Month: November 2016

Sometimes the quest for narrower streets creates strange bedfellows. This is certainly the case with the future Alaskan Way, whose proposed 9-lane “stroad” (surface highway) has upset a conflicting array of local advocates. Walk, bike, and Vision Zero advocates rightly clamor for a smaller, safer, slower roadway (reduce the general purpose lanes!). The Alliance for Pioneer Square has appealed the Final EIS, wanting to narrow the roadway without losing general purpose capacity (kill the bus lanes!). Meanwhile, the Historic Seattle Waterfront Association wants the same footprint but fewer travel lanes (more parking!).

Last year, there was enough public comment against the wide roadway to trigger another round of environmental review. But given that 2 general purpose lanes and 2 ferry queue lanes were seen as the immutable baseline for the project, the city sought to study the only lane reduction it had available, axing the bus lanes. This occurred despite the city’s insistent reassurance that it had no intention of implementing what it was about to study.

A year later, despite significant public comment to narrow the roadway, little has changed in the Final EIS. Giving each interest what they wanted (GP lanes, ferry lanes, bus lanes) always favored a wide roadway, and transit priority seemed to be the only allocation ever really at risk. So where do we go from here?

Though I certainly share the frustration over a bloated surface highway, I also believe the fight to reduce general capacity is now lost, and that further attempts at appeal will only endanger transit priority.

But transit priority must remain, even at the cost of a wider roadway, because the near-term alternatives are either politically impossible or objectively inferior. Though the proposed Pioneer Square/Main Street pathway was promising, neighborhood groups flexed sufficient muscle to scare Metro off. And now that the Lander Street Overpass is funded, there has been some rumbling about shifting transit from the waterfront onto 4th Avenue South or the Sodo busway instead. But this would be a grave mistake, with Metro’s 2013 analysis showing an up to 5-10 minute travel time penalty for transit riders, with $2,500 per day in additional operating costs for Metro in perpetuity. Even with the Lander Overpass, a Sodo pathway would add up to 10 signalized intersections if using the Sodo Busway, or up to 13 if purely along 4th Avenue S.

Luckily, there is a deus ex machina in the room in the form of Sound Transit 3. High capacity light rail will create brand new right-of-way to West Seattle by 2030, or possibly sooner if permits are expedited, bonding limits are loosened, or unexpected federal assistance arrives. With the surface highway not proposed for construction until 2020, that means West Seattle could be dependent on waterfront surface transit for less than a decade. 

Metro’s Long Range Plan already shows no transit on Alaskan Way in 2040, with Link absorbing nearly all demand from West Seattle to Downtown. Only the Delridge RapidRide (via 4th Ave S) and a new West Seattle-SLU express route (via the Deep Bore Tunnel) would provide additional Downtown service.

I’d suggest two ways forward: 1) work hard to expedite Link to West Seattle to shorten the window in which the waterfront will be an anti-urban mess, and 2) agitate for explicit commitments from the City of Seattle to narrow the roadway upon Link’s opening. An MOU between Metro, the City of Seattle, and WSDOT should require designs amenable to narrowing and commit all parties to shaving 20-40′ off the width south of Yesler Way. Even though urbanists lost the battle for a narrower street, we can still win the war.

Frank and I will tape a podcast soon. If there’s a question you’d like us to answer, please leave it in the comments over the next couple of days.

Back in January 2015, Sound Transit announced a $1.3B federal loan for East Link, the largest single disbursement in the history of the “TIFIA” program. Taking advantage of the continuing low cost of capital in the wake of the 2008-2009 recession, the loan provided favorable repayment terms and a rock-bottom interest rate (2.38%).

Well, here comes Round 2. At Tuesday’s Sound Transit Board meeting, the Board will vote on a TIFIA Master Credit Agreement for another $2B in low-interest (3%) loans for remaining ST2 projects. Northgate Link would get $615m, Lynnwood $658m (this after getting a $1B grant), and $629m for Federal Way. As Mike Lindblom reports, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) notified Sound Transit of the offer the day after the election, with the FTA apparently impressed by ST3’s passage and the assurance of stable tax income.

Sound Transit’s financial modeling has consistently been conservative, assuming above-market interest rates for both ST2 and ST3. Positive financial surprises like this have tangible benefits for taxpayers and transit riders. Compared to traditional bonding, East Link’s TIFIA loan opened up $200-300m in agency capacity, and Sound Transit expects these new loans to do the same:

The TIFIA loans are expected to generate between $200-$400 million of additional financial capacity for Sound Transit compared to current assumptions for traditional fixed-rate tax exempt bonds at the current market rate. The current TIFIA borrowing rate is approximately 2.98% vs. the 5.25% rate assumed for the ST2 program.

