Month: September 2011

Last month’s Central Link ridership was 26,221/26,627/20,905  for weekday/Saturday/Sunday. That’s right: Saturday was higher than weekdays, partly thanks to Seafair. Those are new revenue service records, up 1013%/16%/31% year-on-year. [UPDATE: ST spokesman Bruce Gray says the August 2010 numbers have been revised slightly downwards to 23,218.]

I don’t have July’s day-by-day numbers, but I believe August 12th was the single day revenue service boarding record, at 31,176. August 20th is the new Saturday mark at 28,592, and August 7th for Sundays at 26,714.

We never posted July’s numbers, which were 25,618/23,474/17,759.

From here, it’s the long, slow, cold descent into winter.

What was publicly billed as a hearing of the Seattle City Council in at Roosevelt High School last night quickly devolved into a bullfight of sorts, with Roosevelt Neighborhood Association land use committee chair Jim O’Halloran as the matador and the proposal for more density in the neighborhood as the bull. We all know what happens to the bull. After a presentation of the proposal by City staff most of the meeting was spent hammering the nine members of the City Council over and over again with the reasons why near by neighbors think increases in height near the high school would be a terrible thing.

The neighborhood’s reasons stated over and over, came down to three stated and one unstated one. First, neighbors feel that any changes from their plan would be an abrogation of the sovereignty of those who live “near by.” That is, there is privilege that comes simply from living down the street from a proposed project that should afford those people the right to veto changes to zoning in their neighborhood. And let’s not forget the “many hours in meetings” neighborhood planners invested. Rejecting that would be a slap in the face by the Council to hard working citizen planners.

Second, the views in and out of the high school would be blocked. On the few days a year when cloud cover breaks, local neighbors want high schoolers busy at work on reading Moby Dick perhaps, to be able to look up and see the tip of Mount Rainier. And they want to be sure as they walk their dogs on 65^th they can gaze up at the iconic high school after scooping. I’m not sure why it is so important to keep an eye on the school so intently. Is someone trying to steal it? I thought David Copperfield was retired, had he threatened to make it disappear? More after the jump.

Continue reading “Ole! Upzone proposal gets skewered in Roosevelt”

As we reported last week the B-segment of East Link is still not finalized, with the City of Bellevue going through a blitz of public engagement over the next week. Tonight the city will hold an open house to get feedback from the public on the latest design options, and next Monday the City Council will address the topic at it’s regular meeting time.

Yesterday, the city released design drawing showing two design options that have been further refined through coordination between the City and Sound Transit. Option B, shown above, is a fully grade separate option with both elevated and retained cut segments. The elevated segment crosses 112th Ave SE at roughly SE 15th St, first reported here. The elevated crossing and retained cut design further north eliminates the only two at-grade crossings between Seattle and downtown Bellevue, assuming a downtown tunnel (C9T) is built. Option C is an at-grade design with Link crossing from the east side of 112th Ave SE to the west side at SE 15th St. Option A is essentially the original B2M at-grade design with Link crossing 112th Ave SE at SE 6th St. The changes reflected in Option B and C are in response to the city’s insistence that Sound Transit use “exceptional mitigation” for design of this segment.

Finances for East Link are already strained, and while Option B is undoubtedly the most expensive, it could be a win for both sides. It would meet the city’s desire for exceptional mitigation while giving Sound Transit a higher quality design, with completely grade-separate operations between downtown Bellevue and Seattle. This would increase reliability and slightly reduce travel time, and combined with a downtown Bellevue tunnel, could give Sound Transit more operational flexibility over the long term.

With serious cuts to transit and transportation proposed at the federal level, various national organizations have banded together to form ‘Don’t X Out Public Transit’ – a campaign to rally against cuts and support federal investment in transit.  Some of the organizations include heavy hitters, like Reconnecting America, Amalgamated Transit Union, and American Public Transportation Association.

Tomorrow is the official ‘Don’t X Out Public Transit’ day, with a few things you can help out with:

Get involved by taking action on September 20 and telling Congress that now is the time to invest in public transportation infrastructure! Now is not the time for cuts.

• Attend a rally event near you
• Contact your Congressional representatives
• Spread the word
• Ride public transit and WEAR RED!

In addition to taking the above actions, tell us why public transit is so important to you. Share your transit story of about 500 words with us by e-mailing us at dontx.publictransit @ gmail dot com. We may post your story here.

While there won’t be any rallies here, the Seattle Transit Riders’ Union will be out and about handing out promotional materials so be sure to say hi if you see them around.

Metro’s newish service change website format is great. The October 1st change details are out:

• Total restructure of Eastside service to accompany Rapid Ride B.
• West Seattle-Sodo routes move from 1st Ave S to 4th Ave S. That’s better connectivity to points south and Link, if nothing else.
• Viaduct construction mitigation brings the 54 to 15-minute frequency midday and Saturday.
• Children’s Hospital buys some new trips on the 75; new trips on the 193, 211, 303, 309, 522, 545, 577, and 586.

A recent and rich study, by Needham Hurst “How Does Light Rail Transit Affect Urban Land Use?” takes a close look at how land use changed around light rail stations in Minneapolis over the last decade. The study confirms the obvious: light rail transforms land use patterns, promoting the development of vacant and underutilized land. Light rail stations also boost demand for housing and commercial space and contribute to an overall transformation of the built environment.

