All posts by Adam Bejan Parast

• As disfunction on a national level and to a lesser degree in Olympia takes its toll, tactical localism, has become the de jour mechanism for cities to advance their urbanist agenda.
• APTA announces public transit ridership is higher than any year since 1956, even compared to 2008 when gas cost over $4.00 a gallon.
• The addicting alpha version of Mini-Metro game takes the transit planning world by storm.
• Data mining Google Streetview to reveal the changing face of neighborhoods.
• Peak-gentrification: What happens when all the “undiscovered” and undervalued neighborhoods are discovered and gentrified?
• Frontlash, a good term for a common issue in transportation and land use planning.
• Seattle is 7th-best US city to get a job in; 5th-highest starting pay.
• SDOT releases center city cycle track RFP and announces selection for the second round of The Green Lane Project. Over half of the nation’s cycle track projects occurred in first round cities.
• Piecemeal rollout of Broadway cycle track causing difficulty, contributes to collision.
• Seattle bike map updated, major overhaul expected next year.
• The Green Tea Party was key in killing Columbia River Crossing, while not a new dynamic the CRC is a poster child the current transportation paradigms of our time.
• Lack of clear communication between WSDOT and Seattle Tunnel Partners worries Councilmember Rasmussen.
• Nearly 3,000 drivers are signed up between UberX, Lyft and Sidecar; UberX has at least 300 drivers active at any one time, more during peak periods.
• USDOT VMT forecasts diverge from the trend over the last ten years or so.
• KUOW does a long-form piece on the maritime history of Seattle and how changes around the stadiums could affect the viability of industry in SODO
• Apple iOS 8 will have transit directions, finally!
• A good comparison of BC to the rest of Canada and what affects its carbon tax has, or more important has not, had on the province.
• Mayor Murray on prioritization of buses vs streetcars projects.
• Senate Eide (D-30, Federal way) who is co-chair of the transportation committee will not run for reelection.
• Portland’s tourism grows but car rentals don’t.
• Weekend service (and/or taxing to) restore service in Grays Harbor starting April 1st.
• SFMTA confirms it will buy electric trolley buses in coordination with King County Metro.
• An assessment about the future challenges and opportunities of vehicle automation

This is an open thread.

• DSA pushing hard to improve the quality of public spaces downtown; releases Pike-Pine Renaissance plan, looks to Bryant Park for lessons.
• New Denny Triangle housing and office projects around Amazon announced.
• Convention Center buys land, studying expansion over DSTT Convention Place Station.
• Mayor’s first State of the City address. Full speech here (see pg. 10)
• Mayor announces a citywide Neighborhood Summit on April 5th.
• Mayor forms new office to oversee Waterfront projects.
• Volumes on the tolled Port Mann bridge in Vancouver BC decreasing, rather than projected increase.
• WSF spends significantly less on administration than BC Ferries. Apples to apples comparison?
• Columbia River Crossing turmoil continues. With Washington State out, is an Oregon only option a possibility?
• Who should affordable housing resources be targeted at?
• City holds housing affordability forum; data shows 80% of households below 50% of Area Median Income (AMI) are cost burdened.
• Correlation, not causation, found between gayborhoods and gentrification.
• MCC starts to talk transportation against backdrop of Governor Kitzhaber of Oregon instituting low-carbon fuel standards by executive order.
• Lawsuit over Westlake cycle track, which stalled adoption of the Bicycle Master Plan, has been dropped. Additional details.
• RapidRide E line launched, with neither significant fanfare nor snafus.
• Haven’t you heard, innovation can only happen in the Bay Area.

This is an open thread.

Yesterday, the full City Council attended what was originally intended to be the final meeting of the Taxi/For-Hire/Limousine Regulations committee. Before another packed house, and with only a brief window for public comment this time around, the council discussed detailed amendments to the working proposal. They took votes on some issues, deferred others, and showed that the normally consensus-craving council is divided on the  issue of TNC market caps.

The full video above is exceptional for those interested in wading into the weeds. Public comment was substantive, on-point, and emotionally charged, with opinions hardened and clarified on both sides. The council moved through a series of amendments that generally moved in the pro-TNC direction.

Here’s where things stand:

Insurance: The council fully agrees on requiring that drivers be covered whenever ‘active’ on a system, including in between rides. O’Brien offered an amendment looking for ways to lower insurance costs for commercial drivers but the council ran out of time before discussing it.

Hourly Caps: The Council passed an amendment removing the requirement that limited TNC drivers to 16 hours per week. TNC drivers will be able to work full-time, but will retain daily limits and mandatory time off between shifts.