• Why is Roosevelt development so far ahead of Northgate?
• 165 new units in Downtown Kent.
• Restricting development is incompatible with progressive politics. So of course, some unions and immigrant groups are fighting development.
• HALA Briefing for West Seattle comes up with lots of excuses for why development can’t occur in particular stretches.
• U-District upzone meeting has split public comment.
• Seattle will sell $29m in bonds to build “hundreds of units” of housing.
• Roger Valdez says Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning won’t work.
• I-405 toll revenue exceeds predictions. But it’s not meeting speed standards. In other words, the toll is set too low and the legislature should remove the $10 maximum.
• Better retail districts.
• Tigard, OR light rail winning by 130 votes.
• A nerdy look at bus scheduling.

This is an open thread.

Lakewood Station finally gets a reverse-peak commuter trip from Seattle … on Black Friday only.
Photo from Sound Transit on flickr

Many transit agencies close down for Thanksgiving, and a few reduce service the day after.

Sound Transit is continuing its tradition of providing at least some Sounder service the day after, with two morning runs from and one morning run to Lakewood, a morning run from Everett, and the reverse in the evening. That unusual reverse-peak trip to Lakewood results in the second morning run from Lakewood arriving after Macy’s Holiday Parade is over. Those who want to take the occasion to ride all the way from Everett to Lakewood are scheduled to miss the connection by 4 minutes in the morning and 23 minutes in the evening. Sorry.

UW routes are running their full schedule through Wednesday, as the University of Washington is in session. Continue reading “Thanksgiving Closures / Friday Sounder Service”

When Sound Transit decided to split the spine for the ST3 package – sending Everett trains to West Seattle and Tacoma trains to Ballard – it did so for a number of reasons. The unprecedented length of the spine corridor meant it was always infeasible to run trains end to end; and capacity concerns in the current downtown tunnel made adding a third line undesirable, leading Sound Transit to propose a fantastic second subway through downtown.

Now that ST3 has passed, it’s time to start making a good thing better. In particular, three operational disappointments lie ahead, all of which are fixable:

First, the still-quite-lengthy lines are planned to offer uniform frequency, meaning trains will cruise through Fife just as often as they do through SeaTac or South Lake Union. Even ardent defenders of the ‘light rail spine’ would have to admit both the asymmetry of demand between the city and outlying areas, and the need for additional urban frequency.

Second, the length of the lines and the nature of the radial commute mean that during peak hours passenger turnover will be relatively limited, leading to crushloads as early at Northgate or the UDistrict for the Red and Blue lines, leaving thousands of downstream passengers at UW or Capitol Hill with a consistently poor experience.

Third, this poor experience will occur while the brand new subway squanders its potential capacity, as the Ballard-Tacoma line cannot exceed 5 minute headways due to at-grade running on MLK Boulevard. With the same 400′ platform length constraints as the other tunnel, this means our brand new subway would be just half as utilized as the current tunnel.

What can be done? Expanding on an idea by Page 2 writer Devon Jenkins, I’d offer two possible solutions: turnback trains and point-to-point service. With regard to turnback trains, Sound Transit is already mulling the possibility of UW to Stadium trains as supplemental service to mitigate the likely 2018 closure of the tunnel to buses, so additional turnback options could potentially be considered under ST3, such as Ballard to SeaTac. Continue reading “Frequency Where It Matters: Right-Sizing ST3”

As reported by Mike Lindblom over the weekend ($), State Senator Steve O’Ban (R – University Place) has signaled his intent to file a bill in the upcoming legislative session requiring the direct election of Sound Transit Boardmembers. Just two weeks after an election in which voters explicitly affirmed Sound Transit 3, O’Ban’s contention is that Sound Transit “does not answer to the voters,” and that after ST3’s passage, “It is more important than ever for the people to have a say in the agency’s management.”

We’ve been here before. O’Ban also proposed this last January, Federal Way legislators floated the idea in 2012, and Governor Locke suggested it in 2003 during in the dark days of Sound Transit. Given that 14 of the 18 members are appointed rather than required by statute, there has been a consistent perception of Sound Transit as an agency of secondary governance, one step removed from direct voter accountability.

