Link Advisory Group Reviews Chinatown, Sodo, Water Crossing Issues

at By

The railroad stations and 4th Avenue viaduct from above. Credit: Bruce Englehardt

On Monday, the Sound Transit West Seattle and Ballard Link stakeholder advisory group, which includes transit advocates, prominent community members, and business and labor leaders, moved further along the process of selecting alignments and station locations for the West Seattle and Ballard light rail lines.

In Monday’s meeting in Union Station’s Sound Transit boardroom, agency staff briefed the group on siting and alignments in Sodo and Chinatown. They also briefed the group on water crossings at Salmon Bay and the mouth of the Duwamish river.

The advisory group will eventually pass recommendations to a subcommittee of the Sound Transit board, which in turn will recommend the ultimate preferred alternative to the board as a whole.

A breakout group at work. Credit: Peter Johnson

In breakout sessions conducted over pad thai, the advisory group discussed the alignment and station locations of the new West Seattle line’s Sodo station. The advisory group also discussed the location of the new Chinatown/ID station, which will have far-reaching impacts on the future of the light rail system.

The Chinatown station, and the segment of the new line closest to it, was the subject of intense discussion, with good reason. It’s the centerpiece of the project, and it could have the most disruptive construction impacts of any Link project so far.

Tough choices for Chinatown/ID station and alignment

Concept map of the alignments. Credit: Sound Transit

The future Chinatown station is one of the most critical elements of the new Link line. It will be the southern terminus of the new downtown tunnel, the site of hundreds of thousands of intra-Link transfers every day, and the light rail network’s busiest multimodal hub, with connections to Sounder, Amtrak, public and private buses, and the Seattle streetcar.

The station and alignment’s siting and design will have permanent impact on Link’s capacity, headways, and expansion potential. Sound Transit is committed to making the Chinatown station a central transfer hub, so it has to be built adjacent to the existing Chinatown/International District Link stop next to Union Station.

Construction in Chinatown and Pioneer Square is complicated. Much of the area is infilled tideland, which would liquefy during an earthquake. Liquefaction aside, the loose soil requires deep foundations for newer construction, and would force Sound Transit to make a deep bore tunnel even deeper than in most areas of the city.

Plus, many of the buildings in the area are built on pilings, since the neighborhoods are the city’s oldest. Those pilings could be obstacles for any alignment, and might not be replaceable with a new foundation. Demolition isn’t a way out of that problem: a large slice of the area—and King Street and Union Station themselves—are historic landmarks, or in historic districts.

4th Avenue vs. 5th Avenue

Sound Transit’s “representative alignment” is under 5th Avenue, with a station perpendicular to King and Jackson streets and parallel to the current Chinatown/ID station. During the first round of outreach with the Chinatown and Pioneer Square neighborhoods, there was strong demand for siting the line and station on 4th Avenue, or under Union Station. [Read more…]

PSRC assigns federal funds to Link and four BRT projects

at By

Boarding Swift and RapidRide buses. Credit: Atomic Taco

On Thursday, the Puget Sound Regional Council’s (PSRC) Transportation Policy Board (TPB) recommended that five transit projects receive additional Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) funding in 2021-22.

The projects were part of a larger disbursement of federal transportation funds, including highway funding, which must be approved in a meeting of the PSRC’s Executive Board on July 26. Area agencies submitted proposals for a competitive bid process earlier this year.

PSRC staff selected the five projects from that group of proposals, and created an additional list of projects, including Rainier RapidRide and Colman Dock, that could receive funding should additional federal funds become available.

Three of the five projects did not get as much funding as they initially requested. Four of the five projects are for BRT, and East Link also got a boost. According to PSRC spokesperson Rick Olson, that’s because the funding competition was remarkably popular. Bidding agencies worked together to make sure that funding dollars could be used to the furthest possible extent.

“The projects that got less funding than requested this round voluntarily took cuts in order to get more projects funded,” Olson says. “We had far more funding requested than was available.”

