Sound Transit Looking to Improve Passenger Information Systems

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e to Bea

In a Request for Proposals released April 13th, Sound Transit outlined a set of system upgrades for its passenger information systems (PIMS). The most visible component of these systems are the realtime arrival information for ST trains and buses, but they also include backend systems that collect and process the data. This project has three major components: real-time prediction enhancements, better schedule integration, and cross mode messaging, integrating data from multiple transit modes into a single enterprise system. The contract will replace the Public Address system and the station Variable Message Signs currently in place for Link, Sounder and Tacoma Link. Bringing all of this data in to a single combined system may require new or augmented data collection equipment (e.g. tracking or passenger counters).

Passenger-facing improvements include provisions for communicating train size, passenger load, and out-of-service indicators, among a long list of other datapoints. Information would be displayed on station signage, the Sound Transit website, on One Bus Away, and in GTFS/R feeds that interface with third-party services such as Google Transit.

East Link’s budget already funds augmenting the current system to support multiple lines serving the same station. The current two-minute warning announcements would be modified to announce the train’s destination and line color. If the RFP failed for some reason, the existing project would still support multiple lines, while riders would not enjoy any benefits of a more modern information system.

Sound Transit notes that the current Link passenger information system is approaching the end of its life (though some readers may proclaim that has already passed). Replacing the entire PIMS is a disruptive task and Sound Transit has wisely identified that the best time to complete a major overhaul would be in conjunction with the opening of East Link, when major modifications would have been taking place anyways.

The project is backed by lifecycle replacement funds that periodically repair and replace aging equipment as well as a portion of ST3’s technological innovations budget. This RFP covers Link, Tacoma Link and Sounder. Future RFPs will bring ST Express and ST’s future BRT lines in to this system. The RFP boldly states that “multiple, unintegrated systems does not satisfy the [requirements],” but then admits that implementation may come in multiple phases, thus diluting–or at least postponing–the very goal this and the future RFP set out to achieve.

Work on the project is scheduled to begin in 2019; proposers have been asked to offer implementation schedules that deliver benefits as early as realistically achievable. However, some aspects have hard deadlines to coincide with the launch of East Link service.

The full list of features the contract is looking to provide looks like it was lifted out of STB comment threads, and is listed after the break:

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News Roundup: Expensive Bike Lanes

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Route 410 at Westlake Park

This is an open thread

Route 401 at Westlake Park by SounderBruce, STB Flickr Pool

The First Hill Debacle Upends Everything We Knew About ST

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walksheds

A station east of I-5 vastly expands the area of Central Seattle served by light rail

I have long been skeptical that Sound Transit would build a First Hill light rail station. When the staff doesn’t want to do something, it takes a combination of grassroots pressure and an aggressive leader to make them do it. For over a year, there was no organized campaign and no elected champion for the neighborhood. Threats to project revenue and a desire to quickly eliminate alternatives worked against introducing new ideas. Although we always knew the ST sausage making process was subject to the whims of coalition-building, we at least believed we understood it.  The First Hill saga reveals that there’s no real process at all.

Frank has already covered most of the hypocrisy: a legal standard for deviating from the representative alignment never used in previous Sound Transit measures, missing from assurances in 2016 when they needed your vote, and indeed ignored in this very same meeting; summary rejection due to increased costs, as other alignments passed with vague hopes they could find the money; and concern-trolling about the cost and effort of studying a single First Hill alternative, immediately followed by waving through six ways to get into Ballard. I am not a lawyer, but applying spurious and inconsistent standards is probably better grounds for a lawsuit then any invented constraints from the ballot measure.

But perhaps the most astounding result is that First Hill did organize, no institutional opposition emerged, Joe McDermott and Sally Bagshaw recognized the enormous potential of the station, and still the Sound Transit staff and its elected allies found reasons to dismiss this alternative that apparently didn’t apply to any other part of town. Both ordinary residents and big institutional employers on First Hill showed up to testify, and what they said was well-informed and accurate. Most of Sound Transit’s foul-weather friends explicitly urged a close look at First Hill’s potential. Even the DSA — arguably the injured party if the station moved outside the downtown core — supported the effort. And yet, that coalition got much less out of Sound Transit than a bunch of angry Kirkland residents that flouted their City Council to keep transit as far from their homes as possible.

