Month: July 2013

• Lynnwood Link Draft EIS ready for your comments; four meetings next month.
• McGinn’s rivals criticize his Whole Foods decision the same way I did. But they told a local union the exact opposite.
• Frank explains the Metro revenue situation in Real Change.
• Parking requirements consuming huge amounts of space.
• Seattle Bike Blog is all over the Bicycle Master Plan; last day for comment is Friday.
• Public comment on PSRC’s “Rural Town Centers and Corridors Program” runs through August 9th.
• Central Link carried a revenue service record of 42,000 riders on Friday.
• Peter Steinbrueck on land use and transportation.
• Richard Conlin summarizes recent Council activity on transportation, including the ship canal crossing delay that he voted against.
• Metro strategic plan updated.
• Seattle Childrens’ gives $500,000 to Puget Sound Bike Share.
• McGinn proposes traffic calming measures for NE 75th St.
• Metro’s ad policy quietly changes ($), allowing more controversial ads.
• You can now pay for some city parking with your phone.
• Washington Court of Appeals rules that PSRC doesn’t have to obey Washington’s climate law in developing its alternatives. Continue reading “News Roundup: Public Comment Everywhere”

Sound Transit is collecting rider stories now through the end of the week on their social media channels. Got a good story you can share in a Tweet, Facebook post, or Instagram pic?  Follow Sound Transit on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram and use the hashtag #riderstory to share it. They’ll be re-posting the best and might even contact you about a future video series.

In order to improve the movement of East Link vehicles to the Operation and Maintenance Facility (OMF) at SODO and operational flexibility in general Sound Transit staff have sent to the Board a proposed Contract Amendment to the East Link Final Design calling for a turnback track at International District/Chinatown Station.  The work is to take place in 2019 and will require the closure of the DSTT for 10 weekends and one whole week.  In addition:

Once the turn-back track facility is constructed joint operations with buses in the tunnel will no longer be feasible.

So there you have it folks.  The arguments over when buses will be removed from the tunnel could possibly be put to rest at this Thursday’s Board Meeting.   Shame that a center platform isn’t planned to be installed during the construction downtime.  As Martin said in the past:

Center platforms are highly desirable at termini and at train-to-train transfer points, for obvious reasons.  As the only currently planned transfer point, I’m hopeful that Chinatown/ID Station will get a center platform between now and 2020 to facilitate transfers from South to East and vice versa.

It wouldn’t necessarily require a complete reconfiguration.  While Sound Transit hasn’t studied the issue in depth the initial problems don’t seem insurmountable.

UPDATE 1, from ST Spokesperson Bruce Gray:  While the staff report “anticipates” the work being done in 2019, that date is not set in stone. We’re looking at 2019 because it allows us to have it done in time for the final Northgate systems work and testing before opening, but the date is still somewhat flexible. This is a final design contract, not construction. The main point is that the work needs to be done before Northgate opens in order to have the least impact on the riding public.  Sound Transit will continue coordinating this work with KCM, the City of Seattle and WSDOT. For now, we don’t have a date certain. Arriving at that decision will follow a lot more joint work with our partners.

UPDATE 2:  After Brent sent an email to the entire Sound Transit Board on this contract and the possibility of a central platform in the future, ST Boardmember (and Seattle City Councilmember) Richard Conlin quickly responded and said he would look into it.

King County Executive: incumbent Dow Constantine emerged four years ago from a strong field. He has governed with such proficiency and diplomacy that he has not drawn a serious challenger for this incredibly important position. He has gradually steered Metro towards a better set of policies, although there is a long way to go. His appointments to the Sound Transit Board have been basically sound.

King County Council District 1: Rod Dembowski impressed us in the scuffle to be appointed to this seat last year, and he has not disappointed in office. Although his time there has been short, he already chairs the Regional Transit Committee and is bringing organizational energy to it.

King County Council District 9: Shari Song or Reagan Dunn. Reagan Dunn has been an active and productive voice in the fight to reform Metro’s route structure, eager to make Metro’s dollars go farther by eliminating ineffective service such as the infamous Route 42. While the Council probably needs more route-reform yes votes than revenue yes-votes, we can’t bring ourselves to endorse a Councilmember who will likely oppose more resources for transit. Shari Song will support more revenue, but hasn’t given us any indication that she brings any particular transportation expertise or correct positions on Metro reform.

Seattle Mayor: STB has already endorsed Mike McGinn for mayor.

Seattle Council Position 2: Richard Conlin has been the most consistent voice for the public good of density on the council while his colleagues serve neighborhood special interests.

Seattle Council Position 8: Mike O’Brien hasn’t been as deeply involved in transportation issues as we thought he might, but he remains a fairly reliable vote for better transit, less emphasis on cars, and more housing in Seattle.

Bellevue City Council 4: Steve Kasner presents the strongest challenge to incumbent Kevin Wallace, who not only delayed East Link planning with wacky proposals like the Vision Line, but is now claiming credit for creating a collaborative compromise. With more community leadership experience, Kasner is also not likely to carry all the conflict-of-interest baggage that Wallace is knee-deep in when it comes to light rail.