Link in Redmond

The segment of East Link between Microsoft and downtown Redmond gets $7 million towards the Microsoft and Redmond stations and the guideway between them. According to Sound Transit’s presentation to the PSRC on the project, the Redmond funds will also be applied towards a cycle track near the downtown Redmond station, a bike and pedestrian bridge over Bear Creek, and several trail connections.

Community Transit’s Swift Orange line

[Read more…]

Fate of Center City Connector depends on Mayor’s delayed consultant report

at By

The First Hill Streetcar under construction in 2013. Credit: Gordon Werner

The Center City Connector, a streetcar on First Avenue with dedicated right of way, has an uncertain fate. Mayor Jenny Durkan halted construction of the streetcar at the end of March and ordered a project review by consulting and auditing firm KPMG. When Durkan first halted construction on the streetcar, transit advocates speculated that the pause and assessment might be a pretext for canceling the project. The delay in the report has deepened that impression.

Durkan’s office promised to make the report “available no later than June 19,” but, though a version of the report has been delivered, it has not been made public. According to Durkan’s staff, and a June 29 project update on an SDOT website, Durkan was “verbally briefed” on the project on June 19.

However, the mayor “asked for a further analysis on technical assumptions, ridership projections, operations and capital costs, and funding options, as well as more detailed information regarding additional alternatives for providing transit connections moving forward.” The review of KPMG’s findings will be conducted by city agencies including the City Budget Office, SDOT, Seattle City Light, and Seattle Public Utilities.

While the contents of the report remains unknown to the public, members of the transit policy community, who did not wish to be identified, believe that the report contains ridership projections higher than the estimates that accompanied the design stage of the CCC. 

The review of the KPMG report will “verify updated ridership projections, material costs and labor, utility relocations and project timelines for a series of options to ensure the final report is accurate for taxpayers.” Sources believe the motivation behind the second round of auditing is to find policy reasons to cancel the project. When asked for an update on Durkan’s decision, the mayor’s staff directed STB to the June 29 statement.

If the project is cancelled, more than the 1st Avenue streetcar might be in jeopardy. Members of the transit community and the city’s D.C. lobbyist worry that turning down federal money for the streetcar could endanger federal funding for other regional transit projects.

Even if the streetcar is not built, the city will still have spent a substantial amount of money. The city has already paid for some utility work and is already on the hook for a total of $90 million of contracts, including an SDOT contract to purchase vehicles. Ironically, if the mayor chooses to cancel the project because of cost, a large amount money will have been spent for nothing.

Mercer Island Giving LimeBike a Try

at By

LimeBike at UW Station

Last year Mercer Island settled its lawsuit with Sound Transit for some money to improve access issues for the future Mercer Island Station. I’m pleased to say that one of those programs will be easy to like: a 25-Ebike pilot program with Limebike, running from mid-July to mid-October.

The Mercer Island Reporter says that Limebike would have shared data, responded to safety and parking issues within time limits, and rebalanced bikes weekly for free. For a monthly subsidy of up to $1,625, Limebike will rebalance bikes every weekday. Enter the settlement money.

Riders will pay the usual E-Bike rate of $1 plus 15 cents per minute.

Most of Mercer Island’s road network is poorly optimized for buses. Alternative measures like this one come at nominal cost and are likely to somewhat improve transit accessibility on the island. Unfortunately, it’s not clear there are enough “reverse commuters” heading deeper into the community in the morning to insure adequate turnover of bikes and reliable supply in the afternoon. The City should do what it can to encourage trips other than peak-direction commutes to make this a program that helps more than 25 people a day.

This Year’s Climate Initiative

at By

“AirPollutionSource”. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

True to their word, climate activists that found reasons to oppose I-732’s carbon tax have gathered the signatures for a new measure, I-1631. It’s now virtually assured of appearing on your November 2018 ballot.