The Sound Transit Board will be briefed on the recommendations this afternoon, and gets the final say next month. Though the chances First Hill gets to Level 2 analysis are slim, a Sound Transit analysis would not be likely to favor the station anyway. A line that poaches many of its riders from the existing train can look good in a superficial study, one that doesn’t place adequate weight on riders added to the system from an extraordinarily dense housing and jobs center. Few who witnessed last Thursday’s motivated reasoning would expect the planners to make this subtle distinction and choose correctly.

First Hill’s organizing efforts are likely to result in some sort of concession to the neighborhood, as the Streetcar as currently implemented is largely a failure. This might involve Madison BRT, already planned to be less reliable or frequent than Link, and with another round of Durkan value engineering likely ahead. Even in the best case, First Hill will be an additional transfer from most regional destinations. To take a simple example, hospital workers taking Sounder up from South King County will have to choose between a two-seat ride from King Street and a circuitous, congested route on the streetcar. Those people weren’t represented Thursday, save by Dow Constantine, and they’re among those who will pay the highest price.

Backyard Cottages Would Help Affordability

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Houses in Laurelhurst, 1955

In September 2014, when the median single family home price in Seattle was $431,000, the city council passed a resolution aimed at increasing Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs).  In 2016, when the home price was $513,000, neighborhood activists sued to stop the policy, forcing the city to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS).  Now, in 2018, as the single family home price cruises past $800,000, the Draft EIS has been released.

Erica has the a great explanation of how the EIS functions as an indictment of exclusionary zoning.  It states pretty plainly that detached single family houses are only affordable to the wealthy, and allowing more diverse housing types in single-family zones would (a) not materially impact parking, (b) spur the production of thousands of affordable units, (c) result in fewer tear-downs of existing houses, and (d) make single family zones more diverse and inclusive.

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Worker Dies After Fall from East Link Guideway in Overlake

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East Link crossing of 148th Avenue

Early Tuesday morning, a construction foreman for Kiewit-Hoffman was killed after falling 30 to 40 feet from a column on the East Link guideway, near the 148th Avenue interchange on State Route 520 in Overlake. The accident, only the second fatal incident at a Sound Transit construction site, triggered a one-day halt in girder work on the Overlake segment and an investigation by the Department of Labor and Industries according to KOMO.

The Times reports ($) that there are 100 workers involved in the Overlake segment of the East Link project and they will be given time to mourn before returning to work and being interviewed by investigators. In statements to KING 5, Kiewit and Sound Transit sent condolences to the worker’s family and friends and their shared commitment to a safe work environment for employees and the public.

We at STB would also like to express our condolences to the worker’s family and friends and express our gratitude towards those who are helping build out our regional transit system.

New RapidRide H Alternative Passes Burien City Council

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King County Metro RapidRide 2013 New Flyer DE60LFR 6089

After returning with additional modifications, Metro gained approval from the Burien City Council for RapidRide H improvements (previous coverage here).  See Omaha Sternberg on Twitter for the play-by-play.  You can read Metro’s full proposal (Alternative C) on the Burien website (PDF).

RapidRide H, the upgraded version of Metro Route 120, will use Business Access and Transit (BAT) lanes for much of its route through Burien, thanks to the rechannelization scheme that passed the council last night.  Ambaum Way SW, which is five lanes wide in many areas, will get BAT lanes, two general purpose (GP) lanes, and a center turn lane.  Previous alternatives proposed more aggressive rechannelization.  The new Alternative C has no real road “diets,” since no lanes are being removed, they are simply being repurposed for BAT use.  The main exception is a short, curved stretch of Ambaum Way, which will go from 4 lanes to 3.  I’m not personally familiar with this stretch, but the fact that someone thought to put concrete barriers between the road and the sidewalk certainly suggests that it has serious safety issues.

To ameliorate motorists’ concerns about being stuck behind the bus, Metro will avoid placing bus stops in areas where the road narrows to “only” 3 or 4 lanes.  That will mean stop spacing approaching half a mile in some spots, which is normal for rapid transit but has not been the norm for RapidRide.

