Seattle Transit Blog covers transit news for the the greater Seattle area. The blog also focuses on density and the urban form, and other forms of alternative transportation like bicycling and walking. Below is an introduction to everyone who’s ever had a byline at Seattle Transit Blog.
Current Staff
Martin H. Duke
Editor-in-chief Martin H. Duke joined the blog in Fall 2007 when he felt he needed a bigger platform to advocate for Prop 1. He grew up outside DC, attended college near Boston, spent six months in Lawton, OK, and finally moved to the Puget Sound in 1997. He designs digital radios a couple of miles from the Eastgate Park and Ride.
Locally, he has lived in Lakewood, Belltown, Kirkland, Edmonds, and now lives near the Columbia City Station.
Commute: 8 to a carpool some days; Link to 217 on others.
Other Key Buses: 7, 9, 39, 42, 124, 150, 271, 554, 926
Ben Schiendelman
Associate Editor Ben Schiendelman joined in 2007 to better consolidate news and information about our upcoming transit expansions, and to build a better base to further grow our system. He previously wrote the blog Higher Frequency, and worked on the 2008 Mass Transit Now campaign. Ben refuses to own a driver’s license.
He lives on 1st Avenue between Virginia and Stewart and works as a software engineer in Redmond. He found his love for transit, density and walkability in Japan, on the Shinkansen and in Kyoto, and later cemented it in France, in Strasbourg and Paris.
Commute: 545 from Bellevue and Olive to Overlake every morning, and either the 545 or a carpool home.
John Jensen
Associate Editor John Jensen began contributing to the blog in 2008 in the run-up to the 2008 Prop. 1 transit package, and worked with Ben on the Mass Transit Now campaign. He grew up in the sprawl of Orange County, California before moving to the Puget Sound in 2003. John lived in Redmond and Bellevue for four years before moving to Capitol Hill, where he now resides.
John is a Software Engineer for a video game company in Belltown. His greatest interest is walkable urban areas and trying to figure how to apply those walkable models to suburbia.
Commute: 8 from Broadway & John to Denny & 1st, or biking when the sun is out and beaming.
Brian Bundridge
Contributor Brian Bundridge lives in Kent. He is particularly interested in heavy rail and the technical aspects of rail operations, and volunteers on the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad in his spare time as a conductor or engineer. He also is a very active semi-professional photographer and contributes those talents to the blog.
Brian originally ran his own Washington State Transportation blog, which was eventually merged with STB.
Brian is planning to attend Bellevue Community College this Fall to study Computer Networking and Computer Programming.
Key Buses/Trains: South Sounder, MT 158, 159, 162, 166, 183, 194, ST 564, and 565.
Adam B. Parast
Contributor Adam B. Parast is currently a graduate student at the University of Washington earning an MSCE in Transportation Engineering. He also holds a BS in Civil Engineering and an BA in Community, Environment, and Planning also from the UW. He is currently living and studying in Stockholm. He worked for WSDOT for two and a half years at the Traffic Management Center, and later worked for the Transpo Group on ITS design and non-motorized transportation planning. He is an accredited Engineer in Training. He first became involved in transportation policy in 2006 during an internship with TCC and has been hooked ever since. He currently focuses on pedestrian and bicycle transportation and facility design as well as related urban design issues. Past areas of interest are parking policy, TOD, and transit information system design.
Key Mode/Routes: Bicycle, 49, 70, and 255.
Oran Viriyincy
Contributor Oran Viriyincy is a graduate student in the UW Civil Engineering program, after living 10 years in Bangkok, a vibrant city with world-class traffic congestion that’s just beginning to expand its rail network.
Oran frequently contributes photos, video, and transit maps for the blog. He lives in Kingsgate and is an intern for the Seattle Department of Transportation downtown. (Seattle Transit Blog has a policy of full disclosure of his internship when a post of his deals with any subject pertaining to SDOT.)
Commute: 255 or 257.
Contributor Eric Butler lives on Capitol Hill and focuses on video contributions to the blog.
Sherwin Lee
Contributor Sherwin Lee is an urban planning, GIS, and architecture student at the University of Washington and currently lives in Bellevue. He has long been a transit nerd, having used to draw fantasy subway maps and take downtown tunnel buses with his grandmother. In his free time, Sherwin volunteers for the Seattle Architecture Foundation and community development organizations in the Chinatown-International District to help make local neighborhoods more walkable and livable.
Sherwin previously ran his blog Lingua Urbana, which is now being merged with STB.
Commute: 556, 271 or 550, 554, 212, 217, 218 and 71-74X series.
Past Staff
Founder and former Editor-in-chief Andrew M. Smith started the blog in April 2007, after he moved back to Seattle and discovered there was a campaign for light rail that year. Andrew grew up in Capitol Hill and Wallingford, and has lived in Tokyo, where he discovered his love for transit and walkability, and San Francisco.
He lives near the Beacon Hill station, and works as a software engineer in Redmond. Andrew stepped down from the blog in May 2009.
Commute: 242 to Overlake in the mornings; some days 545 to 43 or 48 home, some days Microsoft’s connector service.
Contributor Nick Lecarjegui was the first blogger to join Andrew at STB. He lives in Magnolia and works in South Lake Union.
Guest Contributors
We frequently accept guest contributions by authors from all walks of life that meet our editorial standards. Well-known and/or expert figures like former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, former State Transportation Commissioner Virginia Gunby, onebusaway developer Brian Ferris, Rainier Valley Post editor Amber Campbell, and Transportation Choices Coalition Policy Associate Andrew Austin have written pieces here.
There are also guest pieces by private citizens Joan Devraun, Kevin Futhey, Chris Karnes, Chad Newton, Mike Skehan, Gordon Werner, and Ben Woosley.
