All posts by Frank Chiachiere

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Ok, so I’m a little late in noticing it, but this is a really big deal:

Last week, the state’s project manager for the Alaskan Way Viaduct, David Dye, told a surprised city council that the state department of transportation was “looking forward to… working with the city and the county to really fully develop the surface/transit option” for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct. What the state learned from last year’s election, Dye said, is that “if we continue to define the problem in the way we’ve defined it”—as the need to move cars, not people—”the solutions likely won’t change. We need to take a fresh look at the whole arterial network and how all those pieces fit together with substantially enhanced transit and freight mobility.”

What changed? Besides the election, in which voters rejected both waterfront highway options, the law itself was literally rewritten. Last session, the state legislature quietly adopted a bill that could have huge implications for road projects across the state. The legislation redefines roadway “capacity” to mean a road’s ability to move people and goods—not cars.

A while back I lamented the fact that the state DOT was so car-centric. This is a huge big shift in the opposite direction. Props where due.

(Via CIS)

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Via my inbox, a meeting coming up on the design of the Capitol Hill light rail station. The station will be a major, major change for the neighborhood. So all you hipsters who plan to still be living there in 2016 or so — make sure your voice is heard!

Between the streetcar down Broadway and this, expect the neighborhood to resemble a war zone for the next few years. (Though residents of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way will no doubt tell you that yer gettin’ off easy.)

COMMUNITY MEETING

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
6:00 – 8:00 PM

Seattle Central Community College Room 1110

SOUND TRANSIT CAPITOL HILL STATION UPDATE

The Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce and the Capitol Hill Neighborhood
Plan Stewardship Council are hosting a meeting regarding the planned
Capitol Hill station for Sound Transit’s regional light rail. Sound
Transit will present its current plans for the station entrances,
property acquisition and relocation, and construction timeline. The
Chamber and Stewardship Council will outline community driven
principles for the station, related construction impacts, and
subsequent redevelopment.

In late 2006, the Sound Transit Board authorized work to design and
construct the “University Link” which extends light rail from Downtown
to the University of Washington including a station in the heart of
Capitol Hill. This station, located on the east side of Broadway
between John and Denny, is projected to have 12,000 boardings a day.
Since the first of the year Sound Transit has been working on their
plans for the Capitol Hill station and has initiated land acquisition
and relocation. Their current timeframe calls for a seven year
construction period.

Sound Transit is now coming. The Chamber and the Stewardship Council
recognize the benefits to the neighborhood and Broadway of improving
connections to Downtown, the UW and the region as well as the
potential for regional light rail to improve transportation mobility.
However, it is also recognized that the station and subsequent
redevelopment on Sound Transit land is a “hundred year” decision for
the Capitol Hill community. From a neighborhood perspective it is
critical the station entrances are appropriately designed and located,
construction period impacts are addressed, and subsequent
redevelopment supports mixed use buildings with strong retail on
Broadway and housing that serves a mix of incomes. This is the
critical decision making period.

The meeting will have a short presentation, question and answer
period, and an open house component for your questions and comments.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Flickr User Mac_Photography has some great photos of light rail testing in SoDo. It’s worth a click. Note, though, that they’re only testing single cars. Once in operation, the line will have several cars strung together.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Stefan Sharkansky derides the mortgage analogy:

The analogy to a home mortgage is absurd. Owning a home is a voluntary proposition and you can sell the home when you choose to. With the Sound Transit boondoggle, many of the people who vote for it won’t be paying for it and vice versa. And if it doesn’t suit our needs? Then it’s a moneypit, from which there’s no escape.

Mr. Sharkansky seems to take the analogy too far. Of course financing a light rail system is not at all like owning a home. The point of the analogy is simply to put the numbers in perspective. Most all major purchases in life –from trains to cars to houses to big-screen TVs — require some form of credit. But rarely do we include the finance charges when we talk about the overall costs.

Sound Politics being a conservative blog, the conservative case for transit is worth repeating in this context.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Bus Chick is in awe by New York transit riders, who get to buy a cocktail before starting their evening commute. The MTA (New York’s transit authority) threatened to ban the practice, citing concerns about commuters drinking and then getting in their cars when they got to their station.

This is one of the great pleasures of the Long Island (and Metro North) Rail Road. There’s a transit employee working the bar right on the platform where, during the evening rush hour, you can order a drink and step into your train. It’s brilliant. Especially if you’re about to board a 2-hour train to the Hamptons on a Friday night.

I fondly remember brown-bagging a six pack on my way in to Madison Square Garden to see a show. The train conducters tolerated it, so long as you didn’t get rowdy (or put your feet on up on the seats).

If you recall, the Campbell Scott’s character in Singles was trying to build a “supertrain” in Seattle that served drinks.

