Transportation Choices Coalition is hiring a new Policy Director:
The Policy Director is a senior member of the staff leadership team and will lead our policy strategies at the regional, state, and (limited) federal level work. The Policy Director is responsible for developing and implementing Transportation Choices Coalition’s (TCC) policy programs including legislative session in partnership with our contract lobbyist in Olympia, working with statewide agencies and stakeholder groups, working with staff members of Washington’s federal delegation, building political support for our agenda; developing messages; running the policy component of legislative, issue-based, and ballot measure campaigns; organizing legislative coalition partners around our priorities; directing policy interns; increasing accountability with elected officials around transit issues; and interacting with the media. We seek a dynamic individual with 7+ years of transportation, public policy, government relations, or experience in a related field to lead our policy programs. Some direct lobbying and/or legislative experience is also a must.
For many of this blog’s issues, TCC is the strongest advocate we have at the state level. For more information and to apply, click here.
CT brings the data to explain route reductions on “minor” holidays.
OneBusAway gets a lot of love in The Atlantic, including friend of STB Brian Ferris. But there’s pushback to the idea that it is more important than frequent service.
The percentage of Seattle’s land area where affordable housing is legal is pathetically low. Maybe — just maybe — that creates housing affordability problems?
Tacoma Link tracks and Freighthouse Square from Tacoma Dome Station (Flickr User Aleferrari)
Following the negative reaction elicited by the state’s first conceptual designs for Tacoma’s Freighthouse Square — which would have demolished the westernmost half of the structure, WSDOT is starting over. In addition to the city trying to hire their own architect for the project, tomorrow and again next Thursday WSDOT will hold two public meetings to hear your ideas for station design. More details and commentary below the fold. Continue reading “Tacoma Amtrak Station Design Meeting Tomorrow”
Upton Sinclair said “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” Here are official USDOT vehicle forecasts compared to actual traffic data.
Note that only March 2001 to November 2001 and Dec 2007 to June 2009 were recessions. More over at Sightline, who provided the graph.
This is actually important, because we wouldn’t think we need huge highway mega-projects if it weren’t for these forecasts.
Reading about last week’s low-rise zoning public meeting is enough to lose your faith in humanity, but it’s worth thinking about what the purpose of community input is. As usual, Matt Yglesias has some interesting thoughts on this subject:
Q: What do you think are the best practices for urban planning and community input and cooperation? So often, great plans are defeated or watered down [because] of a very vocal minority.
I think it’s important for people to think harder about what the point of community input is. Presumably the idea is that you don’t want outsiders who may not understand the situation to run roughshod over existing residents like in some of these urban renewal nightmare stories. But that means you actually want to get a valid sample of the population, not just whichever subset of the population happens to have the time and inclination to come to meetings. And you also have to listen to what people are specifically saying—are they bringing new information to light, or are they simply advancing very narrow interests… It’s good to listen to everyone, but that doesn’t mean you have to do what they want.
Although I agree with everything above, the case for public meetings deserves a more thorough interrogation than to wave generically at 1960s urban renewal. Whether it’s a transportation project or a development, the greatest value of public meetings is facts, not opinions. How do people use the space? What trips do they make? What little-understood but much-loved institution will the project destroy that a simple change in the plan could save?
If the intention of a project is to benefit the current residents of a particular neighborhood, then it’s important that someone there actually values the improvement. However, many city projects ought not to be specifically intended to benefit the current residents of a particular neighborhood.
Take the example of bringing low-income housing to a relatively wealthy area. There are concrete reasons to oppose low-income housing, beyond prejudice and aesthetics. Living in a neighborhood with variety of incomes and cultures isn’t for everyone. Moreover, low incomes often bring social problems and lower property values.
I think most readers won’t be particularly moved by those points. Building low-income housing is is about accommodating future residents, meeting the city’s broader social justice goals, and maintaining the city’s diversity, not protecting home values. There’s nothing magical about the neighborhood as a unit of decision, in particular when its intent is measured with deeply flawed public meeting tools, when the city’s robust democratic institutions have decided on a different course.
Which it makes it all the more astounding that when the issue isn’t low-income housing, for many people the much lower-stakes concerns about “scale” and “character” overwhelm the enormous objective advantages of denser housing.
King County Metro has a revenue crisis. They are currently facing a $75 million annual shortfall, and without a new source of revenue, they will be forced to institute a 17% cut in service hours.
Most of Metro’s money comes from taxes and fares. So if Metro needs new revenue, then it’s only logical to look to these sources. King County is actively working on a plan to raise the sales tax and the vehicle license fee (paid annually on vehicle registration renewal) to address this shortfall, as well as providing some additional money for local road maintenance. I strongly support their efforts, and will enthusiastically vote for the measure when it hits my ballot.
However, there’s something that’s always bugged me about Metro’s fare structure. If Alice rides the bus for two stops, and Bob rides for 15 miles, they both pay the same $2.25 fare. (And if Bob has a monthly pass, he may end up paying less than Alice on a per-trip basis.) No other transportation service works like this. Taxi fares are based on distance and time. Toll roads cost more the further you drive. Airlines set fares based on costs and demand. Long-distance trains and buses, commuter rail… the list goes on. Only local transit networks have flat fares. Continue reading “Financially Sustainable Transit”
The “Advisory Committee on Tolling and Traffic Management” met Tuesday and the notes are up online now. A draft recommendation for the tolls was presented and there are a few interesting bits of information in the recommendation:
The tunnels would be $1 for off-peak and $1.25 for preak, because anything higher would be an extreme deterrent to using the tunnel.
About a third of the tolling money would be eaten up with collection cost.
Over 30 years, $150 million would go to transit, or $5 million per year.
$200 million would go to construction costs for the tunnel, which is supposed to cost $3.1 billion
In order to raise $1.1 billion off a $1 toll, you need a billion trips, which over 30 years works out to 91,300 a day or so. That seems a little high to me, but we’ll see. If their estimates are anything like the SR-520 numbers, it’s going to be tough to get all that money. If the toll revenue comes up short, I would hope that the transit funding is preserved, but I guess will have to see about that, too.
Another month, another double digit weekday ridership gain for Link.
November’s Central Link Weekday/Saturday/Sunday boardings were 29,289/26,073/15,508, growth of 11.8%, 32.3%, and -7.6% respectively over November 2012. Sounder’s weekday boardings were up 8.8% (up 8% on the South Line, 1% North Line). Total Tacoma Link ridership was down 6.4% with weekday ridership declining 4.6%. Weekday ST Express ridership was up 7.7%, with most growth occurring on East King, South King and Pierce routes. Complete November Ridership Summary here.
Link has seen double digit weekday ridership growth fourteen out of the past seventeen months.
In my post Saturday on project management challenges at WSDOT, I included a photo with a caption suggesting the coffer cell was not supposed to fall over as depicted. Although it was an attempt at levity, the coffer cell was indeed intended to fall over. You can find more information on the coffer cell here.
I have corrected the original post and regret the error.
While we’re on the topic of WSDOT’s photos, I recommend their flickr sets. In particular, this one on the SR-99 tunnel has some really impressive shots.
Transportation Choices Coalition is hiring a new Policy Director:
Another month, another double digit weekday ridership gain for Link.