The new alternative will only slow cars by 5-8%, while decreasing bus travel times by 13% in both directions.  New pedestrian crossings and signals will further enhance safety.   RapidRide H will launch in 2020; Metro projects 12,800 riders by 2023.

Photo by Zach Heistand, via STB Flickr Pool

A Photo Tour of Northgate Link

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Northgate Station, still under construction

Northgate Link is slowly inching its way towards completion, still scheduled for June 2021, but a substantial amount of progress can be seen from street level. This photo tour will hopefully be the beginning of a semi-regular series to track construction progress on Link’s extensions, for the benefit of readers who aren’t up for a long journey to the future stations or don’t continually refresh the construction cameras every few minutes.

If you’d like to do your own photowalk near light rail construction, I’ll be offering tips and my recommendations for good views. As a general precaution, always stay in open public areas, keep your hands off fences, and listen to on-site workers to avoid misunderstandings. Photographers with large cameras tend to make people nervous, so you may run into occasional conflicts, but often people are open to a little small-talk if you aren’t acting suspiciously.

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Elected Leaders Bail on First Hill Station

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Last Thursday, the Sound Transit 3 “Elected Leadership Group,” a supergroup of local elected officials (the Infinity War of transit oversight, if you will), met to consider which of Sound Transit’s Level 1 alternatives should advance to Level 2.  The ELG’s recommendations, like those of the nonelected “Stakeholder Advisory Group,” are nonbinding.  The final decision will be left to the ST Board (which includes several ELG members).

The meeting centered on the SAG’s Level 1 feedback with regards to West Seattle, SODO, Downtown, and Ballard, but the most contentious discussion involved whether to move forward with analysis of an 8th & Madison station on First Hill.  Seattle Councilmember Sally Bagshaw and King County Councilmember Joe McDermott both expressed interest in serving the First Hill neighborhood, noting it has the highest residential density and lowest car ownership in the city (and probably the state?). However, the deeper First Hill station would, according to staff, present construction challenges (including two I-5 crossings).

More controversial, however, is whether moving the station to First Hill would qualify as a bait-and-switch in the eyes of the voters (cost and ridership would matter as well). Sound Transit’s general council, Desmond Brown, testified that the question is whether a voter could look at the station and agree that it was what they voted for.  On the one hand it’s just a couple of blocks (from 5th to 8th Avenue), but it would mean moving the station to a different urban village, which could be seen as a material difference.

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Pierce Transit Experimenting with Lyft Rides

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Beginning Monday, potential riders in some areas of Pierce County will have the option of a free Lyft ride to or from a nearby transit hub. The Federal Transit Administration is providing the $205,000 for this one-year pilot. From the press release:

The Limited Access Connection project’s goals include addressing mobility challenges for those with limited or no access to transit; finding solutions for the growing problem of at-capacity Park & Rides; reducing road congestion by getting more people on transit; guaranteeing a ride home for those traveling outside regular bus service hours; and meeting the transportation needs of more remote riders. These objectives are unique in that they are focused on helping connect people to/from transit.

The concept is pretty simple. If you’re in one of the shaded areas, you can request a Lyft ride with a special promo code, as long as your destination is one of the designated transit stops. Similarly, you can travel from one of those hubs to one of the areas. Riders are limited to a total of 48 free rides per month.

Regrettably, the rules get a bit more complicated than that. 4 of the promo codes apply seven days a week, while 2 others (18RAIDERS and 18FIFEPUY) are weekday only. The hours are different for each: most cover the bulk of the day, but 18RAIDERS is only from 8:30-10:30pm when bus service to the campus stops.

Creative ways to solve last-mile problems are great, and spending $205,000 on this sure beats building 2 or 3 park and ride spaces. I doubt that having this service be entirely free is sustainable, but one hopes it’s successful enough for PT to find some way to keep it going.

Whether or not things pencil out in 2018, this is probably the future of exurban and rural transit. Assuming that automated cars are ultimately workable, it’s hard to see why transit agencies would continue to operate traditional buses on low-volume coverage routes, even as the major trunk lines will still require large vehicles. Whether those vehicles are best actually owned and maintained by the agency or a contractor is an open question. This and the 10 other pilots nationwide may help to answer it.

