Month: June 2011

• One Bus Away creator Brian Ferris in the Seattle Times technology blog.
• KUOW on the service’s future.
• Roosevelt neighborhood group says larger upzone would be “a grave insult to the Roosevelt Community”.
• Contractor responsible for Narrows Bridge Toll fiasco has had problems in other states.
• Bridge over the River Williamette.
• Cap’n Transit rails against airport-style security measures on buses and trains, saying they would make us less safe.
• Washington State Patrol issued 6,850 tickets for drivers’ cell phone use in the first 11 months of the law. Seems low to me.
• How to ride a bike in a roundabout.
• Kemper Freeman has given $500,000 to Eyman’s anti-toll, pro-crazy initiative.
• Meanwhile back in the real world, the connection between transportation and economic growth is obvious.
• Capitol Hill Construction video from the Seattle Times, good stuff.
• Photos of the same.
• How the Hiawatha line in Minneapolis saves money.
• How Vancouver’s transit system has handled the Stanley Cup finals.
• Smaller cars to pay less on ferries?

This is an open thread.

On Monday, the City of Bellevue elected to not exercise their option to finish out the Phase 1 study on the B7R alternative for the South Bellevue alignment, bringing up the July delivery date for the final report to arrive in time to influence the Sound Transit board’s final decision.

The final output is the interim report we discussed last month, for a total cost of $700,000. Had the report been completed as originally intended, the City would have also had the option of pursuing two additional follow-on phases, potentially costing up to $3m and taking as long as two years to complete. From the City’s press release:

Along with the report, council will send a letter to Sound Transit highlighting the benefits of the B7-Revised route — including fewer traffic impacts and better ridership — and asking the board to consider the route as the agency completes its final environmental review.

The Bellevue Reporter has a number of worthwhile details and quotes.

There will be  a public meeting on the report at City Hall, June 29th, 5:30pm.

To avoid implementing a cuts policy that would damage some of Metro’s most productive routes, the Regional Transit Task Force produced a report suggesting how Metro’s service allocation policy should change. That report has become a bill that is now about to be voted on by the Regional Transit Committee, an agglomeration of three county council members (with two votes each), two nominees of the Seattle City Council (one vote each), and eight municipal officers (1/2 vote each)  nominated by the Suburban Cities Association. See Section 270.20 of the County Charter.

You can read the final text of the bill or the (always helpful) staff notes. The bill includes several RTC amendments to provide some extra oversight, frequent review and re-approval of plan objectives, and codify the need for public outreach for plans that cut 10% or more of Metro service. There are also some minor tweaks to formulas.

My sources tell me this vote is likely to be unanimous. The way the RTC works, the County Council can either accept the unamended output of the RTC with a simple majority, or approve an amended version with six votes out of nine (Section 270.30).

The meeting begins at 3pm this afternoon, and I’m told it will be streamed here.

If, for some odd reason, you don’t have an ORCA card and want a chance to win a free one, Sound Transit has a promotion in anticipation for Dump the Pump Day this Thursday.  Winners get a free ORCA with $10 loaded onto the E-purse.  More details about rules and eligibility for the promo here.

Entering is rather simple and even easier if you already have a Twitter.  Simply tweet:

I dumped the pump @SoundTransit #STContest

But since most of you probably already have an ORCA card, it’s best to relay the word onto friends and family who don’t, especially those who aren’t regular transit users.  ST will also be out at area transit centers and park-and-rides on Thursday for small promos and free giveaways, so the very least you could do is take the bus or train then.

King County Metro’s upcoming RapidRide B Line will feature a passive restraint system that simplifies boarding for wheelchair and mobility device users, resulting in a faster ride for all users. As Metro describes, “users simply wheel into place without operator assistance, greatly speeding up boarding time.” Each RapidRide B Line bus will have two spaces for users of mobility devices: one passive restraint and one standard forward-facing with securement.

How does a passive restraint system work? The wheelchair user backs into a cushion and sets the brake. A stanchion or a foldable armrest prevents the wheelchair from tipping over and provides additional support. This allows rapid boarding and deboarding of disabled transit users in mobility devices i.e. no more complicated straps and belts. Passive restraint systems on transit buses are widely used in Canada and Europe and are beginning to be used on US BRT systems, like Community Transit’s Swift.

Metro has been evaluating the passive restraint system for RapidRide since early last year. That didn’t give Metro enough time to evaluate the feature and get it installed on A Line buses. “The plan is that if all is well on the B Line buses, we will retrofit the A Line buses”, said Metro spokesperson Linda Thielke. “We did have some structural features put on the A Line buses when manufactured so that they could be retrofitted.” There is potential that the feature be expanded system-wide, “although no specific plans have been made at this time.”

