Month: April 2013

Via StreetsBlog SF, this is interior layout of Muni’s newest 40′ coaches:

Metro should take note:

• Passive restraint wheelchair seating, to give wheelchair riders a faster, less-invasive securement option.
• Forward section prioritizes standing capacity and passenger circulation, while still providing up-front seats for frail or disabled passengers who need them.
• Virtually indestructible seats.

Word is that the new 60′ trolleybuses will have three doors and RapidRide-style seating layout, similar to this, but the 40′ trolleys may end up with the 2×2 commuter seating Metro loves so much. That makes sense in the suburbs, but it’s just not going to cut it in the city. We need a bus fleet where interior circulation doesn’t fail completely the moment the bus runs short of seats, or someone brings on a stroller. The buses on Seattle core routes need to have interiors that look like this.

Last Thursday evening, over a hundred community members showed up to attend Sound Transit’s kick-off open house for East Link final design, beginning with the Bel-Red corridor segment.  The project is nearing the 60% design mark, at which point specific design elements for stations, trackways, etc. will be refined and new cost estimates modeled.  Thursday’s open house zeroed in on Bel-Red and East Link’s integration into the City of Bellevue’s vision for the neighborhood.

The Bel-Red corridor redevelopment has been a major planning initiative in Bellevue for quite some time now.  The area is expected to add 5,000 new housing units and 10,000 new employees over the next two decades.  In response, the City is upgrading the infrastructure, with a network of rebuilt streets and a new grid with East Link at the centerpiece.  Let’s take a look at the designs of the two stations, which have already progressed quite a bit.

Continue reading “Sound Transit Kicks Off East Link Final Design”

by SARAH SNIDER

In many North American cities a growing number of parents choose to stay downtown after they have children rather than immediately flee to the suburbs. Thanks to the Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and their Emerging Professionals Travel Scholarship, I was able to travel to a handful of these cities to learn the secrets to creating a family-friendly downtown. I dug into issues of neighborhood design, urban housing, recreation, and transportation. I also looked carefully at the incredibly important link between education and housing for parents, as Jon Scholes recently described.

Through a series of interviews and neighborhood visits, I noticed a series of trends that are happening nationwide. One such trend is that these new urban parents are organizing to change cities, hoping that they can stay in the downtown neighborhood they love while still supporting the needs of their growing family. They are using their collective power to fundraise to build playgrounds and make their voices heard at school board meetings and city council meetings. I also came away from my travels with a number of suggested policy and design solutions to help make cities, including Seattle, more family-friendly. Those research findings are compiled in a Family-Friendly Urbanism exhibit currently on display at AIA Seattle’s gallery space* through April 26th.

More importantly for the future of Seattle’s family-friendliness, AIA Seattle, the Seattle Department of Planning and Development, the Seattle Planning Commission, and the Downtown Seattle Association are co-hosting a day-long forum about the topic. Ingredients for Designing a Family-Friendly Downtown will take place at City Hall on April 11th. International, national, and local speakers will be in attendance to discuss housing, education, recreation, transportation, and the market realities of retaining families with children in urban neighborhoods.

Will you join us on April 11th to further the conversation?

*1911 First Avenue, open Tuesday through Friday from 10 am to 5 pm.

The City Council has decided to eschew Vulcan’s offer to give millions for affordable housing so Vulcan could build taller towers on a few blocks in South Lake Union. I disagree with that decision, but no one gets what they want all the time. So fine.

But this has my blood boiling:

“One hundred and sixty feet gives additional density and makes a wonderful place for all, not just those who can afford to live in the towers,” said Councilmember Sally Bagshaw.

Class warfare is a really nasty business. So before Sally Bagshaw congratulates herself overmuch, it’s worth noting that this isn’t some sort of victory against solely “those who can afford to live in towers”, but also a rout against those struggle to afford housing at all. Vulcan was going to provide $10~$12 million dollars worth to provide for affordable housing in this plan, and the council is putting an end to that.

A wonderful place for all, just not those who can’t afford it.

It’s been just over three months since car2go unleashed its army of rent-by-the-minute Smart Four-Twos on Seattle, and judging by the service’s rapid growth (fastest in the US, per car2go), my experience, and the experiences of others I know who use the service, car2go has already become a crucial component of car-free or car-lite living in the parts of the city it serves. This period of time, short for any new business model to catch on with the public, seems like the blink of an eye to those of us who deal regularly with public agencies, where minor and uncontroversial changes like schedule tweaks or bus stop relocations are ordeals of several months duration.

