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: 8 or 42 to a carpool some days; bike to 217 or 554 on others.
Other Key Routes: Link, 7, 9, 34, 39, 124.
Adam B. Parast
Associate Editor 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.
Commute: 255, most other trips are walking or biking
Sherwin Lee
Associate Editor Sherwin Lee joined the blog in Fall of 2009 after a brief stint writing independently on regional urban issues and as a community blogger with the Seattle P-I. He currently splits his time between finishing out his bachelor’s degree and working in Sound Transit’s service planning division. Sherwin has long had a passion for transit, having used to draw fantasy subway maps and take downtown tunnel buses with his grandmother.
Aside from his passion in transit and planning, his areas of research have included ethnic geography, geospatial modeling, and intra-urban migration. Sherwin has other wonky interests like public works financing, architectural history, reformed theology, and music theory. He lives in Bellevue.
Commute: 556, 271 or 550, 554, 212, 216, 218 and 71-74X series.
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.
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.
Commute: 255 or 257.
Zach Shaner
Contributor Zach Shaner sold his car to pay the rent while living in Boston in 2005, and has lived without one ever since. He found his love for transit on Boston’s MBTA, Denver’s RTD, and on Britain’s haphazardly privatized railways. He works for the City of Tukwila, marketing ORCA and RideShareOnline to South King County employers. He also spent two years (2010-2011) working for Pierce Transit developing commute options at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Zach has a master’s degree in Ecological Economics from the University of Leeds, a second master’s in Ethics from Boston University, and an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Abilene Christian University. After spending his first 19 years in Coeur d’Alene (ID), Zach has lived in Abilene (TX), Boston, Denver, Stehekin (WA), Leeds (UK), and Vancouver (BC); he has lived in Seattle since June 2009. Locally, Zach has lived in Renton Highlands, Madrona, and now Capitol Hill. He joined the blog in July 2010.
Commute: Bike/Sounder, Bike/Link/140, or Bike/150.
Key Routes: 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 43, 49, 60, 111, 150, 550, LINK, Reverse Sounder, Amtrak Cascades, ZipCar.
Contributor 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 an Operations Engineer at Amazon.com. 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: Walk to South Lake Union.
Key Routes: 2, 7, 10, 13, 15, 16, 49, 70, Link.
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.
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.
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)
Past Staff
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 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, Kevin Futhey, Chris Karnes, Dan Kostelec, Chad Newton, Mike Orr, David Seater, Mike Skehan, Renee Staton, Carl Stork, Steve “Fnarf” Thornton, Brent White, and Ben Woosley.
People interested in writing for the blog can save wasted effort by reading our guest post guidelines.
