Metro Survey for SODO Commuters

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King County Metro has a survey up, aimed at people who work in the SODO area, which the agency defines as between Royal Brougham Way and Lucille Street. This is part of Metro’s Community Connection program, “in which Metro works with local governments and community partners to develop innovative and cost-efficient transportation solutions in areas […]

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Open House: Northgate Pedestrian Bridge

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On August 3rd, SDOT is hosting an open house for the Northgate Pedestrian/Bike bridge project: At the open house: See the latest Northgate Ped/Bike Bridge design and get a sense of what it will be like to use the bridge. Learn about the route for the Northgate Neighborhood Greenway. Get information on other transportation projects […]

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Boise Puts “Cool Factor” ahead of Mobility

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Suppose you were in charge of an Inland Northwest city of about 215,000, an island of vibrant urbanity frozen in a tax- and transit-hostile hinterland. Now suppose your city had a transit system about on a par with Wenatchee, Washington — population 35,000 — with buses running at best every 30 minutes to 10 PM […]

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Upcoming SDOT Transit Spot Improvements

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It’s been a while since we checked in with SDOT’s Transit Spot Improvements program. This is a small pot of money for SDOT engineers to make minor improvements to transit operations and rider amenities, which would not otherwise be funded as part of a RapidRide corridor project, an arterial repaving project, or a larger state […]

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Kitsap Transit Looks to Rethink Service and Revive Ridership

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Late last year, Kitsap Transit made news with the passage of its foot ferry initiative, which provided the funding to fulfill a long-standing dream of fast, cross-sound passenger service. For those paying attention to the less-sexy, workhorse transit modes, however, news across the sound has been bad for years. Like every sales tax-dependent agency in Washington, KT took a […]

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Pragmatism, Efficiency, and Who Shares

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On Sunday, the Seattle Times wrote up ($) SDOT’s Employer Shared Transit Stop Pilot program, which started a week prior. It’s a good writeup, although transit nerds probably won’t learn too much they didn’t already know. From SDOT’s page: The City of Seattle and King County Metro are collaborating with Seattle Children’s Hospital and Microsoft to […]

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Storm Warning for Friday and Saturday

This is a guest post.

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Cliff Mass is sounding the alarm on his blog, about some pretty serious weather incoming from the Pacific: Starting Thursday, we will enter a period of extraordinarily active weather with the potential for heavy rain, flooding, and a highly dangerous windstorm with the potential to be an historic event. The coastal waters and shoreline areas […]

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This is a guest post.

SDOT Proposes Pine St BAT Lane

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The Seattle Department of Transportation is proposing to install six blocks of 24/7 bus lane, downtown, on Pine St, between 9th Ave and 3rd Ave. The proposed installation will mirror a similar installation on Pike St, between 2nd and 7th, completed last summer: It will be a painting and signage exercise in the right-hand curb […]

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SDOT Proposes New Bus Lane, Pedestrian Signal for Ballard

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The Seattle Department of Transportation has, at last, formally proposed a Ballard transit project I’ve been hearing rumors of for nearly a year: a northbound Business Access and Transit (BAT) lane for 15th Ave NW, between the Ballard Bridge and Market Street. This stretch of 15th Ave is one of its most congested sections, and […]

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Spokane Cliffhanger!

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Last night, the initial ballot counts dropped for the Spokane Transit Authority’s Proposition 1, to fund STA Moving Forward. Prop 1 is down around 900 votes out of about 70,000 — 49.4% yes / 50.6% no — with about 8,000 ballots left to count. I don’t have any further insight into the precinct by precinct numbers, […]

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Spokane Moving Forward: A Coeur d’Alene Connection?

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[This is the fourth and last in a series covering Spokane Moving Forward, the Spokane Transit Authority’s proposed ten-year plan to improve transit in the Spokane region, which will go to an areawide ballot tomorrow. Previously I discussed the proposed Central City Line, improvements for Cheney and the West Plains, and Core urban service in Spokane.] […]

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Spokane Moving Forward: Division, Sprague and Core Urban Service

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[This is the third in a series covering Spokane Moving Forward, the Spokane Transit Authority’s proposed ten-year plan to improve transit in the Spokane region, which will go to an areawide ballot on Tuesday. Previously I discussed the proposed Central City Line, and improvements for Cheney and the West Plains.] Spokane’s two biggest transit corridors, Sprague […]

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Community Transit Joins the Real Time Party

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Community Transit has joined the real time rider information party, although the data is as yet only available through their own website, not OneBusAway: Customers can access BusFinder at www.mybusfinder.org on their computer or mobile device, or by calling Community Transit’s customer service phone line at (425) 353-7433 (RIDE) and selecting Option 1. Mobile device users […]

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Seattlites: Phonebank for Spokane Transit

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Next Tuesday evening, Transportation Choices Coalition is running a phone bank in support of STA Moving Forward, the Spokane Transit Authority’s ballot measure to maintain and improve service throughout the Spokane region. As I wrote in March, Spokane is a real city, our state’s second largest, with lots of transit riders, and a well-run transit agency that’s […]

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Spokane Moving Forward: Cheney And West Plains

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[This is the second in a promised series covering Spokane Moving Forward, the Spokane Transit Authority’s proposed ten-year plan to improve transit in the Spokane region, which will go to an areawide ballot in April. Previously I discussed the proposed Central City Line.] 16 miles southwest of Spokane lies Cheney, a town of about 10,000 permanent […]

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Agencies Working on Olive Way Freeway Station

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Two-and-a-half years ago, Zach concisely made the case for an idea that’s been kicking around the Seattle transit world for a decade or more: Every now and then there is a simple fix to an existing inefficiency that improves transit access, decreases travel time, and costs very little. Such an opportunity exists at the Olive […]

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Spokane Moving Forward: The Central City Line

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[This is the first in a promised series covering Spokane Moving Forward, the Spokane Transit Authority’s proposed ten-year plan to improve transit in the Spokane region, which will go to an areawide ballot in April.] Enter Spokane as a visitor, and the the first place you’re probably going is downtown, to the shops, businesses, or restaurants, […]

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Spokane Transit: Why You Care

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As promised a few weeks ago, over the next week STB will have short series on Spokane Moving Forward, the Spokane Transit Authority’s ten-year plan to dramatically improve public transit in its service area. Voters in STA’s service area will vote on a 0.3% sales tax to fund the plan next month. We’ve written previously […]

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Jarrett Walker’s Network Design Class Comes to Seattle

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Next month, noted transit planning consultant Jarrett Walker is bringing his firm’s Transit Network Design course to Seattle: Transit Network Design: an Interactive Short Course is designed to give anyone a grasp of how network design works, so that they can form more confident and resilient opinions about transit proposals. The course is ideal for people […]

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ACTION ALERT: Write in Support of Director’s Rule 6-2015

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If you’re a person who cares about improving housing affordability, and reducing legislated car-dependence, stop what you are doing, and send an email to Mike.Podowski@seattle.gov, expressing support for the adoption of DPD’s proposed Directors Rule 6-2015. This proposed rule change would create a sane definition of “frequent transit” near a proposed development, allowing transit service to be […]

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