Pilot Program Review: CM Burgess introduced and passed revised language relating to the data collection at the end of the 2-year pilot. In short, the review of the program will now include an expanded series of performance metrics, such as average dispatch time for taxis and TNCs, % and location of rejected rides, and much more. The intent seemed to be to get a better handle on the relative service quality offered by the different options.

Training: Councilmember Clark introduced and passed an amendment removing a separate permit layer and separate  training requirements for TNC drivers. Instead, all training will be harmonized between taxi/for-hire/TNC drivers, the curriculum will be updated, and emphasis will be on safety. Trainings will be flexible to focus on some issues and minimize others depending upon the audience (i.e. Cash-free Lyft drivers wouldn’t have to be trained on cash-handling)

Market Caps: This was the meat of the debate, and was the only portion of the regulations not to be voted upon. Weeks ago the committee proposed a cap of 100 drivers per company, which was then revised by CM O’Brien to 300 total TNC driver permits which would be portable between TNCs. At this meeting two additional amendments were offered. Likely recognizing pushback from the community on the caps issue, CM Clark offered to double O’Brien’s portable TNC permits from 300 to 600, with Clark arguing that a 2-year cap would ease the way for a likely “capless future.” Bagshaw proposed removing market caps entirely, arguing that a denser, growing Seattle can absorb the new supply, and that in the context of transit cuts that Seattle needs more options. Rasmussen seconded Bagshaw’s call for removing caps, though he proposed that the Council retain authority to impose caps if the market becomes too saturated (a cap-as-you-go approach).

O’Brien and Harrell defended the original cap of 300, making immigrant rights and social justice arguments while sharply criticizing TNCs for flouting the law. O’Brien held that industry support for TNCs was hypocritical (“Would the hotel association support an unregulated AirBnB? Would the restaurant association be ok with unregulated food trucks?”)

Burgess, Licata, Sawant, and Godden stayed largely silent. Sawant criticized the lack of mass transit in the city and proposed eventually having a publicly-owned and unionized TNC company. She supported market caps, saying that it was the taxi driver “Davids” against the “Goldman-Sachs-Jeff-Bezos” Goliaths.

Burgess responded later in the day with a long and substantive blog post defending an approach that caps the market for street hails but leaves the dispatch market unregulated. However, he also said he would support Clark’s limit of 600 if a majority wants caps in some form.

In sum, currently a majority supports caps (Clark, O’Brien, Harrell, Sawant, and Godden), 3 members oppose caps (Bagshaw, Rassmussen, and Burgess), and Licata is undeclared.

The final committee vote on this issue will be on February 27 from 4-6pm. It will then proceed to the full council.

See the draft legislation and proposed amendments for more details.

This Thursday the Seattle Chapter of Young Professionals in Transportation will be hosting a special panel of communication specialists in the public, private, and news industries. Join us for a conversation covering the details of sharing transportation project information, how agencies provide information to media outlets, and the impact on the traveling public. We’ll meet at EnviroIssues (101 Stewart Street, Suite 1200) for networking at 5:30 p.m. and introduce the panel around 6:00 p.m.

The panel will include Travis Phelps of WSDOT, Charla Skaggs of EnviroIssues and Mike Lindblom of Seattle Times. Full details here.

Tomorrow the Growing Transit Communities partnership is holding a free two-part event starting with a panel discussion with national experts followed by lunch and open house. Walk-ins are welcome. Details below: Continue reading “Event Tomorrow: People+Place: Action for a Sustainable Future”

It’s been a while since STB has had multiple posts like this and I wanted to quickly add a few ideas to this blue-sky discussion, particularly with relation to projects that I think could fall through the cracks or are more programmatic in nature rather than lines on a map. While I think Sound Transit’s survey is good, as Ben previously mentioned, it sticks fairly closely to the adopted 2005 LRP. Below is a very quick list of some projects or programs that came to mind over my lunch break. I’m not even sure if Sound Transit can do some of these things but I left everything in. Please add to and critique these ideas and send any comments you have to Sound Transit. This is a rare chance to influence the future of regional transit service.

I’d like to see the following ideas or programs addressed in the LRP update:

1. HCT corridor from Ballard to Northgate.
2. HCT corridor on BNSF corridor from I-90 to Totem Lake.
3. HCT corridor between Elliot Bay and 23rd north of downtown.
4. Third fully-elevated HCT N/S corridor which takes over travel to/from the airport. Extend Central Link to Southcenter/Renton area.
5. A bus-rail integration program that funds small to major capital projects that improve transfers and bus speed and reliability around Link stations.
6. Funding to establish a region-wide public development corporation to assist in finance and construction of affordable housing, mixed-use development, and necessary public infrastructure to catalyze private investments along HCT corridors.
7. A BRT partnering program to fund the capital components of BRT projects with Metro/CT/PT to a ITDP standard of Bronze for 2nd tier HCT corridors.
8. Regionally competitive grants for small to medium sized transit speed and reliability projects along major transit corridors.
9. Matching funds for feeder bus service between Link and regional centers not served by HCT with a requirement of very frequent service all day.
10. Program to fully implement the Growing Transit Communities partnership.
11. Funds for infill stations where appropriate.