Several members of the Accessible Services Advisory Committee assisted Metro with evaluation of the passive restraint prototype (seen in photo above). They have been supportive of the feature. Experience in other cities like Vancouver BC suggests that after an initial learning period, passengers prefer passive restraint.

A good background document about the history and implementation of passive restraint systems is TCRP Synthesis 50: Use of Rear-Facing Position for Common Wheelchairs on Transit Buses.

In his letter to Seattle Department of Planning and Development Head Diane Sugimura about the Roosevelt Station Area up-zone, Mayor Mike McGinn said the city should ‘take towers “off the table”’ but that ‘the city needs to take a closer look at heights above 40 feet, such as 65 and 85 feet’. I am confident 85 or even 65 feet is completely workable, and it is possible at those heights to create the sort of neighborhoods that would allow Seattle residents to get their money’s worth from the light rail station. To find examples of sufficiently dense neighborhoods at that zoning, we don’t even need to go to Paris or New York, we can look right here in Seattle.

Reasons below the fold.

Continue reading “Opinion: For Roosevelt, 85 Feet is Plenty”

Thanks in part to contributions from light rail arch-opponent Kemper Freeman and his allies, in 2009 Bellevue elected a new 4-3 majority on the Bellevue City Council that later expressed its intent to change Sound Transit’s preferred South Bellevue alignment to the “B7” alignment along the BNSF railroad right of way. Although this would cost more to generate the same number of boardings and introduce new technical and schedule risks, it also would reduce impacts to vocal neighborhoods like Surrey Downs.

In 2011, four councilmembers will have their terms expire: B7 advocate Jennifer Robertson, and all three that prefer the Sound Transit preferred alignment: Grant Degginger, Claudia Balducci, and John Chelminiak.

Mr. Degginger has elected not to run again. His seat will be contested by well-funded Aaron Laing, supported by both Mr. Freeman and pro-B7 focal point Kevin Wallace, and John Stokes, who has not yet raised any money, has not expressed an opinion on the alignment, but the Times reports “he thinks enough study has been done for Sound Transit and the city to agree on a route.”

Patti Mann is also part of the Freeman slate, and is running against Ms. Balducci, who also serves on the Sound Transit Board.

Mr. Chelminiak is opposed by Michelle Hilhorst. I have an email in to Ms. Hilhorst asking for her position on the B Segment.

Ms. Robertson is running unopposed, so there is no opportunity to reverse the majority in this cycle.

Seattle City Council races get a lot more attention, but Bellevue is a big and important city that will receive a lot of light rail investment over the next two decades. Although it would be premature to label the Freeman-backed candidates as “anti-rail,” these races are well worth your time and money.

by TIM BOND

Last night Sound Transit held a 30% design open house for Brooklyn Station. Brooklyn Station is the southernmost station of North Link, which will extend U-Link from Husky Stadium to Northgate. This design combines the best elements of the two options shown in January. Brooklyn Station is projected to add 12,000 daily boardings by 2030.

Sound Transit briefly discussed the name of the station. Brooklyn Station is the working title. A community activist was on hand collecting signatures to petition ST to change the name to “University District Station”. A quick poll held at the beginning of the open house indicated strong support for this name, followed by “Brooklyn Station”, “NE 45th Station”, and “None of the above”. I’m a bit partial to “NE 45th Station”, as it eliminates the confusion between this and University Street Station. There’s already confusion betweeen Tukwila and Tukwila/Int’l Blvd stations. NE 45th Station might not be the best way to describe the neighborhood, but seems like the lesser of two evils.

The station box will be excavated under the 4300 block of Brooklyn Ave NE at the current location of Chase Bank. The station will have two entrances: one mid-block on Brooklyn and one at the northeast corner of Brooklyn and NE 43rd St. Both entrances will have elevators that go straight to the platform level and a bi-directional pair of escalators and stairs that lead to a mezzanine. A second set of escalators will lead from the mezzanine to the platform, which is located 75-85 feet below surface level. Stairs won’t be installed between the mezzanine and platform because few people would use stairs to climb 75 feet with a working escalator immediately adjacent. However there will be emergency access stairs from the platform that exit to the alley behind the station entrances. More after the jump.

Continue reading “Brooklyn Station Meeting Report”

String map from fsm vpggru on Vimeo.

(H/T: Commenter Lloyd)