stop. When the project is completed, all riders should have a faster, more reliable trip.

Go here to comment.

Via Streetfilms, Seattle Bike Blog