The measure would levy a “pollution fee” on the carbon content of all consumed fossil fuels, and electricity generated or imported here. On January 1, 2020, this would be $15 per ton of Carbon. In each new year, this would increase by $2/ton plus inflation, until Washington’s mandated 2035 greenhouse gas goals are met, and the board judges that compliance with the 2050 goals is likely.

The revenue, after administrative costs, has numerous specified uses. The Department of Commerce would develop a budget (“investment plan”) for approval by a Board appointed by the governor. Some limits on the spending:

  • 70% must be used for “clean air and clean energy”, broadly defined as projects that can reduce emissions. The definition of these projects is very long, but includes public and nonmotorized transportation, as well as “affordable transit-oriented housing”. The investment plan must reduce annual carbon emissions by 20m metric tons in 2035 and 50m tons in 2050. 15% of this fund must “directly reduce the energy burden of people with lower incomes.” Beginning in the mid-2020s, a further $50m of this fund would be dedicated to support workers leaving the fossil fuel industry.
  • 25% is for “clean water and healthy forests” to improve their resilience to climate change and ocean acidification.
  • 5% is for “healthy communities,” basically wildfire preparedness and relocating tribes threatened by sea level rise.

There are further restrictions: 35% of the total must be spent to benefit “pollution and health action areas” (read: poor census tracts) and 10% must be supported with a formal resolution of an Indian tribe.

Utilities can get pollution fee credits for some carbon reduction activities. There are other fuel exemptions for fossil fuels to be exported, aircraft fuels, fuels for “agricultural purposes,” coal plants that will close by 2025, and so on.

This is not a perfect measure: in my view, it would be better to focus the spending more on maximizing carbon reduction and less on carving out funding for various constituencies. But this is a standard that little legislation can pass: building a coalition requires compromises. In any case, the spending seems remarkably focused on emissions reduction and mitigating climate impacts.

This measure would support transit use and dense neighborhoods in two directions, by both discouraging more energy-intensive versions of traveling and living, and providing direct funding to increase the supply of both.

Most importantly, as with I-732, the critical thing is to address the emergency of climate change and not obsess over secondary political priorities. It’s clear that conservatives won’t embrace a climate action plan that addresses many of their policy priorities, so the only coalition that can do something about this issue is one that embraces the entire center and left. This is a good initiative. But even if you have reservations, I urge you to support it strongly if you want Washington to do something about climate change.

Study: Uber Can Boost Transit Ridership, But It Increases Congestion

at By

By Hipsta.space [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

According to a University of Toronto paper published in June, the growth of Uber has increased transit ridership in cities across the United States, with some caveats.

The conclusions of the paper support the premise behind last-mile pilot projects on Mercer Island and in Pierce County, and backs up Lyft’s strategy to integrate ride hailing with public transit. It also validates certain parts of Mayor Jenny Durkan’s controversial proposal to reappropriate Seattle Transportation Benefit District funds towards last mile service at Rainier Valley Link stations.

The paper posits that “Uber reduces transit ridership in smaller MSAs [Metropolitan Statistical Areas] while increasing ridership in larger cities.” The paper also finds that Uber has a greater ridership effect on rail lines and in wealthier areas.

In cities with a robust transit network, Uber is more likely to become a viable last-mile option. In that context, Uber can and does amplify the marginal value of reserving exclusive right of way for transit, as “results suggest that Uber reduced commute times for public transit users while increasing congestion.”

[Read more…]

News Roundup: Attracting Imitators

at By

Route 410 at Westlake Park

Route 410 in Westlake Park by SounderBruce in the Flickr pool

This is an open thread.

Convention Place Station Set To Close Permanently on July 21

at By

Convention Place Station, not long for this world

Mark your calendars for July 21. That’s the date that Convention Place Station will close permanently, heralding the upcoming end of bus service through the downtown transit tunnel.

As we mentioned last month, buses will access the tunnel using a temporary ramp from 9th Avenue between Pine Street and Olive Way. The ramp is nearing completion and the adjacent bus stops, located on 9th Avenue on the north side of Pine Street, will be installed in the coming weeks.

