After diligently ignoring the good news only the day before, the Times at least acknowledged the positive in the much more significant annual report of the Sound Transit Citizen Oversight Panel (pdf).
Find out more about the panel itself here.
The report is an outstanding, concise, independent summary of the state of the agency. Here are a few tidbits that jumped out at me:
The Seattle Sketcher is a blog by Gabi Campanario where he showcases his sketches of daily things. The site is great, and I particularly love the sketches of bus commutes, they really seem to capture the experience of commuting by bus. Here’s a couple of examples.
Looking through these, I start to come of with different bus rider types. The “playing with cellphone guy”, the “reading paperback guy” and the “talk to friend lady”. So, what are the different sorts of bus riders? And what type are you?
Update: This morning the DJC reports that Sound Transit real estate people have toured the facility and are considering buying it. The six-storey garage is at 2460 Fourth Ave. S and has 970 stalls. The garage is likely to cost more than $20 million.
Original post published Jan 29 at 9:35pm is below:
The DJC ran a piece about parking around Light Rail station, and the rules changes that the city is looking into. It’s easy to figure out what to do in Southeast Seattle: residential permits and only short stays for those without permits. But what can be done with Sodo? Here’s the gist:
Few people live in that neighborhood [Sodo], but there are numerous small businesses, many of them industrial. The Manufacturing Industrial Council estimates that between 40,000 and 60,000 people work in Sodo.
One problem is that commuters are already parking in Sodo and taking the bus, according to SDOT planner Dante Taylor, who has been going door-to-door in the neighborhood collecting feedback on parking proposals since December.
Most of the local businesses don’t have parking lots, and rely on street parking.
…
Almost 1,300 parking spaces around the sports stadiums will be lost during Alaskan Way Viaduct construction, … Another 50 spaces will be lost to construction on state Route 519, … another 200 spaces will go away temporarily while First Avenue South is paved and Spokane Street viaduct construction … The city estimates there are 4,500 parking spots in Sodo now.
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Some employers in Sodo want SDOT to issue parking permits for their employees.
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With more commuters likely to be parking in Sodo once the train starts running, some people are wondering why SDOT doesn’t buy the post office parking lot, which is very close to the Sodo train station and is up for sale.To support a “pedestrian and transit-friendly environment,” the city has a policy that discourages parking lots, Shepard said.
“Parking lots attract cars but they are not always good neighbors,” Shepard said.
You can learn more about the City’s light rail parking designs here. I’m going to look into which parking lot is the post office lot mentioned in the DJC article, but you can see the station here, and notice there’s a Post Office facility directly to the west of it. I kind of torn. On the one hand, I think a park-and-ride in the Sodo area, especially one very near to the Spokane Street Viaduct, is a great idea if the number of spots is sufficiently large to attract riders. On the other hand, that lot could be a great candidate for some TOD office space.
So what do you think about permit parking for workers? How about a park-and-ride at Sodo station?
This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
Downtown Seattle has around 79,574 parking stalls, with an average occupancy rate of 65%, which means we have at least 54,500 cars parked in lots downtown. Traffic flow downtown is around 96,400 cars per day. If we assume that 90% of these cars drive in and out of the city every day, that means that 96% of car traffic in the city can disappear if we remove the parking lots.
You might call this idea insane. How will people go to work, or the movies, or go shopping? That’s where the idea gets interesting. You probably recall that we’re almost done building a light rail line through the city to the south, and we’ll soon continue it northward. What if we built a giant parking structure south of the city, and another one north of the city, and located them both right at our new light rail line?
For every new stall we build, let’s remove one from downtown. This will free up room downtown for more retail, more businesses, and more residential units. As traffic declines we can add streetcars and make some areas pedestrian-only areas. The freeway will clear up as fewer cars queue up at exit ramps on I-5.
We’ll keep some cars around – they’re great for delivering goods to businesses, or if you need to get through downtown to somewhere else less accessible by rail/bus. But our downtown is very walkable, so it’s a shame we’ve given up so much to cars.
As Ben S said, the best way to prevent bike theft is to have a lot of bikes. The cyclists watch out for each other. I’d add that the best way to make cycling safe is to have a lot of cyclists.
