This is part two of a three-part series investigating city-funded bus service in Seattle. Part 1 covered the Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) from 2014 to early 2020. This article covers its successor, named the Seattle Transit Measure (STM) from 2020 to present day.

By early 2020, the STBD had transformed Seattle into a truly transit-accessible city. With Sound Transit’s self-proclaimed ‘exciting period’ of annual light rail expansions approaching quickly, county leaders saw an opportunity to undo the failures of 2014 and provide better bus service to all of King County, not just Seattle.

King County Floats Measure, Pandemic Hits

In February 2020, King County Council unveiled a proposal to utilize King County’s own Transportation Benefit District to levy a countywide 0.2% sales tax increase to fund additional transit.

Unlike the failed 2014 measure, revenues would go exclusively to Metro and focus primarily on service expansion. Seattle’s existing investments would also be funded under the assumption that a county measure would eclipse Seattle’s. Seattle would lose its freedom to dictate service investments, but planning and funding would be re-regionalized, ending years of a ‘pay to play’ system where Seattle experienced higher service levels than Metro could provide on its own.

Unfortunately on February 29, 2020, the first death from COVID-19 in the United States was announced in Washington. Soon after, then-Governor Jay Inslee announced a statewide state of emergency. By March 13, all schools statewide were ordered closed and Metro reported a 45% reduction in ridership.

All signs indicated that a county-wide transit measure was poorly timed and by March 16, County Councilmember Claudia Balducci announced that King County would no longer proceed with a ballot measure to increase bus service.

Continue reading “Seattle Transit Measure: Performance Since Passed (2020 to Now)” | 19 comments

In 2015, Mayor Ed Murray’s administration unveiled what would become the 2015 Levy to Move Seattle. It included a goal to “Provide 72% of Seattle residents with 10-minute all-day transit service within a 10-minute walk of their homes” by 2025 dubbed the “Very Frequent Transit Network”. Using Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) funding, access to that network increased significantly. In 2015, only 25% of Seattle was within walking distance of the Very Frequent Transit Network. By 2020, 70% of the city was.

Continue reading “What Happened to the Very Frequent Transit Network?” | 19 comments

New post on Page 2: Renton’s Transit Center Moves Toward I-405. If you’re a reader and interested in lending your perspective on transit and land use in the region, contact us.

• WSDOT has taken another step toward revamping access to I-90 from Rainier Ave South, with the project team recommending “Alternative 2” for preliminary design (WSDOT Blog).
• Issaquah city leaders have some ideas how to build the 4 Line faster and cheaper (The Urbanist)
• The freeway bill comes due: WA State Senate wants to issue $2 billion in bonds to fund highway and bridge maintenance after years of raising regressive taxes to fund major freeway expansions (The Urbanist). The House’s proposed budget is more conservative. Transit and ferries get the short straw. Additional coverage from The Seattle Times ($).
• King County is set to finally adopt a revamped bus network around the Federal Way Link Extension including a 72% boost to weekend bus service (The Urbanist). Additional updates direct from Metro (Metro Matters).
• Sound Transit wants transit riders to consider it the backbone of a synchronized, regional system (The Platform). The spine, if you will.
• Washington State Ferries will start charging a 3% credit card fee on March 1 (The Seattle Times, $)
• Seattle’s Social Housing Developer is boosting staffing and looking to start buying property after first-year tax revenues were confirmed at $115M (The Urbanist).
• A discussion of the problems that arise when buses are free but subway trains are not (Pedestrian Observations)
• Washington is about to become the first state in the nation to have a comprehensive inventory of all of the sidewalks and pedestrian paths within its borders (Streetsblog USA)
• One-way streets help funnel commuters in and out of congested downtowns, but at the cost of killing pedestrians, street-level businesses, and the environment (Jalopnik).

This is an Open Thread.

40 comments

As part of its 2026 Service Plan, Sound Transit is proposing a new overnight bus service in the corridor of the Link 1 and 2 Lines. These routes would also continue to Everett, Tacoma, and Lakewood. These services will specifically operate during the night after Link stops running, and end shortly before Link begins again the next morning. Service is scheduled to launch in the fall of this year, contingent on the ability of partner agencies to deliver the service. Sound Transit is also launching a pilot of this service on the segment from downtown Seattle to SeaTac starting March 28th, with service roughly every 30 minutes throughout the night.

