Month: July 2010

The comment thread of this Dan Bertolet post reveals some confusion about the transit aspects of the deep-bore tunnel plan and the most recent iteration (December 2008) of surface/transit/I-5.

The Deep-Bore Tunnel Plan

• WSDOT provides $32m in mitigation funds, allowing Metro to run some additional bus service in the corridor until construction is complete.
• The County provides $190m in capital, plus $15m annually,  to add RapidRide and peak express bus service in the corridor; create a Burien-Delridge RapidRide line; “simplify” downtown trolley bus service, and make some transit-related street improvements, all funded by a new 1% MVET. Despite of signing a letter that vowed to “support efforts” for this revenue source, Governor Gregoire jettisons it at the first sign of trouble (three weeks later) and later goes out of her way to veto a much smaller vehicle license fee.
• An unfunded commitment to examine the First Avenue Streetcar in the context of the Transit Master Plan.

Surface/Transit/I-5

The who-pays-for-what isn’t as well fleshed out in any document I can find*, but the spending components are:

• $30m in construction mitigation.
• $476m (plus $55m annually) for:

Transit improvements include more all-day service than the elevated hybrid scenario. This would include increased service on Metro’s RapidRide routes for Ballard/Uptown, Aurora Avenue and West Seattle and new RapidRide routes on Delridge Way and Lake City Way. The waterfront streetcar would be replaced with a new First Avenue line between King Street and Seattle Center. Park and rides would be expanded in Burien, White Center and Shoreline. The Rapid Trolleybus Network would be expanded with new connections such as Madison Park to Colman Dock, Queen Anne to Capitol Hill, and Beacon Hill to Capitol Hill. Moderate investment would be made in other express and local routes in Seattle.

Make of this what you will, but those are the facts.

* It is, interestingly, much easier to find info about unpopular alternatives like the Elliott Bay Bridge or retrofit than live ones like surface/transit or the rebuild. See this for one take from the 2009 Nickels campaign, a take which probably isn’t constitutional.

[UPDATE: Part 2 of Matt’s series here.]

In the DC transit blogosphere there’s a discussion on whether the Metro is “bad”, and if so, how bad. I grew up there and travel back quite a lot, and I adore it. Matt Johnson at Greater Greater Washington is trying a more systematic approach to answering that question:

In this analysis, he’s comparing the 13 heavy rail operators in the U.S. It would be interesting to see a similar comparison of light rail systems; I’m guessing Central Link as a standalone would fare quite poorly because it doesn’t go enough places, and even then not the most obvious ones, but U-Link and the full ST2 buildout would do quite well. Once you get away from heavy rail, of course, headways and reliability become really important metrics.

Of course, the true utility of a system is largely determined by factors out of the transit agency’s control: land use policies, population of the metro area, chokepoints, competing highway capacity, resources of other interfacing transit agencies, and so on. There are three different questions you could try to answer with this kind of analysis:

• Is a city/metro area well-suited to transit use?
• Is the fixed investment of the system wisely designed and spent?
• Is the current agency administration competent?

With older systems the third question is hard to answer with the above criteria; with newer systems the first is impossible to blame on the transit system.

There’s a “State Public Transportation Partnerships Conference” at the Westin Thursday afternoon, and Transportation Choices Coalition (TCC)  is taking advantage of that to have some bigwigs give talks:

Join us for Summer Party with our special guests William Millar, President of the American Public Transportation Association, John Robert Smith, CEO of Reconnecting America and Nick Donohue, Policy Director, Transportation for America for the latest on federal transportation policy.

TCC’s SUMMER PARTY

WHEN:Thursday, Aug. 5th, 5:00-7:00pm
WHERE: 415 Westlake 415 Westlake Ave N, Seattle (between Harrison and Republican in South Lake Union). Less than 2 blocks from the Westlake Ave and Thomas Streetcar stop.

Suggested donation: $50. Includes drinks and heavy appetizers.

RSVP online and purchase tickets here (reference “Millar event” in the Comments section) or contact Jennifer Olegario at jennifer@transportationchoices.org or 206-329-2336.

For those of you who don’t know, TCC is a nonprofit that shares this blog’s values. Unlike STB, they do the things that really require full-time employees: lobbying Olympia and providing a pro-rail, pro-transit, pro-density voice on various government commissions and task forces.

[UPDATE: Commenter Mike Orr has a nice synopsis of the talk in the comments.]

This is a friendly reminder that the author of Human Transit, Jarrett Walker, is in town and will be speaking at GGLO’s offices tonight about conflict and debate within transit planning.  Here are event details from Great City, which is hosting:

As transit becomes more popular, many cities are having intense and often bitter quarrels about what kind of transit to build or operate. Working from his 20 years of experience as a transit planning consultant, Jarrett Walker examines some of the most common confusions that affect debates about transit, and that often lead to disappointing outcomes. He then suggests strategies for clarifying transit debates, by recognizing the unavoidable “hard choices” that arise from transit’s intrinsic geometry and costs.

The event will be from 5pm to 7:30pm at GGLO’s Space on the Steps (at Harbor Steps).  Even if you don’t read Human Transit (which you should), this will be a good one to make.

For those that don’t get their fill of sustainable transportation from the brownbag, Streets for All is having their kickoff party at Nector Lounge in Fremont from 7:00pm – 2:00am. The Mayor and members of the City Council should be in attendance.

*RSS readers: This was published prematurely last night (7/28), so don’t be alarmed.  The presentation is today, July 29th.  Apologies for the inconvenience.

Metro is asking for community members to help plan future bus service in Redmond and Bellevue as part of the introduction of the RapidRide B line. Here is the press release.

King County Metro Transit is considering changes to Eastside bus routes that currently serve parts of Bellevue and Redmond to prepare for the arrival of the RapidRide B Line in 2011.

The B Line is part of Metro’s new Bus Rapid Transit system. It will run between the transit centers in downtown Bellevue and Redmond via Crossroads and Overlake. As part of the planning for the B Line, Metro is forming a community sounding board that will provide advice about public outreach and what changes to bus service would be best for the local communities.

In order to maximize bus routes and avoid duplicating service, Metro will consider routing changes, schedule adjustments, or consolidation of approximately 20 existing routes, including: 221, 222, 225, 229, 230, 233, 240, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 253, 261, 265, 266, 271, 272, and 926.

More after the jump.

Continue reading “Metro Needs Help from Eastside Community Members”

We talk a lot on this blog about why people drive.  Frequent points are made concerning perceived freedom, the motorist’s willingness to “pay time to save money”, the undercapitalization of transit infrastructure, the low marginal cost of individual driving trips once a car is owned, the modal lock-in caused by low density development, etc, etc…

But I’ve been especially frustrated lately by 3 perverse incentives that don’t get as much press:

More after the jump… Continue reading “The Little Things That Keep Us Driving”

Othello Partners, developer of two TOD projects across from Othello Station, is organizing a bazaar in the Citadel’s parking lot for the next two Thursdays (7/29, 8/5) from 11 am to 6 pm. Last Thursday was the second time it was hosted and featured antiques dealers, a coffee stand, and a cherry stand. More vendors are expected to participate in this week’s bazaar, possibly a vegetable stand and other crafts. Vendors are still wanted and the first time is free, then $25 per space. Details and contact information are in the Craigslist posting. Although the bazaar is scheduled to be held for only the next two Thursdays, the bazaar may be continued if successful, which would be a way of activating currently underused space and attracting people to the neighborhood.

As for other uses of the lot, parking is available at $5 per day or $50 per month. Othello Partners is looking for an investor to fund the construction a mixed use development of similar size to The Station at Othello Park.