Month: March 2011

The 2004 Comprehensive Plan designated South Lake Union as an urban center, and it laid out ambitious growth targets.  Since then we’ve seen solid growth in the neighborhood through the Hutchinson Cancer Center, Amazon’s relocation, and of course the Seattle Streetcar.  But the real potential for densification lies in incentivized upzones, and to that end the City of Seattle has released a draft Environmental Impact Statement, South Lake Union: Height and Density Alternatives.  It studies the environmental impacts of three zoning alternatives that would create space for 23,000-31,500 jobs and 15,000-21,000 residences.

More after the jump… Continue reading “South Lake Union: How High Should We Go?”

Metro is going to eliminate a bunch of stops on Beacon Hill (and beyond) on April 2:

Currently, the corridors have a combined 137 bus stops south of S Jackson Street, with an average stop spacing of about 920 feet. The plan will remove 28 of these stops, plus two on East Marginal Way S, increasing the average spacing between stops to about 1,150 feet.

As a result of the changes, approximately 11 percent of Route 36 and 60 riders who board south of S Jackson Street will have to catch their bus at a different stop. When the project is completed, all riders should have a faster, more reliable trip.

Good news. You can comment here. Comments are due by March 21st.

The quarterly ridership report is out, including all the 2010 year-end numbers. As always, there’s on-time data, per-route ridership counts and so on. I wish Metro could regularly release similar numbers.

ST Express ridership is trending down, which is widening the gap in (operating) cost per boarding between express buses and Link.

Metro’s RapidRide program may be in jeopardy if $68 million of federal Small Starts funding isn’t restored. As reported last week, the U.S. House of Representatives cut funding for transit capital investment programs in its continuing appropriations bill. In addition to cutting funding for RapidRide’s C (West Seattle), E (Aurora) and F (Burien-Renton) lines from the proposed budget, the House rescinded previously appropriated but not yet obligated funding for the B (Bellevue-Redmond) Line. President Obama’s budget proposal recommended full funding for the RapidRide program.

The B Line is scheduled to launch this October. Metro has ordered the buses and construction is ready to begin. The Federal Transit Administration is currently going through the process which would lead to an agreement, committing $9.3 million in funds to construction. A possible government shutdown would stop the process and the passed House bill would take that money away.

Congress is scheduled to resolve 2011 funding for the B and C lines this month and 2012 funding for the E and F lines this summer. Whatever happens, uncertainty with funding would delay the project and future RapidRide lines. Metro has to make a decision soon to purchase buses for the C and D (Ballard) lines.

Metro is looking to fund 44% of the cost of RapidRide capital improvements with federal grants. That’s $93 million out of a total cost of $210 million for six lines (A-F). Of the $93 million, $25 million has been secured for the recently opened A Line and part of the B Line. Funding for operating the service has already been committed by the King County Council.

With the shortfall in local revenue, Metro has been really competitive in obtaining federal grant money. Amenities like real time passenger information and the addition of more speed and reliability improvements were crucial in winning federal grants.

In a briefing on Monday, Metro’s General Manager Kevin Desmond has not yet outlined specific actions in the event of reduced federal funding but has said that Metro is constantly in contact with Washington’s congressional delegation. A loss in funds would result in significant reductions to the RapidRide program. Such reductions may include reduction in scope by eliminating amenities, delaying or cancelling future lines, or cancelling other services or programs to fund RapidRide.

Following the failure of a sales tax increase last month, the Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners authorized staff on Monday to begin work on 35% cut to take effect in October:

The Board directed staff to go forward in reducing the system by approximately 35% by October, 2011.  All service and staff reductions will occur by that date.  These actions will stabilize the agency’s finances and allow for short and long-term sustainability…

Dates and times for the public hearings will be announced in a later communication.  The Board will take formal action for the October service reduction at their May 9, 2011 meeting.

The PT Tomorrow website is a pretty good preview of what cuts would look like. Personally, I’d like to see PT shrink its service area and focus on maintaining good service in the core cities, also shrinking the electorate to districts much more likely to vote to improve service.

Sound Transit is hosting an open house about the S. 200th St station, which is likely to open in 2016 but could slide to 2020. It’ll be at Seatac City Hall at 5pm Wednesday night.

Last week I started looking for answers to some questions I had about transit oriented development. Today, I want to see if I can answer the question “are we doing enough to keep supply in pace with this increased demand?”

According to this report, “Hidden in Plain Sight; Capturing American’s Demand for Housing Near Transit”, sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration, Fannie Mae and the Surdna foundation, in 2004 there were just 6.1 million households currently residing within a half-mile of a fixed-guideway transit station in the US. By 2025, the report estimates there will be at demand for at least 14.6 million households, which represents a quarter of new households expected. According to the authors, there could be even more if growth rates increase or gasoline prices rise more than expected.

This is good news, right? Maybe not. According to the study, there were 3,341 fixed-guideway transit system stations in the US in 2004, but the number was only expected to grow by 630 stations by 2025. That number may be a bit off today- a number of transit systems are in various stages of construction across the country right now. Still it’s certainly correct in order of magnitude if not precise. My next post will highlight some of what could happen if the gap is not closed, but today I’d like to talk about ways of doing just that.

Continue reading “The Supply of Housing Near Transit”

Yesterday Executive Constantine released The Strategic Plan for Public Transportation. Since his election, Constantine has shied way from the spotlight, focusing on making county government operate as well and efficiency as possible. The Regional Transit Task Force (RTTF) was a key element of this with relation to transit. In general the strategic plan shouldn’t be a major surprise. It lays out what should be expect from Metro as an agency, i.e. safe operations, access to service countywide, support economic growth, etc.

More interesting is the updated accompanying Service Guidelines, which outlines the process by which Metro plans service. Before this point service proposals to the RTTF didn’t had firmly defined performance thresholds, it was more about the general approach not the actual numbers. Specific performance thresholds are now proposed. Also Metro has carried forward the “screen process” for planning with several changes.

First Metro looks at land use and social equity. Next service is added back that surpasses certain cost recovery, load or connection threshold or requirements. The next step is the largest change. Peak service is then added over the previously defined all-day network with the requirement that it is more than 20% faster than all-day routes and riders per trip is 90% of a competing route. The document also outlines service design guidelines that are very similar to what the RTTF recommended.

This is all very promising and exciting.