Wheelchair-accessible vehicles are available by phone, though not through the Lyft app. Smartphone-less riders can also use the phone or a webpage.

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FTA Awards $75 Million For Hilltop Link Extension in Tacoma

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Tacoma Link on Commerce Street

On Monday, Sound Transit announced that it had received a $75 million Small Starts grant from the FTA for the Tacoma Link Extension, which will extend the current streetcar-like Tacoma Link through the Stadium District and Hilltop neighborhood west of downtown. This project isn’t to be confused with the Tacoma Dome Link Extension, which will bring real Link light rail trains from Federal Way to Tacoma Dome Station, where passengers can transfer over to Tacoma Link.

The Small Starts grant was originally approved by Congress last year and will cover about a third of the project’s $217 million budget, which includes contributions from Sound Transit 2 ($94 million) and the City of Tacoma ($48 million). Sound Transit says that the grant will enable construction to begin later this year and wrap up in 2022. The project will extend Tacoma Link by 2.4 miles and add six new stations, plus the relocated Theater District station (which will be renamed to Old City Hall), serving several hospitals on “Medical Mile”. Once the Hilltop extension is completed, Tacoma Link trains will run at a frequency of 10 minutes and begin charging a fare, which is currently waived thanks to a donation from the Tacoma Business Improvement Area.

News Roundup: Glossy Treatment

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Double talls on the Stewart offramp

This is an open thread.

Photo by SounderBruce in the STB Flickr Pool

Becoming an STB Volunteer Writer

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It’s come to my attention that our hiring of a paid staff reporter has introduced a little confusion into the process for volunteer contributors. Transit enthusiasts who are not seeking payment for writing, and are able to commit to contributing articles on a regular basis, are welcome to start the much simpler process to join the STB volunteer staff:

  1. Open a Page 2 account.
  2. Write an article, save it in draft, and email contact@seattletransitblog.com. Do NOT publish it.
  3. If it meets our standards, after some editing, we’ll publish it as a guest post on the front page. If there is a sustained rate of guest posting, on the order of once per month or greater, the writer will be invited on staff.

Being a volunteer staff writer has a few advantages. You get direct access to the front page. Most enthusiasts would probably enjoy access to the staff group, which has a lively internal communication channel and a few social events.

I’ve found that the ability to write well on this subject and the drive to do so, for free, on a regular basis is a rare combination. If you think you fit the description, it would benefit the organization and the transit community for you to give it a shot.

Book Launch & Panel Discussion: Free Public Transit

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by KATIE WILSON

There’s a new book out called Free Public Transit: And Why We Don’t Pay to Ride Elevators.

On Monday, May 21st, the Transit Riders Union is hosting a book launch and a panel discussion of past, present and future efforts to advance the vision of free public transit here in the Seattle area. The event will be held 6:00-8:00pm at University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE. You can RSVP on Facebook here.

Panelists will include Rosalie Ray, author of one of the book’s chapters; Ifrah Abshir, a leader in the successful campaign to win transit passes for Seattle public school students; City Councilmembers Mike O’Brien and Teresa Mosqueda; and several more guests. I will emcee the event.

The book explores the winning strategies and pitfalls of case studies of free public transit ranging across thirteen countries: the United States, Montreal, Toronto, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, China, France, Belgium, and Germany. As much a manifesto as a guide, this explosive book, the first ever on the topic in English, is written for those who want to truly revolutionise their city and move it forward.

Katie Wilson is General Secretary of the Transit Riders Union.

Designing ST3 for the Future

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Train stations, circa 1911

by Jon Scholes, President / CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association

Thanks to businesses, elected leaders and community groups that shaped and endorsed it, Sound Transit 3 is moving forward, with planned expansion to Ballard, West Seattle through downtown in the form of a new tunnel.

Community leaders from across Seattle have thoughtfully considered the future of our growing city as they reviewed numerous options for stations and alignments. Their recommendations for additional study are excellent and should be adopted by the Sound Transit board.

ST3 was a bold bet on the future of our city and region, and the vision and leadership that got us to this point must continue as we design and build the system.  Light rail helps make a place, meaning we have an obligation to build a system that thoughtfully integrates into the communities it connects. Light rail helps make a city, so we must consider how our city will be in 20-50 years and build the system for that need. Light rail helps people make connections, meaning the system we build should maximize connectivity for the most people with the greatest ease.

