Month: October 2021

• “Pingo” Microtransit in Kent
• STRide lines will open in 2026 and 2027
• New bus to Portland ($) on high-traffic days
• Pierce Transit expanding its “Runner” microtransit to the Port
• Bike helmet law may be on the way out
• PSRC allotment of Federal transit subsidies more contentious than usual
• Local businesses vs ped/bus improvements
• A new website for Everett Link
• Dow putting more money into bus electrification
• Metro sued over hit-and-run
• Long after it was supposed to be done, RapidRide G construction ($) finally about to start
• The Victoria Clipper is back
• Streetcars to Fremont? Magnolia!?!
• Double tracking in Edmonds (2023)
• HOV snitch line is closing down
• All Aboard Washington has a new vision map
• In case you don’t know what local treasure Mike Lindblom looks and sounds like
• Electric buses have teething troubles ($)

This is an open thread

[UPDATE: An earlier version of this article claimed that WSDOT has purchased no new ferries for a decade. There have been four.]

The Washington State Ferry Service (WSF) is in the news. And not in a good way. After 70 years of steady, dependable service, it is falling apart. Out of the blue, we are lead to believe. But the falling apart has everything to do with that 70 years of steady, dependable service.

City goals: have a simple zoning/land use code that can be casually explained in under 15 minutes and is more permissive of mixed uses.

With the East Link Connections survey wrapping up Monday, it’s a good time to make suggestions if you haven’t already. The process of restructuring is about tradeoffs, and in any result, there will be both winners and losers. While no plan is perfect, I have two ideas for how I think the plan can be improved to further expand and speed up access to Link in the south and east study areas. One of them is in Newcastle and Renton, around routes 240 and 114, the latter of which is proposed to be deleted. The other is in Issaquah, around routes 215 and 269.

One day I’ll catch up to the present…

• More security on Metro
• New ST bus base will be at Canyon Park
• USDOT approves $3.84 billion loan for ST, will save $500m in interest payments
• It would personally benefit me, but the land use around this spot is not all that promising for a Link Station; best to mourn First Hill instead
• A good year for bike lanes ($)
• See Sound Transit’s latest Transit Development Plan
• Lizz says Vision Zero is a long way off
• PT’s Stream BRT already watering down
• Seattle expanding street-level uses
• Kyte is yet another choice to only have a car when you need one
• SDOT finally figuring out that road construction needs more bus lanes, not fewer; now tell WSDOT
• Lindblom tackles the question of high rail construction costs ($)
• Broad support for regional high-speed rail
• Yard in Bellingham launches a hydrogen-powered ferry
• Still talking about Spokane light rail ($)
• A Bellingham-Friday Harbor foot ferry?
• “Environmental” rules actually used to thwart environmentally useful projects

This is an open thread.

Seattle Transit Blog is officially a non-partisan publication, but it’s no secret that our favored policy positions tend to align with those on the progressive left. As someone with a libertarian streak, I want to make the case that pro-transit libertarianism has a strong ideological foundation, and in so doing, disabuse anyone of the notion that progressives monopolize the transit advocacy space.

Several years ago, I interviewed Bill Lind for a short piece on the conservative case for rail transit. Lind was a shining light among transportation thinkers, but he – like many fellow conservatives – disdained bus transit in favor of rail. Nonetheless, I found his insight to be refreshing among a cohort that has historically fought against transit.

Unfortunately, Lind’s views are largely a minority in the modern Republican and Libertarian Parties. Although ambivalence around transit is fairly pervasive at the federal level, local Republicans have historically lobbied hard against regional transit spending and initiatives.

Extraordinary engineering work went into floating slab track designed to minimize ground vibrations and electromagnetic noise from trains running under sensitive research labs on the University of Washington campus.