Month: April 2019

Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1793, having been revived last week and passed out of the House, now faces a showdown in the Senate Transportation Committee, where it must be heard and voted out Wednesday morning. At time of publication, the bills to be heard at the meeting were not publicly listed yet.

The bill allows camera enforcement of bus lanes, HOV lanes, crosswalks, ferry lanes, emergency vehicle access, and blocking the box, with tickets being mailed instead of handed to drivers while blocking traffic.

During the sausage-making process, the bill has been reduced to the downtown Seattle area only, and only for a pilot program expiring at the end of 2021, with only warnings being mailed in 2019. Starting in 2020, the first offense will still get a warning. Also, the state gets half the action on the profit from the ticketing.

The bill requires signage to be placed 30 days before camera enforcement starts, but still has no requirement for clear pavement markings, such as red paint.

Three Democratic committee members signed onto the companion bill, SB 5789, leaving seven committee Democrats potentially on the fence.

The Legislature adjourns sine die Sunday, April 28 (which happens to fall on Orthodox / Coptic Easter this year, so expect Saturday to be it for the regular session).

WSDOT is preparing for the Rest of the West, the remaining phases of construction on SR 520 between Lake Washington and I-5. First up is the Montlake Project, where construction may begin as early as May. For transit riders, this means the Montlake flyer stop and the transit-only lanes on the Montlake Boulevard exit will both close in June. Several planned mitigations will blunt the impacts to transit riders.

The closure of Montlake flyer stops means buses not exiting the freeway will no longer stop in the Montlake area. In mitigation, WSDOT is funding additional weekend and evening service on Sound Transit route 542 through March 2020. That added service commenced with the March 2019 service change. The closure of the freeway stations are targeted for June 15.

Continue reading “Montlake bus lane, flyer stop, to close in June”

City of Shoreline:

The City of Shoreline has been busy developing the preliminary design to update 145th Street (SR-523) from Aurora Avenue North to I-5. This new design will improve safety and ensure that this critical corridor can effectively serve Shoreline and the growing number of travelers who rely on it every day.

The timing is planned to coincide with the opening of the Jackson Park Link station in 2024.  Don’t let the word “multimodal” get you too excited.  Bike lanes will be “off-corridor” (e.g. greenways), and there won’t be much in the way of bus priority (there’s only one, peak-only bus, the 304, on this section of 145th).  Also the sidewalk will still be right up against the street, at least in one direction.

Note that this project is separate from the Sound Transit 522 BRT project, which will also use 145th east of I-5 and which will have dedicated bus lanes.

It will take nine years to plan, design and build the 1-mile Aurora-to-I-5 corridor, over three phases, at a cost of $63M. You can comment online by May 1.

Previous coverage: TOD at 145th, Fixing 145th, SR-522 BRT

The Everett City Council voted Wednesday night to approve a new low-income fare category for Everett Transit, and set the fare at $1.50.

ET Transportation Services Director Tom Hingson presented data from a fare survey that also included the option of not having a low-income fare, and the option of consolidating all reduced fares at $1. He pointed out that frequent riders strongly preferred Option 1 ($1.50 low-income and youth, $0.50 RRFP – for seniors 65+ and riders with qualifying disabilities). Seniors overwhelmingly preferred option 1 over option 2, which would have raised their fares from free just a couple years ago, to 25 cents last year, to 50 cents now, to a dollar in July.

As a result, low-income qualifiers will see the same fare they are paying now, which is 50% more than the regular fare last year. ET’s new LIFT fare will be the same as the ST Express LIFT fare, and 25 cents more than the Community Transit local LIFT fare.

ET’s route 70 (serving Mukilteo and Seaway Transit Center) is the only one designated by ET as a “commuter” route. Its fares are set to match Community Transit’s local fares. CT’s decision to implement a low-income half fare would normally trigger the setting of the low-income fare on route 70 to match it at $1.25, oddly making it lower than the low-income fare on the regular buses.

The fares in the ORCA pod, for those agencies honoring inter-agency transfers and passes, effective July 1, are listed below the fold.

Continue reading “Everett City Council Opts for $1.50 Low-Income Fare”

Today is the last day for most bills in Olympia to get voted out of their second chamber, by 5 pm.

Many important bills have already passed both houses or died. Two sit on the bubble, waiting to get voted on today in the Senate, or to die for lack of making it to the front of the voting queue.

Senate Bill 5145 would ban fracking, at least for purposes of exploration for and extraction of oil and natural gas. Anything to slow down the rate at which humans pull fossil fuels out of the ground and convert them to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere can only help.

Substitute Senate Bill 5695 would increase the fines for second- and third-time violators of high-occupancy vehicle and toll lanes. This would help keep buses out of gridlock, too.

You can look up your representatives here or call the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000, or 1-800-833-6388 for TTY.