You can rest assured that tomorrow’s posts will be as earnest and authentic as any other day’s.*
We’ve had some fun with April Fools’ posts in the past (you can share your favorite in the comments), but last year’s generated much more angst than it was worth. And in any case we’ve probably outgrown that kind of thing.
Besides, there’s too much news to write about anyway!
* I can’t vouch for what’s going to happen on Page 2.
Just a reminder that we’re having our first-in-a-while meet-up happy hour tomorrow, April 1, at Rock Bottom Brewery in Downtown Seattle from 5-8pm. Sound Transit’s Ric Ilgenfritz and others will be on hand to talk about ST3 and the upcoming ballot initiatives. Come chat with us STB staff and ST folks to learn more about the project selection process and more.
STB Happy Hour
Rock Bottom Brewery
1333 5th Avenue
5pm – 8pm
Happy hour snacks will be served
Last Thursday, SDOT’s Accessible Mount Baker project manager Michael James—a youthful guy with an indifferently tucked shirt and an eager smile, presented an intriguing, but still unfunded, proposal to improve the transit, bike, and pedestrian connections around and between the Mount Baker light rail station on the west side of MLK and the Mount Baker Transit Center on the east side of Rainier.
The meeting, held in the windowless Kings Hall building behind the station, turned out a few dozen committed residents for tortilla wraps, a mixed-fruit platter, and a detailed discussion of what the station area might look like in the hands of SDOT’s “Accessible Mount Baker” team.
Although the city hasn’t identified any specific funding source for the project, expected to take up to a year to build, James said it was consistent with SDOT director Scott Kubly’s vision for spending the money raised by the Move Seattle levy, an ambitious $900 million proposal that will, if voters approve it in November, be roughly twice the size of the 2006 Bridging the Gap levy it would replace.
Like Martin, I can attest that the Mount Baker rail station and the flat concrete expanse of the Mount Baker Transit Center across the street are underdeveloped, poorly connected, and confusing even to a longtime transit rider like myself.
Continue reading “A Belated, but Welcome, Proposal to Fix the Mount Baker Mess”
Last year, the ORCA Joint Board conducted a pilot project, to test the long-term feasibility of a multi-agency regional day pass.
A press release from Geoff Patrick at Sound Transit informs us the day pass may be coming back, and the ORCA pod is taking input on a proposal to do that:
Continue reading “Multi-Agency Day Pass May Return for Good, $1 Less”
It is very cool that the agency itself produced these videos. CTA sees them as a tool to help riders familiarize themselves with the system and as a historical record. If you a lot of free time, check out the full-length (real time) videos!
On Friday SDOT showed off the first completed streetcar for the First Hill line. The streetcar made a one block trip from the maintenance facility to 8th & Lane. Also, SDOT’s Rail Transit Manager Ethan Ethan Melone provided a tour of the facility, which begins at the 5:55 mark of the video. Hit the break for a few photos of the completed cars and the others that are undergoing final assembly.
[This is the second in a promised series covering Spokane Moving Forward, the Spokane Transit Authority’s proposed ten-year plan to improve transit in the Spokane region, which will go to an areawide ballot in April. Previously I discussed the proposed Central City Line.]
16 miles southwest of Spokane lies Cheney, a town of about 10,000 permanent residents, one of the largest outlying population areas within the Spokane Transit Authority’s service area. Cheney would warrant some transit service, but not a great deal, were it not for the fact that it hosts the main campus of Eastern Washington University, the state’s third fourth largest university. With about 13,000 students, EWU swells the population of Cheney by about 7,000 when it is in session, with the balance commuters, mostly from Spokane.
Like college students almost everywhere, EWU students use transit in droves, and for more than just the commute. STA Route 66, the trunk route to Cheney, is STA’s third-highest ridership route, with nearly 2,600 weekday boardings — pretty impressive, for a service which only operates every half-hour in the off-peak — and is the only route to primarily use 60′ coaches. As you’d expect for such a productive service, it’s near the front of the line for improvement, if voters elect to fund STA Moving Forward at the ballot.
More after the jump. Continue reading “Spokane Moving Forward: Cheney And West Plains”
This Tuesday March 31st, Metro will launch its first long range planning effort in a very long time with an exciting two-part event at the Downtown Seattle Central Library. The event, which starts at 6:00 pm, will begin with six facilitated break-out sessions that will dive into key topics. Each break-out sessions will be lead by subject area experts from a variety of organizations and include:
The discussion from each break-out sessions will then be used to identify common themes and the overall vision of where participants want Metro to be in 25 years. If you care about the big picture vision of transit in King County this event is a must.
Once break-out sessions have wrapped up the event will transition directly into the panel discussion guided by the themes and vision generated in the break-out sessions. Panelist include Jarrett Walker (transit planner extraordinaire), Rebecca Saldaña (Executive Director of Puget Sound Sage) and Mark Hallenbeck (UW transportation researcher and BIG picture thinker). This discussion will be moderated by Rita Brogan of the Washington State Transportation Commission.
This promises to be a unique, blue-sky type of event that only happens a few times a year and I would strongly encourage those who are interested to attend. More details are available here.
The House Transportation Committee is underway to discuss ST3 authority and the broader transpo package. Watch live here and refresh for our updates and commentary. You may also follow us on Twitter.
6:19 Committee adjourns after nearly 3 hours of nearly unanimously favorable testimony. No committee discussion of the bills.
5:57 Clibborn is cutting off oral testimony at 6…after 2.5 straight hours.
5:56 Kemore mayor very unhappy with the effects of toll-related traffic diversion on SR 522.
5:44 Clark County: “We’re ready to begin a new conversation” about the abandoned CRC project between Vancouver and Portland
5:35 Eastside Transportation Association says Sound Transit shouldn’t get any new authority until they finish all ST2 projects.
5:31 Snohomish County reps appear to have gone all-in on Paine Field. Just about every rep is mentioning it.
5:30 Marysville wants grade separation of rail traffic. That would significantly speed up Cascades.
5:23 “Do you all need to stand up and stretch?” Clibborn: “No, they don’t!” She clearly wants to get through this.
5:20 Michael Shaw from Washington Transit Association “You could say we’re less than enthused with the multimodal investments in this bill”
5:15 Mercer Island City Councilmember Cero: Gas tax is just, and it scales with use.
This is an open thread.