I pass through the Mt. Baker transit hub, using just about every mode, perhaps a dozen times a week. With all this exposure, I often think I’ve fully cataloged its faults, only to stumble upon whole new layers of design flaw. At the moment, ST doesn’t plan very many more elevated stations, but perhaps exploring these flaws will spread a few lessons.
As always, these flaws are not the result of incompetence or malice of individuals, but instead very real technical, legal, political, and/or fiscal constraints. I’ve footnoted a brief explanation of why many of these flaws exist, courtesy of ST spokesman Bruce Gray. These explanations in no way diminish the ongoing inconvenience for riders.
London Eye Twilight April 2006 via Wikimedia Commons
Don’t forget that tomorrow during lunch Jarrett Walker and Darrin Nordahl will be debating their opposing views of what transit needs to do to attract more riders. If you’re not able to make it to the lunch event, there will also be a debate at Town Hall tomorrow night as well starting at 7:30. Get tickets for that event here.
Personally I’m confused why this is even debatable as ferris wheels are fun but they don’t get you anywhere, just like driving isn’t fun, at least for most people, but can get you just about anywhere. Last time I checked most cities weren’t overrun with ferris wheels, if you get my drift. Regardless, it should be a fun a lively debate. Details below the jump. Continue reading “Reminder: Utility Vs Fun”
A recent comment thread had the familiar, tiresome morality play about subsidies to drivers and transit. I think the use of “you are subsidized” as a moral critique is totally bankrupt, but nevertheless there appears to be genuine confusion about the sales tax exemption for gasoline and why that’s a subsidy, displayed by people I have every reason to believe are asking in good faith.
The general sales tax levied on most retail goods is not levied on gasoline. This exemption, according to a 2008 Dept. of Revenue report, amounts to an annual revenue loss of $500m to the State and a further $156m per year to local governments (previous post on this subject). Obviously, the precise value moves around with the price and consumption rate of gas, but in any case this is functionally equivalent to the state writing checks to lower the price of gas.
Instead, the state levies a per-gallon gasoline tax of 37.5 cents per gallon, on top of 18.4 cents per gallon by the Federal Government. Although the state portion is roughly equivalent in magnitude to the sales tax, according to the 18th amendment to the state constitution, it must be used solely for “highway purposes.”
This is a crucial distinction. For most other industries, the products are taxed and the revenues flow into the general fund to support education, public safety, and whatnot. For drivers, the revenues must be used to support driving by providing roads that are (mostly) free at the point of use. This is not a neutral treatment of driving, any more than dedicating all taxes on nails to hammer subsidies would be neutral treatment of the hammer industry.
It’s true that gasoline is hardly the only item that is subsidized through the tax code. The list of exemptions is hundreds of pages long, and government applies more traditional subsidies to things like education and transit. There’s even a non-crazy social justice case to be made for a gas exemption, although like the food exemption we’d be better off repealing it and focusing the revenue on targeted assistance to the poor. But anti-transit folks should drop the martyrdom complex that they’re honorably paying their own way while a bunch of parasitic transit riders leech off of them.
PSRC wants to know where and why Puget Sound bicyclists ride, and they have partnered with Bay Area smartphone app Cycle Tracks to allow bicyclists to record their trips and share their data directly with PSRC. The data will help prioritize present and future investments in bicycle infrastructure and will improve the ability of planners to model cycling demand variables such as slope, arterial speed, presence or absence of bike lanes, etc…
Cyclists may start using the app anytime, while PSRC will begin collecting data on May 1. The app is available only for iPhone (download) and Android (download). The app asks for your age, email, gender, home/work/school ZIP, and cycling frequency, but all of these inputs are voluntary. For the purpose of grouping trips by user, the app does require your Unique Device Identifier, but this data will not be shared.
I have been testing out the app for the past week, and it has a generally pleasant user interface and its basic functions work well. Trips are saved by date and trip purpose, all trips are mapped, and average speed is given. Other apps such as SpeedTracker provide more information, such as color-coding your map by speed so you can see your bottlenecks. There are some unfortunate quirks, such as the app only being able to run on an active (though dimmed) screen (i.e. you can’t press the top button on an iPhone or this will stop the trip from being recorded) Using CycleTracks on my 13-mile bike commute drains about 35% of the battery.
Overall, this app represents a nice chance for cyclists to allow their own travel preferences to directly impact how planners understand cycling. An app FAQ is here, and questions can be referred to Peter Schmiedeskamp, pschmiedeskamp@psrc.org.
With more than 7,000 boardings a day, the Route 120 is one of Metro’s 10 busiest bus routes. Metro has received a state grant to improve the speed and reliability of the route, and has several changes planned that will be rolled out in coordination with the cities of Burien. They include:
• Reduce the number of closely spaced bus stops to help buses move faster and operate on a more reliable schedule; [see below]
• Improve features at bus stops, such as installing new shelters and benches;
• Add a northbound bus lane and bike lanes on Delridge Way Southwest; [diagram (pdf) here]
• Install a “bus bulb” sidewalk extension for faster boarding at 26th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Barton Street; and
• Install transit signal priority at many traffic signals between the Burien Transit Center and the West Seattle Bridge.
The open house will be held:
Tuesday, April 24 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Youngstown Cultural Arts Center
4408 Delridge Way SW, Seattle
You can also learn more about the project and comment online. The deadline for comments is Friday, April 27.
If you have questions about the open house or project, please contact DeAnna Martin, community relations planner at (206) 263-9768 or by email.
The change would occur around the new year. This page has much more information about the change.
Of the 89 stops between S Spokane St and Burien TC, about 21 would disappear, but they’d still be less than a quarter mile apart. About 17% of riders in that segment would have their stop disappear or move. The stop changes will also affect routes 125, 128, 22, 85, 133, and 560.
Via John Niles, a map of vehicle registrations of cars parked in the Tukwila/International Blvd lot:
Sound Transit confirmed that it took this data on a single day — January 10th — sometime between 9am and 3pm.
I find the distribution of this somewhat surprising. Beyond the outliers (Mercer Island?) that are presumably using this as airport parking, it’s revealing to see the large numbers coming over from Renton and Kent, site of Sounder service that is in many ways superior. Is this an artifact of parking shortages at Sounder, or of the advantages of Link over Sounder in terms of span of service, frequency, and destinations?
Washington and Oregon recently announced a new partnership that will develop a plan for managing passenger rail services between Eugene, Oregon and Vancouver, B.C., as a single corridor, rather than two separate corridors as today. Transportation officials in Washington and Oregon signed an agreement that begins the ground work for faster, reliable, and more frequent Amtrak Cascades service.
What does this mean for passengers? Right now, little will change on the ground, but cost management, productivity, capital planning, and scheduling will be under a single office. John Sibold is the new Cascade Corridor director. Sibold has been the Rail and Marine director at the Washington State Department of Transportation since August and will focus on improving the reliability of passenger-rail service and managing the state’s freight lines.