As I promised when I last sat down with CEO Nick Cole to relay the great questions you asked, I’ll be following up with another interview this week. The car2go team were impressed with our smart and well-informed commenters, so I’m turning it back over to you folks for another round of questions and comments. I’d particularly like to hear:

• Success stories: Specifically, ways car2go has made living car-lite or car-free possible or easier; or has allowed you to sell (or seriously contemplate selling) a car. Bonus points if they’re things you’d never have thought of before signing up.
• Useful, detailed criticism: How could car2go be better? While I’ve had no problems with the service, Jarrett Walker has repeatedly encountered an immobilizer firmware bug, and from people who’ve had to refueled a car2go, I’ve heard nothing good about that process; has anyone else experienced these? Are there times and places of chronic unavailability?

I’ve been moving apartments recently, using ZipCar SUVs and ZipVans. These models are hard to find on weekends, and often only available in faraway spots. Especially on Sundays, when most Metro services drop to 30-minute headways, getting across town in a timely fashion on buses is almost impossible, and I don’t feel like hitching my bike up for hours in an unfamiliar parking lot. So, while I never would have thought of this, I’ve used car2go on several occasions to access ZipCars, when the only viable alternative was a more expensive and less convenient cab ride.

The main improvement I’d like to see is one more small expansion of the home area a little further down to Othello in the Rainier Valley, and up north, covering Lake City to 145th St. These strike me as the last areas of the city to remain unserved despite having the level of mixed-use density needed to sustain car2go service. And I still dream of being able to tap in to a car2go with my phone, rather than having to carry another card.

The deadline for questions is tomorrow at noon. Feel free to discuss car sharing generally in this thread.

by KATIE WILSON for SEATTLE TRANSIT RIDERS UNION

Late Saturday evening, transit riders and supporters, joined by King County Councilmember Larry Phillips and other representatives from local and state government, will march up the Magnolia bridge to highlight the impact of cuts to transit service and to show state legislators that King County needs sustainable funding for Metro.

The idea for the Midnight March originated when transit riders in Magnolia, organizing to restore their late evening service, challenged their Council Representative Phillips to walk the route that they now must walk when they miss the last bus to their neighborhood at 10:20 pm.

It turns out that not all Magnolia residents are rich and own cars. Jim McIntosh, founder of the Magnolia Transit Riders group, explains: “It is the elderly, the low-income, the blind and visually impaired, people with other handicapping conditions, people who do not drive and the young who suffer the most when there is no public transportation.” He hopes the march will help elected officials to recognize the devastating impact of transit service cutbacks on communities and neighborhoods.

But of course this is not just a Magnolia issue. Metro is facing possible 17% cuts next year, and restoring service in Magnolia could mean cutting needed service elsewhere. So the Magnolia riders are working with the Transit Riders Union to turn this event into a broader statement about the need for sustainable and progressive funding for public transit. All county and city elected officials and 36 th District state legislators have been invited to participate.

Please join us! We are working on arranging carpools and other transportation for non-Magnolia residents after the march. On that same day the Transit Riders Union is also having a potluck from 12-3pm at the Downtown YMCA, 909 4th Avenue, at which we will be launching their new Transit Reader newsletter and making phone calls to key state legislators. All are welcome.

• Place: 1541 15th Avenue W, in front of Staples at the foot of the Magnolia Bridge.
• Meeting Time: 11:00 pm for speeches and rally
• March Time: 11:30 pm; we expect the walk to take about 45 minutes
• End Point: Magnolia Village Pub, 3221 W. McGraw St.

For more information:

• Magnolia Transit Riders: James McIntosh – MagnoliaTransitRiders@Centurylink.net – 206-518-0885
• Transit Riders Union: Katie Wilson – katie@transitriders.org – 206-651-4282
• Website: www.transitriders.org
• Facebook: TRU Facebook Page, Event Page, Potluck Event Page.

by B NOURISH

SEATTLE TRANSIT BLOG EXCLUSIVE:

Metro GM Desmond is doing a press briefing today, describing what Metro riders will face if the legislature doesn’t come through with addition taxing authority for King County:

“Our analysis shows that we should be adding service to meet growing demand, but the sad reality is that – without ongoing and sufficient funding – potentially one-third of our routes are on the chopping block, and another 40 percent of our routes face reductions and revisions,” said Metro Transit General Manager Kevin Desmond. “The result would be even more crowded buses, riders left at the curb, or people climbing back into their cars – something that would worsen the region’s traffic congestion and hurt the economic engine of the state.”

