Month: May 2010

Two posts about urban planning and design for the holiday:

First, Vancouver, BC planner Larry Beasley gave a talk in the DC area and afterwards had a chat with the Greater Greater Washington folks.  He shares how Vancouver made sure that its high-rises made positive contributions to the urban fabric, although he’s not exactly for tall buildings everywhere.  My favorite quote:  “Government has to be an ally of the architect against all the other things that homogenize design.”

Second, a very thoughtful essay in The Atlantic on urban ideals, change, and gentrification. The Manhattan neighborhood that Jane Jacobs immortalized was not timeless, but in fact a snapshot of an area in the midst of the gentrification process.

I’m still digesting these and have nothing to say or add. Now go out and do something worthwhile on this Memorial Day; a whole bunch of people suffered and died to give you the chance.

[UPDATE: ST planner Jim Moore explains about the 522:

When originally written, the routing change was the fact that we returned to the express lanes.  Later on, we revised the routing in the SODO area to eliminate right turns from westbound Holgate Street to northbound SODO Busway.]

The new ST schedule book, effective June 12, is out.  Aside from “minor schedule adjustments”, there are new trips on the 535 and 577, ne2 Saturday service for the 578, and fewer on the 586, 590, 592, and 593.

The booklet claims new routing for the 522 but looking at old and new maps I can’t figure out what the change is.

As previously reported, Sound Transit’s Express bus fares are going up at the beginning of next month.  The one-zone fare is rising from $1.50 to $2.00, catching up with Metro’s fare escalation.  The Senior one-zone fare is also going up from 50 cents to 75 cents.  This is part of a two-stage fare simplification as depicted above.

More significantly, the concept of a “two-zone fare” now only applies to the fare zones within King County.  Any trip that crosses a County Line is an “multi-county” fare, effectively the old three-zone fare ($3.50).  For adults going Pierce-South King, Snohomish-North King, or Snohomish-East King, this amounts to a 50 cent increase; it’s also an increase for youth and seniors making similar trips.

One big winner from this change is Community Transit, whose South County-King County commuter fare is $3.50 for adults. Already $1.00 over the competing ST fare, CT felt it couldn’t increase commuter fares in the latest round of budget cuts.  With the gap back to 50 cents and on its way to zero, they may feel able to do so in the future.  Raising commuter fares is a (relatively) progressive move, as these riders are more likely to be well-off.

All local fares for CT are also going up Tuesday, from $1.50/$1.00/$0.50 for adult/youth/senior to $1.75/$1.25/$0.75.

These changes are of course driven by revenue shortfalls, but they are also steps towards the fare synchronization that many riders are interested in seeing.  On the other hand, advocates of more distance-based fares will be disappointed.

Based on the first round of public input, Pierce Transit has refined their future service concepts. A very nice website compares the current system with what it will look like after the coming budget cuts.  A third map depicts the route structure if the sales tax increases from 0.6% to the maximum 0.9%, allowing not only preservation of service, but actually a little bit of growth.

Also, to build on a recent theme, lots and lots of system maps!

Tacoma Tomorrow has the public meeting times and promises analysis in the near future.

A band called “Million Dollar Nile” is giving $1000 to the environmental nonprofit with the most votes. While there are some other great candidates too, Transportation Choices Coalition asked us first, and they could definitely use the money! Simply go here, find TCC, and vote!

http://www.milliondollarnile.com/vote/

Historically, the federal government tends to directly subsidize transit capital expenditure, not operating expenditure.  However, with operating budgets collapsing nationwide, Chris Dodd and seven other Senators have proposed a $2 billion fund to help transit agencies through their current revenue trough.  Local reaction here (summary: Yipee!).

It’s important to understand that this is an “authorization”, not an “appropriation”, so even if this measure passes lawmakers would have to add it to an appropriations bill sometime in the next 16 months.  This comment covers how the money would be distributed; since I’m entirely ignorant of the relevant statutes I’ll just say that strictly according to King County’s population, Metro would be in line for $12m.  That’s perhaps a quarter of the deficit in 2012, so it’s nice, but hardly solves the problem even in the short term.