After the changeover takes effect, all seven bus routes in the tunnel will use these two bus stops, eliminating the long-standing tradition of spotting the next inbound bus from the mezzanine level before rushing down the stairs to one of three bays. According to Metro’s Jeff Switzer, the new stops will appear as time points in GTFS data (including One Bus Away) in early August and on printed timetables in September, but until then we can use the 3-to-5 minute delay for peak trips spelled out by the convention center environmental review.

[Read more…]

Call for Primary Endorsements

at By

Credit: Secretary of State’s website

For the ten years this blog has existed, STB has been offering endorsements in public elections.

This year, we are planning to be a little more nuanced, and offer some ratings in various races, along with endorsements where there is a clear and obvious best choice. We look solely at the candidates’ records and positions on transportation and land-use policy, and only at candidates who have a credible chance of getting elected. While the generic Democrat is superior to the generic Republican on these issues, we’re focused on races where there is something more than party difference.

For the primary election, we are looking at races where there are at least three credible choices, such as the Congressional District 8 open race.

Are there races where you think there is a candidate who merits our endorsement? Are there races where you want us to do a run-down on the candidates and offer ratings? Let us know in the comments below.

You can peruse the list of candidates by county, or at the state level.

The deadline to register online to vote in the August 7 primary election is today.

What’s in the One Center City Action Plan

at By

The One Center City (OCC) Advisory Group, tasked with developing a plan to increase mobility in central Seattle during the impending period of maximum constraint, released its recommendations for near term capital projects in June. The plan must still be approved by the Seattle City Council and other stakeholders.

Early discussions proposed transformational changes downtown and large-scale bus service restructuring, neither of which materialized in the final list of projects and improvements.

The OCC group was formed in order to proactively keep megaproject-related pain to a minimum over the course of 2019-21. During that time, Highway 99 will move from the viaduct to the new deep-bore tunnel, the Washington State Convention Center expansion will close critical parts of the grid, a critical bridge in South Lake Union will be closed and rebuilt, and the transit tunnel will close to buses forever.

5th and 6th Avenue northbound lanes; 4th and 2nd Avenue improvements

The most significant changes that the OCC group endorsed are northbound transit-only lanes on 5th and 6th Avenues. Some Metro routes will move to those streets from 4th, while Community Transit and Sound Transit buses would remain in their original configuration.

The hope is that the 4th Avenue buses will benefit from a lower volume of bus traffic. SDOT would also invest in queue jumping and signal priority for buses on both 2nd and 4th. However, since overall traffic on all downtown streets is expected to increase during the period of maximum constraint, the gains for 4th Avenue buses might be marginal.

The OCC group punted on major proposals

[Read more…]

News Roundup: Payroll Tax

at By

End of the Line for @KCMetroBus 124 at Tukwila Station

KC Metro Bus 124 at the end of the line by AvGeekJoe in the STB Flickr Pool

This is an open thread

Puget Sound region added most U.S. transit boardings in 2016-17

at By

Rush hour buses on 3rd Avenue. Credit: Bruce Englehardt.

The Puget Sound region’s transit investments are paying off. In recent years, ridership has grown faster in the Seattle region than anywhere else in the United States, according to the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC.)

That trend is true over the long term, as total ridership in the Puget Sound region has grown by 19 percent since 2010. That growth is larger than any U.S. peer city’s over the same timeframe. In the short term, Puget Sound transit agencies saw a larger absolute increase in boardings—5,108,582—than any other urban area in the United States during 2016-2017.

[Read more…]

East Link News: Downtown Redmond Almost Ready For Proposals, Construction Elsewhere Progressing

at By

The future Bellevue Downtown Station, at the north end of the almost finished tunnel

Last Thursday, the Sound Transit Board was briefed about progress on East Link and the related Downtown Redmond Link Extension. East Link construction has been well underway for a few months, with visible progress from Mercer Island to Overlake, while the Downtown Redmond extension is still in early design and is awaiting the publication of supplemental environmental documents.

