Month: September 2010

MIND THE GAP – URBAN BIKING: Overcoming Your Fears from Laura J. Lukitsch on Vimeo.

Via Seattle Bike Blog.

For your viewing pleasure. Publicola has a quick summary of the press conference, with more details coming soon. In brief the Mayor said Councilmember Conlin violated the city charter when he signed the SDEIS which will be released for public comment sometime in the next month. More details should be emerging over the next few hours.

Jim Moore of Sound Transit tells me there’s a typo in the ST schedule book from which I lifted the summary of route changes. The 578 is not losing trips; the 590 is. See the revised information here.

One of the happier things to be revealed in the 2011 draft Sound Transit budget was that more Ticket Vending Machines are on the way. From Page 75:

The Proposed 2011 Budget includes funding for the installation of TVMs and ORCA readers for the Federal Way Transit Center, Bellevue Transit Center, and Tacoma Link.

And there was much rejoicing.

A 25% percent drop in expected tax revenue will force Sound Transit to re-develop some of its 15 year plan that voters approved in 2008, agency CEO Joni Earl told the board today. She said that procedures that voters also approved meant the agency must identify contingency plans if revenue is 5% or more less than expected.

“All elements of ST2 program no longer affordable within the original 15-year timeframe,” read a slideshow given to the board. The detailed budget proposal is available online.

Northgate Slips to 2021

University Link is on schedule and isn’t affected by the recent news, but the CEO’s budget pushes back the start of Northgate service a year, to 2021, “due to design and construction challenges.”

Additionally Earl told the board that the extension from Northgate to Lynnwood has been identified as risky. It may need to be changed if the recession is even worse than the July forecast, and much of the project’s details are unknown since little  has been done on the extension so far.

North King County (mostly Seattle) had the most mild drop in revenue forecasts. It is “only” facing a 16% shortfall, with the rest of the system facing a 28% shortfall.

South Link to Federal Way Reconsidered

South King County will be particularly hard hit, she said, because of a near 31% revenue shortfall. Link light rail’s extension from S. 200th St to S. 272nd in North Federal Way cannot be completed on schedule because of the drain, according to agency officials.

The agency will not recommend any options for that corridor to the board but instead will recommend a $2.5 million study to evaluate the various options to provide high-capacity transit to South King along the corridor.

All options are on the table, officials said. It seems likely that South Link will be terminated further north than expected, similar to Central Link terminating at SeaTac Airport instead of the originally planned S. 200th St station. The line could also be phased later than planned, like the University Link project currently under construction and expected to open 10 years behind the 1996 schedule. Under any option, South Link will undergo significant changes from what voters approved in 2008.

More after the jump…

Continue reading “Earl: Recession Means ST Can’t Deliver in 15 Years”

Yesterday 11 neighborhood projects were selected and funded by Bridging the Gap (BTG) through the Neighborhood Street Fund Large Project program. These projects will be designed and built over the next 3 years. The Lander Festival street project was on of the projects built during the last three year funding cycle.

The 11 projects are:

• Fairview Ave E and Fairview Ave N Intersection
• Garfield Superblock 23rd Avenue East
• N 143rd St between Palatine and Aurora Ave
• Maynard Ave between S Jackson St and S Dearborn St
• Ravenna Ave NE between 85th Ave NE and Lake City Way
• 13th Avenue NW between NW 90th Street and Holman Road
• S Orcas Street between Beacon Ave S and MLK Jr Way
• 25th Avenue SW from SW Brandon St to SW Juneau St
• S Othello Street between Seward Park Ave & Chief Sealth Trail
• California Ave SW at SW Holden, SW Othello, SW Frontenac and SW Findlay Sts
• 33rd Avenue NE between NE 125th St and NE 130th St

The press release after the jump: Continue reading “11 Neighborhood Street Projects Funded”

For the record, although I wouldn’t endorse every statement in it, I broadly agree with Fnarf’s prescription for the waterfront. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the winning presentation, which seemed to acknowledge that Seattle is a city and that we’re unlikely to transition to wilderness over two blocks.

