Link Connections on SR-520: Survey Closes Tomorrow

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This is the last week to take the survey on proposed revision to SR 520 bus service. The survey closes Friday midnight. With the planned closure of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, the transit agencies have offered two alternatives that would extricate SR 520 buses from anticipated congestion on Seattle surface streets. Both would require […]

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Is a Roads Ballot Measure in Our Future?

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For several months, a group of King County cities and other stakeholders have been meeting as part of a Regional Transportation System Initiative (RTSI). Their goal is to identify a funding solution for County roads and regional arterials in King County. A Technical Committee is working to define the scope of the regional roads network and its unmet […]

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One Center City Options Narrow

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The One Center City plan for handling near-term disruption in Seattle downtown transit and traffic grinds forward. Anticipating the end of bus operations in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, staff are narrowing down the options. At last week’s advisory group meeting, we learned several project elements that are moving forward, and some that are not. […]

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Reminder: SR 520 Open Houses

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Several open houses are scheduled for the public to learn about new service on the SR 520 corridor. The first is on Wednesday evening in Kirkland, with others to follow through the rest of the month. A particularly interesting opportunity is the open house at UW Husky Stadium on June 19. As well as the […]

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Redmond Stations

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East Link to Downtown Redmond is scheduled to open in 2024, and the Sound Transit Board will update its preferred alternative on June 22. “Concept refinements” are now being considered. These are minor updates to the alignment including changes to station locations and the vertical profile of the guideway. Redmond last week approved a letter […]

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SR 520 Service Change Concepts Released

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Last evening, Metro and Sound Transit released service change concepts for revised bus service on SR 520. This kicks off the second of three rounds of public input, including an online survey and several open houses in mid- to late June. Because these are service concepts, they do not describe capital improvements in Montlake or elsewhere could […]

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The Archaic Community Councils

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A familiar story is playing out in Kirkland’s Houghton neighborhood. The Houghton-Everest Business Center is a collection of strip malls and small offices, mostly over 40 years old. Retail spaces are antiquated and undersized. The pedestrian environment, dominated by curb cuts to parking lots, is unsafe. But it is just a block from Google’s office, less […]

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Agreement Reached on Mercer Island Access to I-90

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Mercer Island has reached agreement with Sound Transit on access to I-90. The agreement means the express lanes can close permanently to auto traffic as scheduled this weekend. A planned hearing this morning in King County Superior Court on Mercer Island’s injunction to prevent the closures is now cancelled. The agreement includes $10 million in […]

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Seattle Booms On

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Seattle’s growth is still accelerating. Census estimates released yesterday show almost 21 thousand new residents in Seattle in the year ended July 2016. With 704 thousand residents, Seattle is once again the nation’s fastest growing city with 3.1% annual growth. We’ve become accustomed to fast growth, averaging 15 thousand new residents in Seattle annually between 2010 and 2015. […]

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Sunday Open Thread: Eastside Transportation Forum

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Eastside leaders gathered in Bellevue on May 5 to review transit and other transportation projects coming on the Eastside. 0:00 Claudia Balducci, King County Council Member for District 6 5:57 John Howell (Moderator), Founding Partner, Cedar River Group 7:25 Ariel Taylor, King County Council Staff 18:10 Roger Millar, Secretary of Transportation, WSDOT 40:15 Peter Rogoff, […]

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The Overheated MVET Debate

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Last night, the Washington House of Representatives approved HB 2201. The bill effectively resets the valuation schedule for the 0.8% ST3 portion of the MVET to the lower of the 1999 and 2006 schedules. The outcome is lower taxes for owners of cars less than 10 years old, and a refund for those who have […]

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Who Should use the Park & Ride?

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Every morning, dozens of riders board shuttle buses one block from Eastgate Park-and-Ride. All but a handful are coming from the parking garage, after storing their cars there for the day. This particular shuttle bus travels to Amazon’s Brazil building in South Lake Union. Other companies appear also to use suburban transit parking as pickup points. […]

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2016: Did Growth Outpace our Willingness to Build Homes?

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Census data released last week showed yet another acceleration of regional population growth. King County maintained a high growth rate, added another 35,700 residents in the year ended July 1, 2016. But neighboring counties saw higher growth rates. Pierce added 18,600 residents, more than twice the average of the preceding five years. Snohomish added 17,500 residents, […]

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Link Connections on SR-520: Take the Survey

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King County Metro and Sound Transit have begun an outreach process to transit riders in the SR 520 corridor. Transit users and community members are invited to take a survey, running through April 2. Town halls will be held at University of Washington, in Redmond, and in Kirkland.  This will be the first of several opportunities for […]

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We Have Traffic Because We Drive So Far

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We are regularly reminded that traffic congestion is growing across the region. The median Seattle metro area worker commutes nine miles to work. What if we could live closer to our workplaces? Drivers would drive fewer miles, and spend less time in traffic. Everybody who lives closer to work would contribute less to the congestion […]

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Should Small Cities Grow Faster?

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For over a year, regional planners have wrestled over growth plans with six small cities that are planning to ‘grow too fast’. Last month, the PSRC Executive Board tabled a decision on reclassification that could have eased the way for faster growth in Covington and Bonney Lake. The region’s growth management strategy, VISION 2040, focuses […]

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Eastside Park & Rides to Close for Link Construction

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Two park & rides on the Eastside will close in early 2017 for East Link construction. The South Bellevue P&R, with current capacity of 519 cars, is expected to close later in the first quarter. It will reopen in five years with an expanded capacity of 1,500 cars in a five-level garage. In the second quarter, the smaller […]

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Trouble on Paradise Lake

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Some years ago, I lived in a residential community east of Woodinville. It’s a typical late 1970s subdivision with houses on acre-lots surrounded by tall trees; the kind of place where deer graze in the yard by day and bears sometimes visit by night. After the Growth Management Act was adopted in 1990, the neighborhood was […]

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