Of course, virtually all of our major news outlets think it’s major scandal, need to know information, when a Sound Transit error causes costs less than 0.01 percent of their budget.
Yet curiously, their interest in the details of agency management falls away when yet another state audit reveals the agency is fully compliant with state law, and has adequate internal controls (pdf):
The Transit Authority complied with state laws and regulations and its own policies and procedures in the areas we examined. Internal controls were adequate to safeguard public assets.
In response to a whistleblower report, the Auditor also checked out $164,000 in other possibly improper payments to local nonprofits. The auditor found that $8,050 of that was actually improper, of which $3,200 was spent after ST received a warning from the auditor.
Guess the headline in the Times today? I know that this is the way the media works, and I’m glad the whistleblower filed his complaint and forced an end to illegal expenditures. At the same time, when public perception is skewed by this kind of selective reporting, it doesn’t help voters make intelligent decisions about the agency.
While we’re on the subject of governance, four ST projects received local engineering awards. They don’t sound like a big deal, but they’re better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
A report issued by the “Tolling Implementation Committee” recommends tolling only the 520 bridge, and not the approaches closer to I-405 or I-5. The committee decided that too many motorists would live 520 and drive on surface streets to avoid the tolls, worsening traffic in neighborhoods before the bridge and resulting in overall lower toll revenues. The decision is now in the hands of the state legislature.
In related news, the feds say it’s okay to toll I-90 to help pay for the new 520 bridge. The majority of people who do not live in Bellevue, Newcastle or Mercer Island support tolling both bridges.
Via StreetFilms.
This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
The 520 tolling commission says we should only toll the bridge, not the approach roads. While somewhat disappointing, this is unsurprising, considering the neighborhoods on either side seem to have incredible amounts of political clout, and don’t want to see traffic increase in their neighborhood. What’s specifically disappointing is that the committee is using the wrong metric:
"State staffers and consultants estimated that charging tolls beyond the ends of the bridge would raise just 7 percent more in toll revenue. "I don’t think we receive a lot of money (considering) the consternation costs," Hammond said."
The increase in toll revenue has never been the issue. It’s about using tolls to manage demand, especially West of I-405. As it sits, the commission’s recommendation rates a 1 out of 6 on the old congestion pricing aggressiveness scale.
On the plus side, it looks like we’ll need to toll I-90 to hit the $2B revenue target, so that’s a start.
Quick items from around the transitsphere:
This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
Useful idea from SDOT, via press release:
SEATTLE – Working to support the city’s growing number of bicyclists, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will create on-street bicycle parking in neighborhoods around Seattle. With a goal of having one to two per neighborhood, the department will install these unique bike facilities at three locations starting next week.
Taking the place of one to two motor vehicle parking spaces, on-street bike parking will be filled with bicycle racks and surrounded by a raised curb. Bicyclists can enter the parking area from the sidewalk and each car-sized space will accommodate up to eight bikes.
This new program addresses the expanding need for bicycle parking and is part of the ongoing implementation of the Bicycle Master Plan, which seeks to triple the number of people bicycling in Seattle over ten years.
By mid February the new bike facilities will be installed:
? Mid block of Broadway E between E Harrison Street and E Republican Street (by Broadway Market)
? At the corner of 12th Avenue and E Spring Street (by Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Café Presse)
? At the corner of Woodlawn Avenue NE and NE 70th Street (by the Greenlake Condominium)
SDOT is planning additional on-street bicycle parking locations for 2009.
If you’re an insomniac and interested in the HB 1490 committee testimony Josh Feit reports about here, TVW is showing it on tape delay at 11:30 pm – 1:30 am Wednesday tonight (that’s tonight), and again at 5:30-7:30 am on Thursday.
Or, try the link online here.
Added bonus: you’ll see the statement of yours truly a couple of minutes before the end. (Skip ahead to about 2:10).
Bonus 2: After the 1:29 mark, committee Chair Geoff Simpson (D-Covington) smacks down richly deserving bill opponent John Fox and leaves longtime light rail opponent Emory Bundy at a loss for words (1:35:30) .
Update: As everyone in the world has now pointed out to me, it’s HB 1490, not 1690 as originally stated in the post.
