Month: February 2018

Last week The Stranger published a wide-ranging interview with Governor Inslee, whose stated purpose was to drum up the grassroots for his carbon tax proposal. He doesn’t criticize legislators directly, but you certainly get the impression speaker Frank Chopp (D-Capitol Hill) isn’t exactly out in front of the climate activists.

“Any solution on this has to be bipartisan” – Speaker Chopp on a possible carbon tax.https://t.co/FXRQjS6bSD #waleg @TVWnews pic.twitter.com/fpQFtMSAf4

— WA House Democrats (@WAHouseDems) January 4, 2018

When legislators want something to be a priority, they don’t create arbitrary additional obstacles for passage. See additional Stranger anonymous sources on Chopp here. Perhaps, as leader of his caucus, Speaker Chopp is saying that not all his Democrats are on board, and he won’t force them to take a tough vote. In any case, he certainly isn’t directing the full powers of his office at the problem.

But enough about carbon taxes. More to our usual subject, Heidi Groover asks what you’re all wondering:

Continue reading “Inslee: We Must Finish ST3 Projects”

This post was updated at 6:20 2.20.18 to include testimony and information from comments.

In a disappointing legislative session marked by mostly defensive effort to protect the Sound Transit 3 project list from cuts, there has been one bright light: Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5288, allowing Thurston County Intercity Transit to add an additional 0.3% sales tax within its district, if approved by voters.

ESSB 5288 passed the Senate last week on a 34-14-0-1 vote. It is scheduled for its second public hearing, in the House Finance Committee, today, at 3:30 pm. The hearing will be aired live on TVW. (Go to 58:30 in the video for the public hearing.)

Intercity Transit is currently allowed a 0.9% sales tax, like most other transit agencies in the state, but has enacted only 0.8%. Allowing 1.2% would bring it up to Community Transit’s level, but without being combined with the additional 1.4% Sound Transit sales tax that applies in the CT district. IT gets 63% of its revenue from sales tax. Nearly 5 million boardings are served each year, at a cost of $45 million in operating expenses and $33 million in capital expenses such as fleet renewal. The additional revenue it could get for the 0.3% extra sales tax is estimated at $18.1 million annually.

Intercity Transit has had to take on most of the burden for transit service between Tacoma and Olympia in recent years, as Pierce Transit and Sound Transit have eliminated Thurston-Pierce inter-county service. IT operates routes 603, 605, and 612 between Olympia and downtown Tacoma, and route 620 between Olympia and Tacoma Mall.

Intercity Transit also operates a free shuttle serving downtown Olympia and the Capitol Campus. The shuttle has 12-minute headway much of the day. The only other IT routes with headway better than half-hourly are routes 13 and 41, each with 15-minute headway during their peak periods, and half-hourly off-peak on route 41. Some combined corridors provide scheduled 15-minute all-day headway.

Intercity Transit’s budgets and strategic plans are available here.

A look at the preliminary project alignment for the West Seattle and Ballard Link extensions, shown by Sound Transit at the recent open houses for the early scoping process. Online comments are still being accepted at wsblink.participate.online until March 5.

Fifty years ago this week, February 13, 1968, 50.8% of Greater Seattle voters voted yes to the Forward Thrust rapid transit proposition. The construction of a 49-mile rapid transit system modeled after BART and the Washington Metro needed voters to approve $385 million in general obligation bonds. The remainder of the $1.15 billion cost would be picked up by the federal government. Unfortunately, the state constitution requires a 60% majority to approve such a bond so the measure failed and the rest is history.

But for the sake of this post, let’s assume it did pass and the system got built as planned. What would a Metro map look like? We’ve seen the scans of maps from the plans. What we’ve not seen is how the service would have operated. Here is a diagram I made that presents the Seattle Metro rapid transit system as if it were in operation in 1990, five years after completion of the initial system plan after several phased openings than began in 1976. I wanted to create a map with a 1970s design aesthetic but not clone the style of those iconic transit maps of the era.

