Seattle Transit Blog is 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that 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 is an Electrical Engineer by training.
Locally, he has lived in Lakewood, Belltown, Kirkland, Edmonds, and now lives near the Columbia City Station. He has worked at Ft. Lewis, the U-District, Redmond, Kent, Renton, Tukwila, and now a couple of miles from the Eastgate Park and Ride.
Commute: some days, a combination of 7/8/9/Link to 550 and a carpool; bike to 217 or 554 on others.
Other Key Routes: 50, 124.
Sherwin Lee
Associate Editor Sherwin Lee joined the blog in the Fall of 2009 after a brief stint writing independently as a community blogger with the Seattle P-I. He graduated with honors from the University of Washington in 2012 and is currently consulting in various transit, housing, and civic projects. Sherwin has long been passionate about transit, having used to draw fantasy subway maps and take downtown tunnel buses with his grandmother.
Aside from his involvement in transit and planning, he also directs the Sunday youth ministry at his church, plays and writes music, and is a cultural diversity blogger and advocate for immigrants and ethnic groups. Sherwin has other wonky interests like ancient history, architecture and construction, graphics design, aviation, theology, politics, and music theory. He lives in Bellevue.
Commute: 212, 215, 216, 218, 246, 554, and the 550 on occasion.
Associate Editor Bruce Nourish grew up in rural England and suburban Phoenix, before discovering his love for cities and mass transit during two weekend visits to Portland and Seattle. His degree is in Physics, and he works as a Site Reliability Engineer at Google. Bruce’s posts focus on publishing and visualizing King County Metro’s data in order to discuss and advocate restructures of Seattle’s bus network to be more efficient, cost-effective and reliable. Bruce lives without a car in Belltown. He joined the blog in Summer 2011.
Commute: Bike or bus from Belltown to Fremont.
Key Routes: 2, 7, 10, 13, 15, 16, 49, 70, Link.
Contributor (and founder) 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 Scotland, Capitol Hill and Wallingford, and has lived in Tokyo, where he discovered his love for transit and walkability, and San Francisco.
Andrew stepped down from the blog in May 2009 but returned in February 2011.
Adam B. Parast
Contributor Adam B. Parast began writing for the blog in February 2009. He will hold a Masters in Transportation Engineering from the UW pending submission and acceptance of his research paper. He also holds a BS in Civil Engineering and a BA in Community, Environment, and Planning both from the UW. During the 2009-2010 academic year he studies at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden doing research on transit information.
Adam currently works for the Transpo Group in Kirkland doing non-motorized transportation planning. Former work experience includes ITS design and TMC operations at WSDOT. He currently lives on Capitol Hill, formerly living in Fremont, U District, Kirkland and Factoria.
Adam is the principal voice on STB’s twitter feed, and was a blog editor through the end of 2012.
Commute: 255, most other trips are walking or biking
Oran Viriyincy
Contributor Oran Viriyincy frequently contributes photos, video, and transit maps for the blog. He grew up in Wallingford riding the 44 and 16 and enjoyed collecting bus timetables before spending 10 years in Bangkok, where he enjoyed its chaotic vibrancy, but was frustrated with its massive gridlock and poorly-run transit system. He holds a BS and MS in Civil Engineering from the UW.
Oran currently works for CHK America, producing maps and passenger information solutions for numerous transit agencies across the United States, including LA and DC. He has been living car free in downtown Santa Barbara, California since April 2012. Prior to that, he lived in Kingsgate and was a regular rider of the 255. Previous work experience include traffic operations and safety at the City of Seattle and King County. He joined the blog in November 2008.
Ben Schiendelman
Contributor 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 found his love for transit, density and walkability in Japan, on the Shinkansen and in Kyoto, and later cemented it in France, both Strasbourg and Paris.
Ben is deeply involved in political activism for transit.
Roger Valdez
Contributor Roger Valdez is a Seattle researcher and writer with a concentration on density and land use. Roger is one of those people that believe that density—lots of people living together in a small space—solves a lot of problems all by itself.
