Month: November 2020

There were many interesting themes in the recent struggle over a legislative “striker” trying to keep North Seattle service hours from moving south. But one of the interesting threads is a shift of emphasis in transit activism from quantitative ridership metrics towards economic and racial equity.

In public comment to the King County Council, Disability Rights Washington’s Anna Zivarts proposed a fairly extreme version of this trend, which deserves to be quoted in full:

Continue reading “Choice riders, and not”

Heidi Groover has an important article today ($) about rising caseloads among transit staff:

At King County Metro, employees have reported 20 positive tests from the start of this month to Nov. 21. That’s up from six in October and about five or fewer per month throughout the summer.

CT and PT are seeing similar rises, while ST has not. While these figures include operators and non-customer facing staff, and sample sizes are small, the exclusion of office-worker-heavy ST suggests this might be more than the generalized increase in regional caseloads. But it’s impossible to know.

Fortunately, there have been no local operator fatalities since June.

Figures indicate that only 83% to 85% of Metro riders are wearing masks. Please note that wearing a mask is more about protecting those around you than yourself. This is not about exercising your freedom to assess your own risks; it is about basic consideration for others.

• Kurt Schlosser test drives a Wheels Scooter.
• Puyallup parking breaks ground.
• ST schedules for this weekend.
• Comment on the Sounder concession fares.
• A Mt Baker-Judkins Park bike connection will be valuable.
• Lisa Herbold argues that VLF should fund bridges.
• ST 2021 service changes formally approved.
• This series on race and mobility is interesting.
• SDOT traffic forecasts might be too gloomy, but the Ballard Bridge is aging, too.
• Congrats to longtime friend of the blog Rachel Smith, now CEO of the Chamber of Commerce.
• Art at the Kent Link stations.
• ST’s credit rating still solid.
• But the Council ends up agreeing to raise another $20 per car ($) and punting the issue of how to spend it to “stakeholders.”
• Still $2 billion short for a new I-5 Columbia crossing.
• Riding transit during the pandemic is “pretty safe“.
• Don’t count on a Biden bailout of CAHSR.
• Promising options for USDOT Secretary, but unions already fighting any reduction in headcount (not a great sign)

This is an open thread.

Friend-of-STB Jonathan Hopkins of Lime tweeted six weeks of Lime Scooter and E-Bike Data:

Note that there are four times as many Jump bikes as scooters at this time. Hopkins remarks that they have about the same number of rides over this period, implying scooters have considerably more rides per vehicle.

It’s interesting that Jump is more prevalent on the outskirts. It’s not clear if this is more about where the scooters are available, or where the long-haul trips (where the bikes are more attractive) are. Indeed, Hopkins says the average bike trip is 47.8% longer.

Before (lightly) criticizing Microsoft’s specific choices, it is important to say that their investment in local affordable housing is generous, one that their investors would probably not prefer, and that we are fortunate that that a global company is directing a disproportionate amount of its surplus to its home county.

With a total $750m commitment to the cause, the latest $65m allocation includes

$40 million into a fund operated by Urban Housing Ventures, a privately funded company focused on creating affordable apartments. UHV will use the funds to reduce the rent for 40% of units in three apartment buildings to middle-income levels.

UHV says the novel model allows investors such as itself to purchase apartment buildings and then lower the rents on some of the units without losing financial viability. The reduced rent allows buildings to operate at lower vacancy and turnover rates, offsetting some of the costs of converting the units, according to UHV.

Monica Nickelsburg, Geekwire

Continue reading “To solve the housing crisis, build more housing”

Partitions on Buses from Kitsap Transit on Vimeo.