O’Ban’s bill would create 19 separate districts within the Sound Transit tax boundary, with direct nonpartisan elections every 2 years for staggered 4-year terms. Anyone could run for the seats, irrespective of transportation industry knowledge or competence, and they would be prohibited from holding other political office. For the sake of two public meetings per month (committee and whole), a prospective board member would need to staff and fund both a primary and general election campaign. While current board members have significant staff support as an in-kind extension of their other political office, O’Ban would cap compensation at $10,000 and presumably have no staff budget at all, leaving board members alone to educate themselves.

Sound Transit projects are built within an incredibly complex web of jurisdictional authority: cities, counties, the state, the feds, and metropolitan planning organizations such as PSRC. Each of these jurisdictions has incredible power (through zoning and permitting) to create friction for the agency. With direct election of boardmembers, these jurisdictions would retain this power while no longer maintaining a direct connection to the board. It makes far more sense for the board to act as an extension of those jurisdictions’ desires rather than as a separate wild card.

Just 2 years after embarking on a 25-year, $54B capital program and 5 years before completing ST2, O’Ban would replace the entire board wholesale and erase the board’s accumulated knowledge, experience, and relationships. Obviously, no board member would resign their other elected office simply to run for the board, so the outcome would surely be the elevation of political neophytes. Continue reading “Déjà Vu: State Senator Pitches Direct Election for Sound Transit Board”

Mesmerizing visualization of 24 hours of bus service across King County circa 2014. You can see the huge influx of buses into downtown Seattle in the morning, the thinning of service later in the evening, and the pulses of buses departing transit centers among many activities. The buses move in straight line between stops, so don’t confuse West Seattle expresses for water taxis. Read the video description for more info.

On Wednesday, the Seattle City Council passed a budget that includes a small pilot project for a parking benefit district (PBD).  The PBD pilot is the result of several years’ work by the Capitol Hill Eco District and the City Council, and were a key recommendation of the HALA report.

The pilot project is notable because it passed despite objections from SDOT.  In a memo to council, SDOT Director Kubly argued that PBDs raise equity concerns (there’s no paid parking anywhere South of Jackson Street).  He also noted that SDOT’s performance- and data-driven approach to parking management has built up trust with residents and businesses, hinting that there could be a backlash if parking funds were seen as a kind of neighborhood slush fund.   Currently, parking rates are adjusted according to demand to meet a specific vacancy rate. Continue reading “Capitol Hill Parking Benefit District Coming in 2017”

• Two groups appeal the Waterfront EIS, joining the bike and pedestrian community in decrying the “8-lane highway”. But it’s mixed messaging at its best: the Alliance for Pioneer Square wants fewer buses, the Historic Seattle Waterfront Association wants more surface parking, the transit community wants bus lanes, and the bike/ped community wants a more human street. We’ll write up our thoughts soon.
• ReachNow is looking to take on Uber and Lyft.
• Mostly forgotten in the ST3 campaign, Tukwila talks up its future Boeing Access Road station.
• “We owe you one”, says the Tacoma News Tribune’s Matt Driscoll to King and Snohomish Counties in the wake of ST3.
• Sticky note therapy at Capitol Hill Station.
• The final Federal Way EIS has been released. Read the full document here. The extension is slated to open in 2024.
• Elizabeth Kiker out as Executive Director of Cascade Bicycle Club.
• Rents are starting to fall in Seattle, if only slightly.

The only public hearing on the big UDistrict rezone is tonight at 5:30pm at the Hotel Deca (4507 Brooklyn Ave NE). If you believe abundant housing near transit is an unequivocal social good, please attend tonight and make your voice heard.

Since we last covered the rezone in September, the scope has been whittled away somewhat, including elimination of mid-rise zoning north of NE 50th St, a 25% height reduction south of NE 43rd St (from 320′ to 240′), and a contraction of the tallest zoning to just a few blocks northwest of UDistrict Station. Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) fees are also higher than first envisioned for commercial development. Continue reading “Action Alert: Support the UDistrict Rezone Tonight”

Any of you who saw the Seattle Times ST3 precinct map saw a very similar map to 2008, with North/Central Seattle and Downtown Tacoma doing the heavy lifting for passage. Seattle carried King County, and King County carried the region. More people voted Yes on ST3 in King County than voted at all in Snohomish and Pierce combined, easily outnumbering the 56% ‘Reject’ majority in Pierce County.

So I thought it’d be fun to offer nearly meaningless trivia for comment fodder, drilling down to the micro level and see which precincts voted most strongly for or against the measure.  (These are election night results, but the final totals would be similar). Continue reading “Tidbits from the ST3 Results”