BRT Primer

Posted on by Adam Bejan Parast

This morning I looked into my crystal ball and I foresaw an epic, week-long discussion about all things BRT. I could be wrong, but if I’m right I think it would benefit all of us to take a bit of time to refresh our knowledge. In this vein I created a list of articles I have been reading relating to BRT over the last few weeks as well as some scholarly reports and practitioner guides. Please share info you have as well but only if it relates to BRT, and is not a comparison of whether BRT or rail is better. Comments along those lines are off-topic. We can have that discussion later this week but please not in this post. Thanks.

So here is my list.

Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) is probably the most authoritative source on transit related research. Its mission is to aid practitioners in making informed and fact based decisions. TCRP has 3 relevant reports on this subject, all of which are worth a quick skim over. At the very least take a look at the tables.

More after the jump

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Swift Opens

Posted on by Martin H. Duke
Everett Station Terminal, by Oran
"Everett Station Terminal", by Oran

Four of us went up to Lynnwood for the Swift opening ceremony yesterday.  You can see some of the results in the Flickr Pool.

The festivities were very well put together.  First of all, the marketing machine was effective enough to draw perhaps 500 people out.  There were booths offering free hot drinks, cupcakes, and kettle corn.  There were other booths with information and games to distract the kids.  In all, it was a very festive atmosphere.

The speeches didn’t take too long, and the ribbon cutting, including a bizarre synchronized dance, was appropriately lighthearted.  It was nice to board a bus and check out the amenities.  Broadly, the reduced seating makes the bus seem a lot more open.

The frustrating item, however, was that the talking ended around 3pm but the system wasn’t to start running regularly until about 4:30pm.  Three of us had places to be and disappeared before getting a chance to ride.  Luckily, Oran and some Flickr contributors stuck around long enough to ride and get some good photos.  As for the ride itself, I’m sure Oran would stand by his media ride observations from last week.  Select photos by Oran after the jump.

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Westlake Streetcar Placemaking

Posted on by Adam Bejan Parast
Westlake Plaza
Westlake Plaza

We put out a blurb on the Westlake Hub Strategy about a month back in a news roundup, but I wanted to share some additional information I got from SDOT as well as bit of analysis.

The strategy is designed to help improve multi-modal transfers around Westlake plaza and help create a more attractive and lively pedestrian environment.  It includes a new pedestrian plaza in what is now Westlake Ave. This project takes big cues from NYC’s pedestrianization of Times Square. The expanded plaza will be created by closing the block between Stewart and Olive to all traffic except the streetcar, more than doubling the size of the existing McGraw Square and creating a public space that is actually functional and enjoyable.

More after the jump.

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Swift Opening Day is Here

Posted on by Martin H. Duke

Other transit agencies, take note: this is how you make your system accessible to newcomers.

The opening ceremony will be at 2pm today in Lynnwood, at Crossroads Station (the intersection of 196th St. SW and Highway 99).  Rides are free today with regular service beginning tomorrow at 5am.

The trip planner result to get there from Downtown Seattle is below the fold.  You can also follow us on twitter all afternoon.

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An ORCA Trick That Shouldn’t Work

Posted on by Ben Schiendelman
Photo by Oran
Photo by Oran

I often travel with someone who relies on a student pass. They recently lost it, and as none of the schools around here are yet on ORCA, that means they’re out of luck for the rest of the quarter. As a result, when we ride a bus, I typically pay for them out of my e-purse.

In order to do this, I have to ask the operator for a “group fare”. The operator takes the ORCA reader out of service, adds two adult fares, then puts it back into service – the next swipe uses my pass for one fare, and my e-purse for the other, automatically. The operator has to do this, you can’t just double swipe – the system assumes that’s a mistake or a “pass-back” (and that’s a good thing, it prevents double-withdrawals that users might not even notice).

Many bus drivers don’t know how to do this, though – so much of the time, the operator just hands out a free transfer. I encourage taking advantage of this – Metro needs a reason to improve their operators’ ORCA training. According to @VeloBusDriver, the button to do this on the ORCA console has an icon showing multiple people, but it’s so rarely used that operators sometimes forget about it.

There’s one more interesting point here. How does the second user (or third, or fourth) in a group fare transfer to Link? ORCA customer service doesn’t seem to know.

Neighborhood Street Fund

Posted on by Adam Bejan Parast
Lander Festival Street
Lander Festival Street

While poking around SDOT’s website after seeing the photo above, I found a nice long list of past and potential sidewalk and traffic calm projects  funded by Bridging the Gap, via the Neighborhood Street Fund. Over the past year I have seen many of the current projects, but didn’t realize they were the result of a specific, neighborhood led program. The photo above shows the Lander Festival Street, which will act as a continuation of the Beacon Hill station plaza. A ribbon cutting event will be held on December 5th. This is just one project funded by the program over the last year. I’m a bit disappointed that they didn’t use bricks or some other kind of non-concrete paving material material but I’m sure there is a long story behind that.

SDOT is working with the Neighborhood Councils to rank and prioritize the next round of potential projects. Thanksgiving is always a slow news day, so if you need a distraction from family stuff, take a look at the project list. There is a good number of them.

Which is your favorite? Which do you think is most necessary?

Columbia City Site Purchased By Developer

Posted on by Ben Schiendelman
Columbia City Station Area
Columbia City Station Area

Today the DJC is reporting that the 6.25 acre site of Zion Preparatory Academy in Columbia City has been sold to development company JC Mueller for $5 million.

Across a small street from the station, this property is planned as transit oriented mixed use, including continued operation of the school. With expansion of the Rainier Vista community to the north, this bodes well for future Link ridership.

Snohomish County Service Change

Posted on by Martin H. Duke

[UPDATE: Commenters are referring to the same Everett transit site that I linked to below, as if I didn’t know about it.  However, it is NOT a list of changes, unless someone wants to go through each schedule route by route and compile the differences.]

On Sunday we’ll be tweeting from the Swift Opening, which we’ve already discussed.  However, Nov. 29th will also be the day of the next service change for Community Transit and Everett Transit.  Big changes:

  • Route 114 eliminated, with the trips moved to the 116.
  • Route 100 eliminated, cuts to the 101 (to be replaced by Swift)
  • Elimination of the downtown Everett loop.
  • CT 177 becomes ET 70X.
  • ET adds other routes, renumbers everything.  I wish they’d published a summary of changes somewhere.