Month: March 2021

• Speed limits dropping to 25mph
• Cascades Talgos off to the scrap heap
• “Suspicious device” closes TIBS for a while
• Safe access to Judkins Park Station
• Finally, the highway-industrial complex steers towards maintenance ($)
• Comment on OMF South — should ST pay to clean up a toxic site, or focus on transit? Here’s a writeup of alternatives
• Southworth fast ferry might open this month
• If the gas tax is racist, you’ll have to cancel me
• Clean fuels bill ($) is making progress
• Local grant to improve transit information for the underserved
• A tunnel to Whidbey?
• Four bills to fight car dependencies

This is an open thread.

East Link might open in as little as 18 months. Like any rail opening of that magnitude, there are many opportunities to reorganize bus service to reduce redundancy, improve access, and serve new priorities.

Metro and Sound Transit are creating a citizen sounding board for these changes, and they’re paying $50 per hour:

“Are you someone who:

• Lives, works, and/or travels within Eastside communities? These communities include but are not limited to areas east and south of Kenmore, east of the I-90 and SR 520 bridges, north of east Renton (such as Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond), and west of Sammamish and Issaquah? Or do you live, work, or travel in Seattle’s Chinatown/International District and/or Judkins Park?
• Is a transit rider or a potential transit rider?
• Are able to bring your perspective as an individual, not representing the interests of an organization?
• Are willing and interested in drawing connections between racial equity, transportation issues, and access to opportunities?”

Apply by the end of this month to participate from April to November 2021. It’d be helpful for some board members to have an appreciation for transit planning principles.

This weekend, there is a full closure of the SR 520 bridge over Lake Washington. Closures of the bridge in at least one direction is going to be a somewhat common occurrence for the next few years as WSDOT works on their Montlake lid project, which will ultimately improve bus service from the eastside to UW, and get buses out of the general purpose westbound off-ramp that often gets backed up with traffic.

All buses that use the bridge are going to be rerouted from Friday, March 5th at 11:00 p.m. through Monday, March 8th at 5:00 a.m. Routes that are affected include Sound Transit routes 542 and 545, and King County Metro routes 255 and 271. Stops that are missed include the Evergreen Point and Yarrow Point freeway stations, and local stops in Medina that are west of 100th Ave NE. Aside from those missed stops, the reroutes are configured to serve the same stops in the same order that it would normally, just with some significant delay due to the fact that buses have to divert to I-90.

While this configuration is optimal for reducing confusion and making sure service operates as normally as possible, it does lead to some highly inefficient operation for routes that go to the U-District. Routes 255, 271, and 542 westbound detour south to I-90, travel west toward downtown Seattle, but continue back north without stopping in downtown, and take SR 520 eastbound, then continues as normal on Montlake Blvd E. This is particularly awkward for route 255, as last year its southern terminus shifted form downtown to the U-district to expand service. However, when the bridge is closed, the situation is completely different in a couple of ways.

Continue reading “SR 520 bus service when the bridge is closed”

• Volunteer for ST’s Citizen Oversight Panel
• Sound Transit appealing Mercer Island permitting decision
• Sharrows as a “compromise” between bike lanes and doing nothing
• Kitsap Transit buys a used foot ferry as a Southworth backup
• Here comes the Northgate Pedestrian bridge
• Virtual tours of this year’s new Link stations
• Everett considers an “offensive” to bump itself up in Link priority
• Checking in on C-Tran
• More ST land donated for affordable housing
• SBB reports on the endless quest to fix Mt. Baker
• Lowering highway speed limits
• Land use planning in the area south of Tacoma
• Two-person freight railroad crews ($) still required
• Suburban road grids make buses more expensive
• “Cut-and-Cover is Underrated”
• Study says it’s largely the sacred “public input” that makes infrastructure in the US cost so much

This is an open thread.