Tonight the Seattle City Council will consider land use changes in the Roosevelt neighborhood, where a new Link Light Rail station is planned. What’s at stake in Roosevelt is the future of light rail in Seattle. Until now, the course of land use decisions in station areas has trended toward conservative and incremental change when there has been change at all.

Hurst’s work confirms many of the suspicions of “density freaks” that see the opportunity to channel growth into a tight circle around transit stations, especially areas with vacant land like Roosevelt:

Vacant land experienced the highest magnitude and radius of LRT’s effect. Vacant land was the first type of property to be converted to denser uses—indicating the Hiawatha Line increased the marginal accessibility of properties enough to generate higher housing demand, high prices, and which in turn incentivized development on vacant properties.

In Roosevelt there is a panhandle of vacant and derelict land that extends from the station area entrance for a few blocks east, paralleling the high school and 65^th. Neighbors justifiably upset with the owner of the panhandle are bitterly opposed to his realizing a profit from turning those properties into mixed-use development. More after the jump.

Continue reading “Roosevelt rezones up for discussion tonight”

Best practice guides to high quality public transport for medium sized cities in Europe.

Metro put together a decent map showing the improved Eastside frequent & all-day transit network, featuring the RapidRide B Line, that will begin service on October 1st. Metro will be distributing these maps as a “pocket guide” to the Eastside transit network. The other side has a frequency chart and list of connections to major destinations on the Eastside, plus park & ride locations and fare information. This is a good initiative from Metro to promote its new and improved service. I hope to see these maps in the hands of as many as possible and that these maps be posted at the Eastside transit centers for all to see.

This map uses a similar color scheme to the Spokane transit map. The RapidRide B Line stands out as the Eastside’s main transit route with a thick and dark red line. Frequent service (every 15 minutes most of the day) routes are a thinner light blue. Other all-day service (every 30 minutes) are an even thinner light green. Peak-only routes are not shown. I printed it on an 8.5 x 14 inch sheet of paper from a monochrome laser printer and was able to read the map, even though the background colors and tiny streets were washed out. The green is a little too light, almost blending into the background.

Unlike Spokane’s schematic map, this is a geographic based map produced from a GIS. Metro wanted to show the underlying street grid which is helpful on the cul-de-sac dominated Eastside where walking to the main roads isn’t as straightforward as it appears. There are different intentions here in the role of each map. Spokane is creating a hierarchy of maps with a simplified system map providing the big picture and the route map providing street block level detail (also compare with Community Transit’s route map). While Metro has done the opposite with a big detailed map and simplified route maps, the one big map is all you need.

I can see Metro taking this style and quickly adapting it to the system map and expect them to produce something similar for Seattle when the C & D lines launch next year. It’s nice to see Metro finally getting maps done right.

Metro doesn’t provide a link to print or download the map but I found the source images for the map and the information tables. Warning: they are very large 2-3 MB image files.

As for my Eastside transit map, I’m still working on it. I’m going for a schematic to see how that’ll work compared to this map.

Transportation Choices Coalition’s big annual fundraiser is Thursday, Sept. 22nd!

Join us for Transportation Choices’ annual event, “What Choices Look Like”

We’ll be unveiling our new logo and website and showing you how transportation choices can transform individuals and communities. You’ll be snacking, drinking, and mingling with other fabulous people who care about how Washingtonians get around.

It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year, and we hope you can be there to make a difference.

If you’re looking for a way to deploy your money to improve transit around here, TCC is one of the better choices you can make. Although they do some organizing, their greatest contribution is probably to provide a body of expertise to translate the kind of values we advocate for here into policy at the legislative level. So there you have it: able advocates, “fabulous people,” and me.

And undoubtedly the website is ready for a relaunch.

If you thought Bellevue’s light rail saga was over, think again.  Over the next two weeks, the city will host two public meetings – an open house next Tuesday and a public hearing the Monday after – all on the subject of East Link, namely mitigation for the B2M route and terms of an MOU with Sound Transit to fund the downtown tunnel.

With ST’s adoption of the final preferred alignment, these meetings shouldn’t end up being about routing or mode choice, but that won’t stop Link opponents from using any tactic possible to drag this process on longer. The City Council’s latest complaint? That the timeline for the October 24th MOU deadline is “unrealistic,” according to City Councilmember Kevin Wallace. We’ve heard rumors that the pro-B7 council quorum might try to push this deadline out, possibly even after the council changes next January.

If anyone’s at fault for the short timeline, it’s the City, which has had plenty of time to execute an outreach process and work out an agreement with ST – but instead, it’s been wasting its effort and money pushing for options that are already clearly not cost effective, like B7-R and the Vision Line. Pinning the blame on ST certainly won’t make Bellevue look any better. If the City Council wants to get serious about collaboration and getting the tunnel it wants, it would do well to stick to ST’s timeline, which it has already impacted.

The upcoming meetings, especially the public hearing, are going to be an important chance for Bellevue citizens, the majority of whom voted for East Link, to stand up against these tactics and join other key regional voices in pushing for mass transit now.