“People like their cars,” the fictional mayor (Tom Skerritt) told him, dismissing the idea.

Sad, but true. Maybe if they got used to the idea of cocktails on the train, they’d change their mind. As Josh Feit noted this weekend, public transit improves ones ability to party without worrying about getting behind the wheel. That’s something we should all be able to get behind.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Mike Lindblom has a piece with some pretty solid reporting on Sound Transit’s financing plan, one that puts to rest the questions we raised in April about the way in which the costs of the rail line were being reported. I highly recommend you read the whole thing.

As a bonus, either Lindblom or Sound Transit’s Ric Ilgenfritz has adopted our home mortgage analogy:

By then, Sound Transit’s spending would exceed $37 billion, counting inflation and interest charges.

Agency leaders say a more accurate number is $10.8 billion, representing the cost of construction and trains in 2006 dollars.

As with a home mortgage, it makes sense for voters to focus on the current sales price, said spokesman Ric Ilgenfritz. People who cite the long-term, inflated numbers “make the cost seem misleadingly high,” Sound Transit says.

Indeed. Citing the full costs only makes sense if you think in 2027 dollars, which most people don’t.

Update:Bradley Meacham adds, “[t]he true cost isn’t the debt to pay for the projects, which may still be less than perfect. It’s the crippling cost of — yet again — doing nothing.”

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

If the RTID does pass sans Cross Base Highway, it will hinge on the Pierce County Council’s moves this coming week. Pierce County Exec John Ladenburg claims he has the votes to kill it, others aren’t so sure. According to the News-Tribune, here’s where things stand:

The News Tribune contacted Pierce County Council members this week to find out where they stand on the regional roads package that does not include key funding for the cross-base highway. The council would need four votes to approve the roads package and five votes to overturn a threatened veto by County Executive John Ladenburg.

Here’s what council members said:

Shawn Bunney, R-Lake Tapps: Supports proposed package.

Roger Bush, R-Graham: Wants to see details before making up his mind.

Tim Farrell, D-Tacoma: Supports proposed package.

Barbara Gelman, D-Tacoma: Leaning against proposed package.

Calvin Goings, D-Puyallup: Opposes proposed package, saying it doesn’t spend enough on Highway 167.

Terry Lee, R-Gig Harbor: Wants more information before making up his mind.

Dick Muri, R-Steilacoom: Supports proposed package.

Three “yeas,” two-ish “nays,” and two undecideds. It’s a nail-biter! They’ll have to convince both Bush and Lee if they hope to override the veto. The three county councils will meet June 8 at 10am to vote on whether or not to even send the package to the voters. It’s possible that some councils will approve it and some won’t.

The Seattle Times’ James Vesely says this is more evidence of how fragile the RTID is going into November.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

This is a bit outside the Puget Sound, but since it involves some of our most beloved transportation institutions, it’s worth a moment to take a look at what’s going on down in Vancouver, WA, Portland’s northern suburb:

The two Clark County projects are developing independently of each other. And while each watches what the other is doing, neither is bound to follow the decisions of the other and could conceivably wind up creating entirely different transportation systems.

Here’s what they’re up to:

– The Columbia River Crossing is evaluating both light rail and bus rapid transit as the mass-transit component for its new bridge. The draft environmental impact statement, expected by the end of the year, is looking at one route along the east side of Interstate 5 and another north along Main Street, both winding up at a park-and-ride lot north of 39th Street.

A final selection – on both a mass-transit mode and the whole bridge project itself – is expected in 2008. The search then begins for money, with perhaps $6 billion for the whole shebang: the new bridge, mass transit and related interchanges, bridges, overpasses and such on both sides of the river.

– The Regional Transportation Council, meanwhile, narrowed its choices to four modes – bus rapid transit, streetcar, light rail and commuter rail – and five corridors. The final RTC plan may select one mode in one corridor and an entirely different mode for another.

Two separate agencies, overlapping proposals, not working together. Sound familiar?

Certainly it’s no fun when transit systems overlap state boundaries. We’re actually lucky here in Puget Sound that our metro area is contained within a single state and only three counties. Compare that with New York, where the metro area (and transit system) spans three states and a dozen counties!

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Want to see what Seattle will look like in three years, after all these condos go up? Click here for a flash animation fly-over. It’s pretty neat. It even includes the new Gates Foundation headquarters in Lower Queen Anne.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Erica Barnett reports that the RTID will go through without the Cross Base Highway, which environmentalists oppose. It’s a risky move, since Pierce County exec (and current Sound Transit chair) John Ladenburg really wants the highway and has said he’ll fight the ballot measure if the Cross Base is eliminated. It’s hard to see how having the chair of Sound Transit actively working against the organization would be a good thing for anyone. But maybe he’ll realize he’s outgunned and move on.