Bellevue City Council 6: Lynne Robinson makes for a worthy opponent against Don Davidson, who presided over much of the council’s shenanigans when it was fighting Sound Transit. Robinson has earned endorsements from all three of the council’s pro-rail minority and has supported keeping East Link accessible to neighborhoods and employment centers.

Mukilteo Mayor: We can’t imagine that transit is a very big issue in Mukilteo, and in an outlying suburb alternative transportation often means bikes. Jennifer Gregorson earned Cascade Bicycle Club’s endorsement and has a recent Urban Planning degree from UW. These are excellent indicators of a leader ready to enact environmentally sensitive policies.

STB’s Editorial Board currently consists of Martin H. Duke, Bruce Nourish, and Sherwin Lee.

This March the Somali Community Services Coalition, with the PSRC’s Growing Transit Communities Partnership, released a paper titled Equity for All on the Housing and Transportation situation for East Africans in South King County.  It’s the result of 100 in-person surveys of East African families living in apartment complexes located near the Tukwila and SeaTac Link stations.

The housing picture is pretty bleak.  Most East African families are paying too much of their income to live in housing too small for their needs.  Also interviews with landlords and managers found that Link has increased the demand for these apartments resulting in lower availability and higher rents.

Transportation is more mixed.  While 40% of those surveyed used something other than driving alone for the majority of their trips a significant portion of the population (60%) has never used public transportation.  However it appears there is a pretty cheap way to decrease that number:

Increase oral outreach about public transit, including the light rail, buses, and ride programs:  Survey results suggest that many East Africans do not utilize public transportation.  Survey results also reveal that 48% of individuals learn about resources and services available in their community via word of mouth. More oral outreach and education must take place in order for the East African community to maximize their use of public transportation and other transportation resources, such as the Hyde Shuttle. This is especially important for seniors and individuals with disabilities, who qualify for transportation assistance but may not be benefiting from it.

While not mentioned in the report I have to wonder if the large family size is not a deterrent to transit usage as well.  If you need to get 5 or 6 people somewhere a used minivan may very well be more economical than transit.

Charts and the full transportation section excerpted below the fold:

Continue reading “East African Transportation and Housing Survey”

Just 7 months since entering the Seattle carsharing market with 350 cars, and just 4 months after expanding to 430 cars due to unprecedented demand, Car2Go announced this week that it is again expanding. By mid-August the Car2Go fleet will number 500 cars, 43% larger than the next largest U.S. city (Washington DC – 350), and edging out Vancouver BC (450) for the largest fleet in North America. (See STB’s previous reporting on Car2Go here, here, and here, and our comparison between Zipcar and Car2Go here.)

Don’t expect any further expansions in the near future, however. The Seattle Municipal Code (11.23.160, B) caps free-floating carsharing permits at 500 annually, so Car2Go will be unable to expand again without new council legislation.

Less than three weeks after we declared him “unassailable,” Mayor McGinn does something that one can certainly assail:

I understand that the developers of 4755 Fauntleroy Way South located in West Seattle have made a request to vacate the alley as part of their development proposal. Pursuant to the City of Seattle’s Street Vacation Policies, last amended in 2009, it is up to the Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation to transmit a recommendation to the City Council regarding the alley vacation request…

In this instance it is difficult to see how the alley vacation proposal meets our public benefit standards when it does not support equitable economic development as stated in our Comprehensive Plan, does not support community vibrancy and walkability, and does not support our local urban design plans. It is the position of the executive that because this project is not in the public interest, we will not forward a recommendation to approve this alley vacation request to the City Council at this time.

West Seattle Blog has an excellent review of the proposal’s context. The issue here is that the developer requires use of the publicly owned alley in the project, giving the city leverage. The mayor’s office notes that the anchor tenant, Whole Foods, pays “significantly lower than other similar businesses.” It also believes that the “large footprint,” orientation of the project, and use of the proposed “midblock connector” by trucks degrade the pedestrian environment.

Mayoral spokesman Robert Cruickshank says that “we are not saying this development can never happen” and “we continue to support new density,” but that the project did not meet the standard “when it comes to ceding City-owned property.” I asked him what it would take to change the recommendation. “We’re not going to dictate terms,” he said, but “we would support a Community Benefit Agreement, similar to what exists at the proposed Sonics Arena… We hope [the walkability issues] are addressed, but doing so alone won’t be sufficient.”

From this it seems clear to me that the mayor’s office is looking for assurances on the relative wage and/or benefit levels of employees at this site. That’s certainly consistent with McGinn’s progressive record, it seems this isn’t a underhanded way to kill the project, and getting a good price for city property is absolutely appropriate.

That said, I’m personally quite hesitant to tax density — thus deterring something with widespread public goods — to achieve unrelated societal objectives. In South Lake Union the Council did this to meet its affordable housing goals, and in both cases this is something that reasonable people of good intent can disagree on. I confess to having no idea what the socially optimal minimum wages and benefits are, but in any case barring new marketplace entrants is a costly and ineffective way to enforce them. If there’s a minimum standard in this city, enshrine it in law; to apply it inconsistently via planning tools is bad for competition, does nothing for the unemployed or those currently making minimum wage, and if it kills the project will do untold environmental, fiscal, and economic damage.