For the Downtown Redmond extension, Sound Transit plans to release a request for proposals (RFP) in October that will kickstart the selection process for the project’s design-build contract. Similar to the contract used to build South 200th/Angle Lake, the design of the stations and construction of the entire project will be left to a single contractor and would compress part of the planning timeline. Sound Transit expects to have development agreements with the City of Redmond, King County, and WSDOT in place by early next year. The 3.4-mile Downtown Redmond extension is expected to begin construction sometime next year and open in 2024, with two stations and 1,400 total parking spaces.

[Read more…]

Podcast #63: On an Optimistic Note

at By

  • 0:00 – intro
  • 2:19 – CCC to Trolleybus
  • 9:19 – ORCA
  • 10:50 – Gondola
  • 15:41 – Montlake transfers
  • 22:48 – Northgate truncation?
  • 27:04 – Strategies for advocacy
  • 31:15 – Rainier BRT
  • 32:25 – CCC’s future
  • 33:39 – link transfers
  • 40:09 – Colman dock
  • 42:10 – escalators in link stations
  • 43:53 – advocacy for HOV lanes
  • 50:06 – miderm elections
  • 52:04 – Sounder expansion
  • 54:44 – Northgate Link restructure

Apologies for the audio quality on my end… Skype wasn’t cooperating.

ORCAized RRFPs Now Free For the First One

at By

As part of the fare restructure that brought King County Metro’s $2.75 regular flat fare, effective this week, King County Metro has gotten all four counties in the ORCA pod to make the first Regional Reduced Fare Permit free for each recipient, also effective this week.

Regional Reduced Fare Permits are for seniors 65 or older, or riders with a qualifying disability.

The original proposal was just going to cover King County. Now Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap Counties are all waiving the $3 RRFP fee for first-time recipients, as well as for renewing expired RRFP ORCAs. Trading in non-ORCA RRFPs for the ORCAized version has also long been free.
[Read more…]

Submit Podcast Mailbag Questions Here

at By

Frank and I are going to tape another podcast mailbag. Please put your questions in the comments below this afternoon. As always, try to keep it to a single question, and make it one that can actually be answered. Thanks.

Olympia Quietly Helps Affordable Housing

at By

Before and After (Mt. Baker Housing/Mithun Architecture)

Transit and Urbanism advocates are used to a defensive crouch when hearing news from Olympia. But buried in a supplemental budget earlier this spring, the Departments of Ecology and Commerce created a great new program.

The Governor’s Budget request included $7.4m for the Healthy Housing Remediation Program (HHRP) . Nonprofit organizations identify contaminated sites that would be good candidates for affordable housing, and the Program selects some to clear up to reduce costs of that development. The first round of applications was due Saturday. Scott O’Dowd of the Department of Ecology says that two applications are submitted, and three more requested an extension to tomorrow. They span the state from Kennewick to Bremerton, and include a project in Seattle’s Chinatown.

The prototype for this approach is happening at Mt. Baker. Ecology is cleaning up the legacy of a gas station and dry cleaner on behalf of Mt. Baker Housing. In addition to planning grants for the process described above, the appropriation awarded $6.2m for this. This will enable construction of Maddux: a 144-unit, $55m affordable project to begin in 2019 and open in 2021.

The Maddux is unusual: the process for nonprofits to get State grants requires them to go through their municipal government to create a “Redevelopment Opportunity Zone”, a process that few can complete.  Historically, Ecology has cleaned up a site and then passed on the cost to a market-rate developer, resulting in less affordable units, O’Dowd said. The HHRP will dramatically streamline this process, though much depends on Ecology’s 2019 budget request this fall.

There’s no telling how many seemingly obvious development opportunities are wasting away due to these kinds of obstacles. It’s great to see the State stepping to up to address contamination issues that affect the entire community, since the actual perpetrators are long gone.