Month: September 2018

Yes, Tokyo, home to the world’s most extensive urban rail network, has one station named “Tokyo”.

If you’ve driven to the San Juans, especially in summer, you know the horror: scheduling a ferry slot months in advance, struggling with an overloaded website when the slots are released, allotting plenty of extra time in case you hit traffic, and showing up no later than 45 minutes before sailing. And then you fork over $30-$50 each way (plus the passenger fare) to haul the car on board.

Last Labor Day weekend, I tried a different way: public transit all the way from Seattle, to join my party already on Orcas Island with the car. Google Maps told me to leave downtown Seattle at 3:15pm to make the 7:20 sailing from Anacortes. It’s a 90 minute drive under ideal conditions, though if you’re driving to the islands you’d best leave some extra time.

That same uncertainty did me in, even on the bus. It will surprise no Snohomish County commuter that my 512 capitulated to the traffic. The HOV lane failed, and even though I’d departed 15 minutes earlier than recommended, I didn’t come close to making the (hourly) Skagit Transit 90X to Mt. Vernon. I grabbed a sandwich and schemed to get as close to possible to the ferry before switching to Lyft.

Continue reading “To the San Juans by Transit”

Two pieces of good news for bus commuters on SR-520: one next month and another in 2023.

Next month, WSDOT will install a temporary bus-only queue jump in the Montlake off-ramp.  This comes a few months after several advocates met with the agency to discuss potential improvements.  The queue jump will take advantage of excess shoulder space on the exit ramp, leaving the two car lanes intact. Unfortunately, the right-of-way narrows at Montlake Way, so buses will need to merge right before the intersection. Still, letting buses to the front of the line will probably save a couple of light cycles.

The re-striping will happen the weekend of Oct. 5-7, weather permitting, and the new bus lane will open Monday, Oct. 8. Kudos to WSDOT for listening to transit riders and moving quickly. The lane will be open for at least six months until Montlake lid construction gets underway. David Goldberg, WSDOT’s Ombudsman who has been liaising with transit advocates on this project, told me via email that how long the lane is ultimately in operation will depend on the contractor’s schedule, which should be finalized “in the next few weeks.”

The project will improve reliability for all buses that use the Montlake off-ramp, including the 167, 255, 271, 277, 540, 541, 542, and 556.  When completed in 2024, the Montlake lid will provide permanent dedicated access for these routes, as well as HOVs, going to and from 520.

With the 520 freeway stop disappearing next year and more buses diverted to Husky Stadium as part of One Center City efforts, giving priority through Montlake — at least for a little while — is very welcome.

Next, WSDOT announced this week that the agency is pushing up the opening date of the transit connection from 520 to I-5, providing a direct bus path to South Lake Union. Continue reading “WSDOT Plans Transit Improvements on SR-520”

• What YIMBYs should learn from New York’s ethnic neighborhoods
• Lyft, Metro, and Zipcar want you to ditch your car
• Lime scooters are up and running in Tacoma
• LOL: This Teacher Was Taking Three Buses To Work, So Her Students Surprised Her With Better Public Transit Infrastructure
• Denver launches its version of ORCA LIFT
• This Q&A in the Times on bus bunching is really helpful
• Everett goes for more density
• The plan for viaduct closure is highly car-focused
• WSDOT capital projects are facing many of the same budget increases as SDOT and ST.
• Sound Transit and the city of Kent are at odds about how to accommodate bus traffic with the expanded Sounder parking garage
• King County is hiring a Deputy Ombuds for Transit
• Apparently light rail stations and Whole Foods are the keys to getting  apartments built
• Transit makes it easier to breathe
• Florida’s private high-speed rail company is buying the LA-Vegas high-speed rail company
• “Missing link” in Lynnwood’s interurban trail gets completed
• It’s been 50 years since Seattle’s Freeway Revolt. Time to get the band back together?
• One small change to New York intersections is saving pedestrians’ lives

This is an open thread

Photo by AtomicTaco in the STB Flickr Pool

Gene Balk has a typically informative column ($) about who is taking to transit to work these days. University professors, housekeepers, and computer programmers have the highest transit share of any professions in Seattle. He astutely points out how much this has to do with where jobs are located. Seattle is incredibly fortunate that Amazon continues to place the vast majority of its office jobs in the center city.

Someone might use that as a story of how transit is now just a “hipster” phenomenon, but professional definitions are arbitrary — I don’t know the difference between “computer programmer” and “software developer” in this context.

Meanwhile, less arbitrary divisions, like the income chart above, show that low income people remain, in both absolute and relative terms, the biggest users of transit in the region. Moreover, transit’s mode share is relatively stable across income boundaries. Broadly speaking, we’ve made transit an attractive option, and this creates a positive feedback loop. Creating higher-income riders creates stakeholders with more political power — which leads to better and more attractive transit.