He has a checkered academic past with degrees in philosophy and religious studies, and he spent most of the last two decades working on policy and politics in Olympia and at Seattle City Hall as a legislative staffer, lobbyist, writer, and sometimes campaign manager. He currently works at a local non-profit with a diverse portfolio including human resources, housing, and records and property management.
Commute: Roger lives on Capitol Hill and tries to avoid commuting anywhere at all costs, but when he has to, he walks or rides the 60 or the 132.
Brian Bundridge
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 contributed those talents to the blog.
Brian originally ran his own Washington State Transportation blog, which was eventually merged with STB. He stepped down in June 2010 but returned in early 2012.
Contributor Matt Gangemi is a mechanical engineer. Concern about global warming and other environmental issues led to an interest in density and urban design which further led to an interest in transit. His love for cities grew from the large portion of his life spent in the suburbs. He enjoys world travel, and offsets his carbon impact by being a vegetarian.
Commute: Carpool, bus, bike, scooter, feet, occasionally Monorail, and once by snowshoe.
Routes: 2, 2X, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 27, 99 (ok, just twice, which is probably more than you’ve ridden it)
Contributor Frank Chiachiere works in technology. He came of age riding transit in New York City and Philadelphia, and has lived in Seattle for over a decade.
Commute: 2, 3, or 4. Whichever comes first.
Contributor Matthew Johnson grew up in rural South Alabama. What began as an interest in city life and public transit piqued by visits to DC, Philly, NYC and Boston turned into a passion during a summer spent living and studying (and carless! A death sentence even in a ‘big’ city like Mobile!) in Heidelberg, Germany. He has lived off and on in the Seattle area since early 2007, finally settling down in Columbia City in April of 2012. Active in transportation issues, he is a cofounder of Seattle Subway. Starting off as commenter in the Spring of 2009 Matthew joined the staff in early 2013.
Commute: Link and the 140
Key Routes: Link, 50, 7, 9, and 8.
Past Staff
Zach Shaner
Contributor Zach Shaner began writing for the blog in July 2010. Zach has graduate degrees in Sustainability Research and Philosophy/Ethics, and an undergraduate degree in History and Philosophy. He is currently Marketing and Outreach Coordinator for Commute Seattle. Zach has also worked on transit outreach projects for the City of Tukwila and Pierce Transit. After chasing various academic pursuits in 7 states and 3 countries, he settled in Seattle in 2009, living in Capitol Hill, Madrona, and now in the Central District. See Zach on twitter (@zachshan) or on LinkedIn. He stepped down from the blog in March 2013.
John Jensen
Contributor 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. He stepped down from the blog in late 2011.
John is a Software Engineer for a video game company in Pioneer Square. His greatest interest is walkable urban areas and trying to figure how to apply those walkable models to suburbia.
Contributor Nick Lecarjegui was the first blogger to join Andrew at STB. He lives in Magnolia and works in South Lake Union.
Contributor Eric Butler lives on Capitol Hill and focused on video contributions to the blog. He contributed from 2008 to 2010.
Contributor Gordon Werner lives in the Queen Anne neighborhood. His short-lived 2007 blog on airline operations at Seatac is integrated with the STB archives. He was also a contributor in mid-2010.
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 Seattle Mayors Greg Nickels and Mike McGinn, State Representative and Congressional Candidate Marko Liias, Seattle City Councilmembers Sally Bagshaw, Tim Burgess, and Tom Rasmussen, Seattle Mayoral candidate and former Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck, Seattle City Council Candidate Brad Meacham, Bellevue City Councilmember John Chelminiak, Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond, 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 Tim Bond, Charles Cooper, Ann Dasch, Joan Devraun, former Metro driver Mark Dublin, Stephen Fesler, Matt Fewins, Kevin Futhey, Bernie Hayden, Chris Karnes, Dan Kostelec, Joe Kunzler, Chad Newton, Mike Orr, David Seater, Mike Skehan, Sarah Snider, Renee Staton, Carl Stork, Steve “Fnarf” Thornton, Jake Vanderplas, Brent White, and Ben Woosley.
People interested in writing for the blog can save wasted effort by reading our guest post guidelines.