Metro’s report details the performance of the transit system’s 217 routes and shows at-risk routes.

Routes at risk for deletion (65 routes): 7EX, 19, 21EX, 22, 25, 27, 30, 37, 48NEX, 57, 61, 76, 77EX, 82, 83, 84, 99, 110, 113, 114, 118EX, 119, 119EX, 123EX, 139, 152, 154, 157, 159, 161, 173, 179, 190, 192, 197, 200, 201, 203, 205EX, 210, 211EX, 213, 215, 216, 237, 243, 244EX, 250, 257, 260, 265, 268, 277, 280, 304, 308, 601EX, 907DART, 910DART, 913DART, 914DART, 919DART, 927DART, 930DART and 935DART.

Routes at risk for reductions and revisions (86 routes): 1, 2S, 2N, 3S, 3N, 4S, 4N, 5, 5EX, 7, 8, 9EX, 10, 11, 12, 14S, 16, 21, 24, 26, 26EX, 28, 28EX, 29, 31, 36, 41, 43, 47, 48N, 60, 65, 66EX, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 106, 107, 116EX, 118, 121, 122, 125, 148, 156, 177, 181, 182, 186, 187, 193EX, 202, 204, 209, 214, 221, 224, 226, 232, 234,  235, 236, 238, 241, 245, 246, 248, 249, 255, 269, 271, 309EX, 311, 312EX, 331, 355EX, 372EX, 373EX, 901DART, 903DART, 908DART, 909DART and 931DART.

Routes potentially unchanged (66 routes): 13, 15EX, 17EX, 18EX, 32, 33**, 40, 44, 48S, 49, 50, 55**, 56**, 62, 64EX, 74EX, 75, 101, 102, 105, 111, 120, 124, 128, 131**, 132**, 140, 143EX, 150, 153, 155, 158, 164, 166, 167, 168, 169, 178, 180, 183, 212, 217, 218, 240, 242, 252, 301, 303EX, 306EX, 316, 330, 342, 345, 346, 347, 348, 358EX, A Line, B Line, C Line, D Line, 773, 775, 915DART, 916DART, 917DART (** Routes not reduced because we expect productivity to be above the bottom 25 percent threshold due to changes since spring 2012)

This list of routes shows the potential for cuts and revisions, however considerable additional analysis would follow during the coming year. As work continues, the public will receive additional information and opportunities to give input, both online and in face-to-face forums starting this fall.

Now, I’ll be the first to say that a few of those routes slated for a deletion are bottom-of-the-barrel routes that probably shouldn’t exist (e.g. 7X, 25, 37), but it’s evident that these cuts would go beyond just cutting out fat and into bone (e.g. 21X, 57). What “reductions and revisions” we might see for the Seattle core routes isn’t yet clear.

You can follow the live-tweets here: https://twitter.com/kcmetrobus.

UPDATE: And here are some maps: http://metro.kingcounty.gov/am/future/

When the City Fathers began construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal over a century ago, shipping on Lake Washington was an important industry. Today, however, it’s hard to make that claim.

Lake Washington has been left to the pleasure boats. People enjoying their yachts isn’t the worst thing in the world, but we clearly would not launch such a huge infrastructure project today for such a trivial purpose.

Meanwhile, the ship canal massively inflates the complexity and cost of most transportation lines that cross it. University Link had to lose lots of altitude from Capitol Hill to go under the cut, a constraint that both lengthened the tunnel and essentially eliminated the possibility of additional stations.

On the other side of town, Seattle and Sound Transit are trying to figure out how to pay for a new drawbridge at Fremont and some sort of grade-separated crossing at Ballard. If Seattle gets what it needs, it will be many additional hundreds of millions of dollars to cross this entirely artificial barrier.

Weighed against the cost of pushing dirt into a ditch, restoring the path between Fremont and Ballard to a creek, and the denial of boating routes to a wealthy few, the choice is clear. There are many legal obstacles (not least the fact that both canals are historic places of some kind). But the right thing to do is the right thing to do, even if those in the wrong will fight against it.