Despite shadowing the Link 1 Line, the overnight service proposal skips 10 out of 26 current 1 Line stations. Intuitively, the reason for skipping so many stops is probably is to keep the bus moving quickly as it heads to Everett or Lakewood, as well as to keep operating costs and staffing levels manageable. Also, considering that Sound Transit is a regional agency rather than a local one, they may be leaning on King County Metro to provide night-owl service within the city of Seattle. However, though some of the gaps are covered by King County Metro’s own night-owl network, there is not as much overnight service along parts of the 1 Line as you might think.

1 Line overnight service, visualized

Here is an overview of current overnight bus services along the Link 1 Line (including a comparison to the proposed overnight service), in the style of Sound Transit’s diagram of alternative routes to Link (click the image to zoom in):

Here are summaries broken down by route:

Continue reading “Current and proposed overnight service along the Link 1 Line” | 60 comments

Open payments or “Tap to Pay” started today. Several transit agencies’ bus and rail readers including Sound Transit and Metro now accept not only ORCA cards but also credit cards and digital wallets (pay by phone).

Open payments raise the risk that if you have both an ORCA card and credit cards or debit cards in your wallet, it may charge the wrong card or multiple cards or refuse the transaction.

How are your experiences with it?

14 comments

The exciting launch of the Lynnwood Link Extension added four new stations connecting Northgate up to Lynnwood City Center. The future Pinehurst (previously NE 130th St) infill station is under construction and expected to open mid-2026. This article will discuss the station itself, bus stops, the new bus Route 77, bike lanes to the station, and finally the station area. Additionally, plans exist for a provisional (unfunded) 220th St SW infill station.

Continue reading “Lynnwood Infill Stations: Pinehurst and potentially 220th St SW” | 126 comments

About Here and Sightline Institute partnered to produce a video discussing how elevators in the US and Canada cost nearly three times as much to build and maintain compared to peer cities which makes it much more difficult to build small apartments. Legislators in Washington are trying again to fix it, but it’s an uphill battle.

This is an Open Thread.

52 comments

Update (Feb 21, 3:30pm): Crosslake 2 Line simulated service has resumed.

Following a power outage between Bel-Red station and Downtown Redmond station that started on Thursday, Sound Transit has decided to suspend simulated service on the full 2 Line until further notice. As of this morning, 2 Line trains will operate between South Bellevue station and Downtown Redmond station. The 2 Line will not run between International District/Chinatown station and Lynnwood City Center station. The 1 Line will run as scheduled.

Unexpected outages and service disruptions occur on all transit systems. When issues occur, transit agencies should clearly communicate the situation with passengers and quickly coordinate alternative travel options. Based on the past two days, Sound Transit needs to revamp how it manages outages on the 2 Line.

Continue reading “Crosslake Simulated Service Suspended Indefinitely (Update: Service has resumed)” | 72 comments

This announcement is a significant milestone for the next generation ORCA system. Over the past few years, ORCA has introduced several new features enabled by a redesigned backend system. In 2022, it launched the myORCA.com website and mobile app. In 2024, ORCA and Sound Transit announced the ability to save and access ORCA cards in Google Wallet. Open payment support is widely seen as an essential feature, especially with the expected influx to visitors to the region during the FIFA World Cup games this summer. ORCA will also pilot a 3-day PugetPass during the World Cup.

Continue reading “Friday Roundtable: ORCA Tap to Pay Begins on Monday” | 58 comments

The Seattle Transit Measure (STM) is a 0.15% sales tax that raises $50 million each year to boost bus service and make transit safer, faster, and more accessible in the City of Seattle. Originally passed in 2014 as the Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD), it was renewed and renamed in 2020 as the STM. The STM expires next spring and Mayor Wilson’s administration is expected to put a renewal on the ballot this fall.

This three-part series investigates how the STBD came to be, how it evolved into the STM, and what lies ahead given its impending expiration and the massive opportunity we have to expand bus service in Seattle.

Continue reading “Seattle Transit Measure: History as the STBD (2014 to 2020)” | 34 comments