Perhaps I merely heard what I wanted to hear. All of the presentations were vague enough that it could happen. However, Bertolet is right that there should be some private purposes on the waterfront, and that it’s not the architects but the City’s guidance that might cause problems.

What’s frustrating is that the anti-density rhetoric is frustratingly vague about what the real problems would be, instead relying on ambiguous analogy. First, City Councilwoman Sally Bagshaw:

“I’ve heard many people ask, ‘Are you going to allow giant condominiums and hotels along the waterfront?’ The answer is, no, and that is something I’ve been working to prevent, frankly, for years,” Bagshaw said. “We believe the [existing buildings that now face the viaduct] will turn toward the waterfront. … We do not want this to become Miami Beach. This is Seattle: We want to see the water and touch the water.”

Also, People’s Waterfront Coalition leader Cary Moon, who did a lot of good work on behalf of the surface/transit/I-5 option:

If we don’t give this opportunity the attention it deserves, staying focused on the public interest, our worst tendencies for laissez-faire development will likely prevail. The result could come out feeling like downtown Bellevue or a new subdivision in Dallas.

Leaving aside the “Dallas subdivision” example, which strikes me as silly, I don’t see any problem with hotels and condos. Having people live on the waterfront is better than alternative places for them to live, and guarantees that people are there year-round. Hotels, of course, generate jobs and tax revenue. And of course, the City profits from the sale of land in the first place.

As for Downtown Bellevue, for all its faults it’s much better for the region than another Enumclaw, and here in Seattle we know how to do better. And of course the most obvious urbanist critique of Bellevue — that the blocks are too large — is the single thing most easily controlled by the city.

It is true that this is not a terribly large piece of land. A bad decision here will not fatally wound the city. But we are spending $700m to build this space, in effect, and it makes sense to make the most out of this investment that we can.

The RapidRide A line is coming. There’s also a new route 910, some 520 money mandated through the State’s transit property tax legislation, more Transit Now service partnerships, and continued “efficiency” service cuts.

[Update: Specific route details are available on Metro’s website.]

For the record, trip planner shows the current trip from Federal Way to TC to TIB station on the 174 as taking 47 minutes in the middle of the day. RapidRide A will be 45 minutes at the same time of day.

From the press release:

• New routes – RapidRide A Line will connect Federal Way to Tukwila. Route 910, in partnership with the city of Auburn, will provide service between north and southwest Auburn.

• Added service – Trips will be added on Seattle-area routes 5, 7, 30, 60 and 75 through Transit Now partnerships. There is additional SR 520 service this fall on Metro routes 265 and 271 and with new ST 542. And, in other areas of the county, there is increased frequency of service on routes 164, 168 and 245.

• Discontinued – Route 174 is being replaced by RapidRide A Line.

• Closed – Parking at the Burien Transit Center will close Oct. 2. Interim parking will be available at 1st Avenue South and South 148th Street. That lot will be served by routes 121, 122, 123, 131 and 132. There is no change in bus service at the transit center.

• Routing and schedule changes, including some deleted trips – Routes 14, 16, 17, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 31, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 43, 45, 46, 53, 57, 65, 66, 68, 101, 105, 110, 113, 121, 123, 125, 129, 134, 139, 148, 149, 152, 164, 168, 177, 179, 182, 190, 196, 202, 209, 210, 212, 214, 232, 242, 245, 251, 255, 265, 266, 271, 304, 331, 342, 345, 346, 372, 600, 903, 919 and 925.

See also Pierce Transit.

[UPDATE: ST tells me there’s a typo in the booklet. Info on Routes 578 and 590 revised below.]

The new ST schedule book, effective October 2nd, is out. Changes:

Route 510: Minor schedule adjustments
Route 542: New service operating between Redmond and the University District
Route 550: Minor Saturday schedule adjustments and trips added
Route 556: Trip added to relieve overcrowding
Route 574: Trips eliminated and schedule adjustments to better match ridership
Route 578: New bay assignment at Federal Way Transit Center;
Route 590: Trips eliminated and schedule adjustments to better match ridership
Route 592: Significant schedule adjustments serving DuPont Station.
South Sounder: Minor schedule adjustments

The 542 is peak-only, but it’s a 7-hour peak with 15 minute headways.