Here’s the embedded video:
The US House of Representatives has passed a $819 billion stimulus package. The Nadler Amendment tacked $3 billion in transit onto the House bill, for a grand total of $12 billion, and fully $5 billion in capital project funding. The Amendment passed with a “voice vote” meaning we don’t know how anyone specifically voted, but it seemed to be nearly unanimous.
This comes as the American Society of Civil Engineers gives our nation’s infrastructure a “D” grade, and notes the cost of repairing the infrastructure has risen to $2.2 trillion from $1.7 trillion in 2005. Stimulus funding can’t come soon enough.
To my eyes, this much, much improved version of the bill than the one we saw originally, not only because of the transit. The final bill had $607 billion in spending, slightly more than the first draft we saw last week, and $212 billion in tax cuts, which is about $63 billion less than the original draft. Just before passing the bill, the House rejected a Republican-sponsored version of the bill that would have focused mainly on tax cuts.
The next step is for the Senate to pass their version of the bill, which will probably come to a vote sometime next week.
The Chamber Group Simple Measures, performing on the Streetcar, via the PI big blog.
This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
Transit amendment in the stimulus up for a vote tomorrow. As I’ve said before, the stimulus isn’t the be-all and end-all for Obama-administration transit funding, but we do need to send a message to advisers like Larry Summers that you can’t just trade it away for something as short-sighted as tax-cuts. At the very least, we can try to put back what got taken away.
Just a quick reminder that Metro bus fares are set to increase by a quarter starting next Sunday, February 1st. Peak one-zone trips will now run an even $2.00, while two-zone trips will cost $2.50. Off-peak fare will be $1.75. You can find more information in a flyer that Metro has put together (pdf). This fare increase will be followed by another 25-cent increase in January of next year, in an effort to shore up recent budgetary problems.
Metro’s last fare increase came in March of last year. Prior to that, Metro had not had an increase in fares since 2001.
I also want to mention that even though Metro had a rough December, and had some particularly bad communication issues, I think we’re already beginning to see some improvements. The flyers warning customers about the reduced service on MLK Jr. Day were clear and easy-to-follow, had a cheery reminder to “spread the word,” and even mentioned future holidays to give customers time to prepare. Kudos Metro.
I’ve been following the Phoenix Light Rail opening to try to predict what sort of reaction our own light rail system is going to have when it opens this summer. Arizona’s light rail is a bit different to Link – it’s entirely at-grade, for starters – but I think many of the lessons that Phoenix is learning we’re going to have to learn as well, for better or for worse. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to write a series of posts on Phoenix’s Metro Light Rail, and what we can expect from the first few months of Link, and the period after that. In this first post, I’m just going to talk about Phoenix and the Metro Light Rail.
This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
state gas taxes are sort of like tobacco taxes if the tobacco revenue were funneled into advertising cigarettes.
Indeed.
The $30 billion highway and bridge amount does not live up to the rhetoric preceding the release of the overall package. $30 billion is not going to “repair America’s crumbling roads and bridges” and it does not represent “the greatest investment in infrastructure since Eisenhower.” At under 70% of a normal annual highway appropriation, the program lacks critical mass. The transportation portion should be doubled. A change I would make to the proposal is to allow the use—on a one-time emergency basis—of transit funds for system operations due to the severe decline in other ordinary revenues. I don’t believe any other areas of the stimulus proposal have to be reduced to increase the transportation-funding portion
Amen, brother!
It’s that time again: a new set of schedules go into effect February 7. As usual, Sound Transit is the first to announce their changes. They’re reallocating the bays at the Overlake Transit Center, so pay attention.
The other big change is the new route 593, which runs from South Tacoma station to Downtown Seattle.
Service Change Highlights
ST Express
Route 513: Revised routing to serve new terminal in Everett
Route 532: Stops added in downtown Everett
Route 545: Bay reassignment at the Overlake Transit Center
Route 564/565: Bay reassignment at the Overlake Transit Center
Route 590: Minor schedule adjustments
Route 592: Minor schedule adjustments
Route 593: New route added to operate between new South Tacoma Station, Tacoma Dome Station and SeattleSounder
South line: Minor schedule adjustments
North line: No changesTacoma Link
No changes