CORRECTION 11/29: The Sound Transit board can select any alignment and station studied in the DEIS not just those studied in the FEIS as originally reported. Additionally, Sound Transit clarified that the NE 130th St and 220th St Stations were not advanced to the 30% design level as other alignments and stations included in the FEIS. However, their design and environmental impacts will be brought up to the same level as the rest of the DEIS analysis.

This afternoon the Sound Transit Board will vote on which Lynnwood Link alignments and station locations to include in the Final Environmental Impact Study (FEIS). This step is critical because the Preferred Alternative, which will advance to construction, can only use alignments and stations studied in the FEIS DEIS. Additionally, as explained on Councilmember Conlin’s blog, Sound Transit is only allowed to deviate or modify alignments and station locations if it can stay within the voter approved budget. Conlin goes on to explain how Sound Transit has been able to modify the alignment to accommodate both stations in the future and what it would take to fully fund the stations:

The Preferred Alternative that the Board used as a starting point is the least expensive, no-frills alignment, costed out at $1.267 billion compared to the $1.322 billion budgeted for the route from Northgate to Lynnwood. We had several options to consider as possible additions, including possible rebuilds of bridges at 117^th and 185^th Street ($26 million), adding a 130^th Street Station ($24 million), and adding a 220^th Street Station ($42 million). Providing for the 220^th Street Station would also require alignment modifications costing $36 million, while adding either of the two stations would require additional train sets at a cost of $40 million. Thus, to do everything we all wanted would bust the budget, taking it up to $1.440 billion.

Continue reading “CORRECTION: NE 130th St and 220th St SW Station Likely in Lynnwood Link FEIS”

Since October 2010 we’ve  followed the Lynnwood Link project fairly closely. Unlike other Link extensions, Lynnwood Link had several viable alignments including SR-99, I-5 and NE 15th Avenue. While many in the transit community who believe in the importance of TOD favored the SR-99 alignment; New Starts competitiveness, cost, and institutional momentum favored the I-5 alignment.

From a TOD perspective this was disappointing. However, as discussions about the I-5 alignment advanced, the idea of a NE 130th Street Station to serve the Bitter Lake and Lake City neighborhoods emerged. This station, located half way between the two Hub Urban Villages would certainly help mitigate the lack of TOD immediately around Lynnwood Link stations. Today the City Council will again move to support the NE 130th Street Station.

Because TOD potential along I-5 between Northgate and Lynnwood is so limited, feeder transit must play a disproportionate role in connecting riders to the stations. Frequent, fast and reliable bus connections to the Aurora Avenue and Lake City Way corridors via Bitter Lake and Lake City Hub Urban Villages would do that. These areas have already grown significantly and have strong and growing transit demand. Since 2005 the Bitter Lake and Lake City Hub Urban Villages have seen more than twice as much growth as the Northgate Urban Center (1,522 to 739) and transit re-orientation of Aurora Ave in Seattle and Shoreline could result in significant additional growth.

NE 130th is the best connection between these two areas. Low-levels of congestion, the sequential and linear location of major destinations, and Link headways of 4-58 minutes all-day make transfers to very-frequency feeder bus service ideal. Currently it takes 40-50 minutes to get between the two Urban Villages by transit compared to ~5-10 minutes by car. A single very-frequent route along Aurora Avenue, NE 130th and Lake City Way could connect: Continue reading “NE 130th Street Station: A Critical and Underdeveloped Idea”

The Seattle Chapter of Young Professionals in Transportation (YPT), a newish group for young professions in the transportation engineering, planning, policy and related fields is hosting its first presentation this Thursday. The presentation, by Puget Sound Bike Share (PSBS) Executive Direction Holly Houser, will be a great opportunity to learn more about the bike share system in detail. Holly has a good radio interview about the system basics here. I’m particularly looking forward to learning more about what kind of implementation challenges Holly is facing and what lessons she learned from watching other systems around the US launch over the last year or two.

The presentation this Thursday October 3rd, will be in the offices of Parsons Brinckerhoff on the 32nd floor of the Wells Fargo Center (999 3rd Avenue) beginning with professional networking at 5:30 p.m. and the presentation starting at 6 p.m. This will be a great opportunity for transportation professionals to learn more about the PSBS and meet fellow transportation professionals. Please share with colleagues and RSVP here or at this Facebook event page.

P.S. As the Seattle Bike Blog has noted, bicycle planning and advocacy is an area where women in leadership roles are very well represented in Seattle.