Month: October 2015

Tuesday evening at the Mountaineers (7700 Sand Point Way NE), the King County Council will hold a special meeting of its Transportation, Economy, and Environment (TrEE) Committee. While the public will have had 4 other opportunities to comment at the regular committee meetings (9:30am every other Tuesday), this special meeting will be the only public hearing of the restructure ordinance outside of work hours before it is voted on by the full council (hopefully) later this month. This is an extremely important hearing if you care about frequency, reliability, and a better transit network.

A 6:30pm Open House will precede the hearing, with Metro staff on hand to discuss the proposal with the public. At 7:00pm, the Committee will convene to hear public testimony on the restructure. We strongly urge you to attend and let the Council know your thoughts on the proposal.

Regrettably, the hearing location has terrible transit access, with Routes 30 and 74 getting you there but not home, and Route 75 only running every 30 minutes.  (An irony of this meeting is how much easier it would be to attend if the restructure were already in place.)  If you have a car and would be willing to drive a fellow reader, please speak up in the comments. If you would like to borrow a bicycle for free to attend via the Burke-Gilman Trail, please email me at zach.shaner(at)gmail.com. If you cannot attend, please submit your comments online here.

Commentary after the jump. Continue reading “ACTION ALERT: ULink Restructure Public Hearing Tuesday”

This November’s election is big, with the entire Seattle City Council up for election and at least four incumbents out, and Move Seattle and Community Transit Now on the ballot. This Monday, October 5, is the deadline to register to vote or change your voter registration address.

You can register or change your address online, or go to the King County Elections headquarters at 919 SW Grady Way in Renton 8:30 am – 4:30 pm Monday, or go to the King County Voter Registration Annex, Room 440 in the King County Administration Building, 500 4th Ave, 8:30 am – 1 pm or 2 pm – 4:30 pm Monday.

You have to be at least 18 years old and a resident of the state for 30 days as of election day, but not as of the voter registration deadline.

For questions, call-296-VOTE.

At a recent county council meeting where the proposed Metro route restructure was discussed, Councilmember Larry Gossett suggested that Sound Transit accept Metro paper transfers, due to the hardship current Metro cash payers would suffer having to pay twice when they transfer to Link. This would be a huge step backwards in the efforts of local transit agencies to modernize and speed up the fare collection system, and ignores the investment the county has already made in both ORCA and the ORCA LIFT — the new reduced fare card for low-income riders

No agency besides Metro accepts Metro paper transfers. All the agencies except Metro and Kitsap Transit have gotten rid of intra-agency paper bus transfers in order to incentivize using the faster ORCA card. Kitsap’s transfers are only good for immediate transfers, and only at a small set of transfer locations. Metro’s paper transfers are the outlier in the transit family that creates confusion and avoidable expense for riders. Once a Seattle bus rider obtains the ORCA card, she/he will not be spending more than $6 a day on her/his commute. (A letter CM Gossett read to the public suggested the writer would have to spend $10 a day for his commute, but that is simply because he hasn’t gotten an ORCA card.)

For low-income riders, the $5 cost of getting an ORCA card used to be an imposition, but now the ORCA LIFT card is free for those who qualify.

However, there are plenty of riders who want to hold onto the paper transfer program, in part, because the LIFT fare is still too high.

So, I would like to suggest a deal: In exchange for eliminating Metro paper transfers, make it policy that, in perpetuity, the youth/LIFT fare on Metro will be no more than half the regular fare. Continue reading “Dear County Council: About Those Paper Transfers”

Following up on yesterday’s ridership report, here are three charts to file in the back of your head the next time you hear an ostensibly pro-transit voice arguing that scalable transit investments “could be done better and more cheaply with buses.”

The first chart shows that if Link were its own transit agency, it would now be the 5th largest in the state, behind only Metro (to whom no one comes close), Washington State Ferries, the rest of Sound Transit, and Spokane Transit. This despite being only a single 15-mile line that serves little current density.

The second chart shows Metro and Sound Transit ridership by route.  Link is in a league of its own, and it’s just getting started.  Link has triple the ridership of any other single transit route in the region.

The third chart shows Link capacity today and in 2023. At full ST2 buildout, with 4-car trains running every 3 minutes, Link will have between 4-7x more capacity it has today. I can’t wait to vote on ST3.

Link is far from perfect. Its speed is compromised by at-grade running on MLK, it misses the commercial heart of the Rainier Valley, its stop spacing is too wide in its tunneled sections etc etc. But it still rocks, and its performance will increasingly be a difference of kind not degree. Where scalability and capacity matter, there’s nothing like high-quality rail.

• SDOT paints West Seattle Bridge bus lanes red, cites statistics on improved compliance elsewhere.
• Are developers paying their fair share? “new construction now accounts for 25 percent of the city’s sales-tax revenue.” ($)
• Expedia move slips from 2018 to 2019, various commuter incentives in play.
• ST Board approves limited permit parking at 10 lots.
• Developer plans 101-story building in Seattle.
• Postal Service may provide anchor project for “Central Issaquah” plan.
• Executive Constantine proposes plan to build 700 units of “workforce housing” near transit stations.
• Full Key Arena renovation for NBA and NHL would cost $285m, cheap compared to a new arena; CM Bagshaw says it only works if ST3 goes to Seattle Center.
• Blaine still lobbying for an Amtrak Cascades stop.
• Everett Station closes its electrical outlets to the public.
• TriMet gets a new system map.

This is an open thread.

Sorry folks, been busy and this was late. July’s Link Weekday/Saturday/Sunday average boardings were 40,442 / 32,873 / 26,375, growth of 8.3%, -3.9%, and -2.8% respectively over July 2014. Sounder’s weekday boardings were up 15.3% with ridership increasing on both lines. Tacoma Link’s weekday ridership increased 2.3%. Weekday ST Express ridership was up 4.7%. System wide weekday boardings were up 6.9%, and all boardings were up 3.2%. The complete July Ridership Summary is here.

My charts below the break.

Continue reading “July 2015 Sound Transit Ridership Report: 40,000”

Is the Move Seattle transportation levy a smart investment of property-tax dollars? That was the question at Seattle Speaks, a community forum televised live on Seattle Channel from Town Hall on Tuesday night.

The $930 million levy has been touted by city leaders as the key to a safe, interconnected, affordable and innovative city. But critics say the proposal is poorly planned, lacks accountability and is out of touch with the needs of some Seattle neighborhoods.

Supporters say the package, which Seattle voters will decide on Nov. 3, offers solutions for the city’s rapid growth. Opponents maintain we can’t afford the levy’s high price tag, while advocates argue we can’t afford to delay investments. Is Move Seattle a building block for Seattle’s future or a road block to progress?

Seattle Channel public affairs host Brian Callanan moderates a lively discussion, part of the Seattle Speaks series, presented by Seattle CityClub, Seattle Channel and Town Hall Seattle. Seattle Speaks is an Emmy Award-winning series that brings together local leaders, critics, stakeholders and residents to deliberate pivotal moments in our city’s history.