Continue reading “Seattle Metro Rapid Transit Map “circa” 1990″

• Sizeism: Why small homes belong in Fremont and Seattle-wide. Doug at the Urbanist pushes back on that awful Times op-ed ($). And here’s Heidi at the Stranger.
• A 14-story hotel at the entrance to Pike Place Market? Not so fast, say opponents ($). As an architecture critic remarks, “The zoning for it has been in place for decades. Sorry, just no substance.”
• Worthy causes pushing to get their solo drivers into carpool lanes.
• The most promising thing about the US 2 Trestle project is that it might be tolled ($).
• Four groups show interest in O’Hare express train project.
• For decades Alabama has not funded public transportation; bill aims to end that.
• A bid to solve California’s housing crisis could redraw how cities grow.
• The case against (actually, for) sidewalks, and how cities can create new avenues for pedestrians.
• Fight over household wells highlights rural growing pains.
• Northgate pedestrian bridge: City bureaucracy run amok ($). This take is a little hot for me, but between the ongoing #fix65th debacle, and this bridge, SDOT hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory of late.
• The case for a Ballard to UW waterfront rapid bus line. Not a bad idea, but Frelard and lower Wallingford would have to get a lot more dense, and the existing routes a lot more frequent, before this cracked my most-wanted list.
• SDOT unveils first five-year pedestrian implementation plan. Sweet, another plan.
• Metrorail is no longer the second-busiest rapid transit system in the country.
• Self-driving cars aren’t good at detecting cyclists. The latest proposed fix is a cop-out.
• The RPA Construction Cost Report: Alon Levy, Ben Kabak.
• With skyrocketing rents, Tacoma Housing Authority is forced to adjust.
• What would a truly disabled-accessible city look like?
• Downtown Seattle poised for even bigger residential and hotel boom.
• Snohomish County Council members air their Sound Transit grievances ($). Mostly they seem to be complaining about the consequences of subarea equity.
• Jarrett at Citylab: the Problem with (algorithmically determined) Transit Gaps.
• Amtrak will suspend some service ($) if safety system not ready this year, CEO says.
• Seattle makes little progress ($) on buildings that can kill in earthquakes.
• 11 ugly urban underpasses now functioning as public parks.
• Spokane hopes tiny homes and cottages will spur infill density.
• Transit ridership continues to grow in central Seattle, while solo car commutes decline ($).
• Kitsap’s fast ferry is headed for drydock. Will there be a replacement?
• To (partially) fix the New York City Subway, fix the schedule.
• Why transit nerds are so jealous of Seattle.
• The Uptown HALA rezone bears its first fruit.
• Empowering the vision impaired with indoor navigation tech.
• Free Atlanta Streetcar rides? MARTA considers changes.
• Biking in Magnolia and Interbay got a lot easier with recent SDOT project. This new bike path is great, but the intersection of Gilman & Emerson now needs a signal more than ever.
• Limebike’s electric-assist bikes are out and rideable right now.
• Trump is a grifter, his infrastructure plan sucks, and his budget threatens Sound Transit.
• Rail car swap eases overcrowding ($) on Sounder train.
• Ursula K. Le Guin: Urbanist.

This is an open thread.

As Seattle is entering the “period of maximum constraint,” with downtown becoming even more inundated with construction projects, more workers in that area are leaving their cars at home and riding transit.

Last year, the drive-alone rate hit an all-time low of 25% of downtown commuters, even as 15,000 jobs were added to the area, according to the 2017 Center City Modesplit Survey. Nearly half of downtown workers instead chose to take the bus or train to their jobs. Adding employees traveling by foot, bike or carpool pushes non-single-occupancy vehicle commute rates above 70%.

Despite a 5% drop in the share of SOV commuting between 2016 and 2017, the share of transit ridership grew by only 1%. Instead, some former drivers were choosing to walk or participate in a carpool.

“Transit works, and we need more of it as quickly as possible. From working with employers to increase telecommuting to speeding up light rail, we can expand our transportation options that make it easier and safer for Seattle residents to get around,” said Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan in the press release accompanying the report.

Rates of drive-alone downtown commuters have steadily declined since Commute Seattle began tracking travel trends in 2010. Over the last seven years, as 60,000 jobs were added in the downtown core — an increase of 30% — transit usage among commuters has steadily grown, up by 6%, while the drive-alone rate decreased 9%.

Commute Seattle attributes the decline in driving alone to the voter-approved $50M yearly transit investment from the Seattle Transportation Benefit District, efforts from employers to discourage driving alone and new housing downtown, enabling people to walk to work.

Continue reading “Transit Investments Luring Commuters From Cars”