As Sound Transit stakeholders and leaders make decisions on next steps, the following considerations are important to realizing these principles:

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Everett & Subarea Equity

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Everett Station will be the northern terminus of the Link light rail network in 2036 (Image: SounderBruce)

A week ago, the Everett Herald carried an Op-Ed by three Sound Transit Board members from Snohomish County. The authors, Paul Roberts, Dave Earling and Dave Somers, criticize Sound Transit for not completing the light rail spine as quickly as possible. They go on to argue the strict subarea equity policy, where Sound Transit investments go to the subareas that pay for them, should be changed. The end goal, of course, is earlier delivery of rail to Everett at the expense of projects in other areas.

The three board members argue that the transportation needs of the region are not contained within subarea boundaries. They may have particularly in mind the enormous daily flow of Snohomish County residents to jobs in King County. This burden is amplified by expensive housing in Seattle and the Eastside that pushes more households to commute from relatively affordable places in Snohomish and Pierce Counties. Lower income communities also generate less revenues, meaning the areas with the greatest socio-economic needs have the least ability to fund local transit improvements.

The crux of the issue for Snohomish County is that their subarea is small, contributing just 13% of Sound Transit revenues. Their major ST3 investment, a 16.3 mile rail extension from Lynnwood to Everett, is disproportionately expensive at just over $3 billion in 2014 constant dollars. (In actual year-of-expenditure dollars, Snohomish will spend $6.2 billion on light rail capital, including a ridership-based contribution to the downtown tunnel).

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When to Care About Cost, and Not

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Expensive but revolutionary (Flickr/TGr_79)

Every big transportation project starts with a cost estimate. The tedious debate on whether the project costs too much, or is just right, is a proxy fight over whether it’s a good project or not. The estimate spirals upwards, which breeds cynicism among opponents while providing an opportunity to revisit all of the old arguments. Since those arguments were never really about fiscal return on investment, no one has actually changed their mind.

It’s a pattern that’s repeated through Sound Transit 1, the Monorail, the Deep Bore Tunnel, Sound Transit 2, and now the Center City Connector. For Sound Transit 3 and High Speed Rail, the cycle may just be beginning. Some overruns and delays were worse than others: Sound Transit 2’s slippages appear to be an order of magnitude milder than Sound Transit 1. Some of those projects survived, while others died. Among all of those, only ST1 has actually been around long enough for many people to find it indispensable.

Amid this sea of misdirection, sophisticated observers should keep a few points in mind.

  • The primary value of cost (and ridership) estimates is to compare the relative impact of different courses of action. The main drivers of absolute costs (and revenues) are much larger economic forces that no model can hope to capture, but the relative costs of different projects are likely to remain more consistent.
  • If a booming economy raises project costs and revenue without raising anyone’s tax rate, that is flimsy grounds to reconsider the project.
  • Absolute costs have almost no political valence, at least within an order of magnitude. It is hard to imagine a voter that opposed the $54 billion* ST3 package that would have voted for it at $30 billion. Both are colossal amounts of money and the $24 billion difference provides no useful context.
  • A good project is still a good project if the cost grows 20%; a bad one is bad at any price.
  • Given the above, civil servants, consultants, and political appointees that cut corners in the model to embellish a project’s estimate are not only exercising poor ethical judgment, they are also storing up trouble for the project’s future while doing little to help it in the present.
  • At election time, the alternative to a measure is not your preferred configuration of projects, but lower taxes.

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Island Transit May Ditch Its Fare-Free Buses

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An Island Transit bus at Everett Station

Island Transit, a long held example of fare-free transit, may adopt its first fares for regular routes since it began service 30 years ago. The agency has been financially unstable since the recession, during which voters rejected a 0.3 percent sales tax increase to fund service, and has determined that current sales tax revenues would not be able to cover current operations without outside grants. In 2017, the transit agency raised $10.476 million from its sales tax and $674,000 from other non-grant sources, while its operating expenses totaled $10.502 million.

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News Roundup: Ridership King

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Day Dreamers

This is an open thread.

Photo by preema seadiva in the STB Flickr pool