It would be a huge coup for environmentalists if the highway doesn’t make the final cut.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

KPRC Houston has some footage of light rail trains nearly colliding. Well, not really. One train got switched onto the opposite tracks, meaning that it could have potentially collided with an oncoming train. The operator halted the train in time.

Just FYI, you can expect these sorts of quasi-hysterical reports once Link Light Rail opens in Seattle: “passengers scared,” “investigation ordered,” “transit official to resign,” etc., etc. Of course, tens of thousands of people actually die in car crashes every year, so keep it in perspective.

Train collisions are dramatic, and one can blame them on some mythical, distant bureaucracy, whereas car crashes are just deadly and are usually the fault of regular citizens.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

(with apologies to James Brown)

More TransitNow changes are coming this weekend, including more service in South King County. We’re also getting the Fremont Bridge back: bus service there will also resume on Saturday.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Yes, Virginia, even rail has environmental impacts, especially rail tracks that were built a hundred years ago along pristine Puget Sound shoreline:

Many environmentalists call the BNSF Railway, built on 26 miles of beachfront between Seattle and Everett, one of the worst environmental problems for Snohomish County’s shoreline.

The railroad creates what amounts to a wall between the land and the shore. It hampers beach access, disrupts salmon creeks and prevents sediment from eroding down to the beach, starving beaches of sand and gravel, they say.

Now, efforts are under way to restore pockets of shoreline along the railroad line. Some planners and environmentalists have hailed the restoration projects — including opening up creek mouths, nourishing beaches with sand, and restoring tidal marshes — as pilots for a future approach to a healthier shoreline.

Of course, as the article notes, the tracks aren’t going anywhere. in fact, Sound Transit is widening the right-of-way in some places to allow for more Sounder trains. But they’re also opening up creeks and doing lots of other environmental mitigation to try and revitalize the corridor to the extent that they can.

Having the BNSF line where it is is a net positive. Otherwise you’d have to run it along the I-5 corridor, which would be ridiculously expensive, if it was even possible. BNSF’s presence also takes a lot of trucks off the roads.

Sounder, on the other hand, has its limits. It’s a relatively cheap way to build transit — the tracks are already there, you just have to operate the trains. But it’s limited to a few runs a day since it shares right-of-way with Amtrak and BNSF. Once Light Rail goes all the way from Everett to Tacoma, it will be interesting to see how successful Sounder is. Certainly for folks in Edmonds, Kent, and Auburn, Sounder will continue to be important, but Link Light Rail, running every 10 minutes or so, will be increasingly appealing even for medium distance (i.e. Everett-Seattle) travel.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

KNDO/KNDU, the Tri-Cities NBC affiliate, is running this wonderful bit on their site. As any savvy restaurant-goer knows, more dollar signs means it’s MORE EXPEN$$$IVE!

Seattle-are voters facing $$$38 billion roads-transit decision
Associated Press – May 30, 2007 1:25 PM ET

Corrected Version

SEATTLE (AP) – The Regional Transportation Investment District is expected tomorrow to approve a $$15 billion tax request to voters in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.

If approved in November, the regional taxes would help pay for projects like a new four billion dollar Highway 520 floating bridge over Lake Washington. Tolls will be part of the funding package, and planners say the toll could be $$6 round trip by 2018 when the new span could be finished.

The road proposal would be paired with a $$23 billion plan to expand Sound Transit to Tacoma, Bellevue and nearly to Everett.

Both multi-billion dollar proposals must be approved to take effect.

Of course, they don’t even bother to explain that that $$$38B [sic] includes 30 years of finance charges, which, as we’ve noted before, is incredibly misleading.

On the plus side, at least it’s the corrected version. I’d hate to see what the uncorrected version looked like. My guess? It had more dollar signs!

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Reading about the businesses on Capitol Hill that will be displaced by the Sound Transit station made me want to take a look at the designs for the station itself. I guess I didn’t realize that the station is going to take over the lots on both sides of Denny Way.

This cross-section sort of gives you an idea of how expansive the underground station will be.

Of course, that makes perfect sense — it should be about as big as any of the downtown transit tunnel stations, except without the extra space for buses, of course:

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

I just noticed that King County last month created a ferry district, which will allow it to explore more passenger-only ferries. The county’s main passenger ferry, the Elliot Bay water taxi, could be run year-round with the new district. Additionally, other routes connecting, say UW with Kirkland, or West Seattle with Tacoma, are also going to be explored.

All this water makes building roads and trains expensive. Why not turn our transportation liability into an asset? Ferries are easy to set up: you buy a boat, build a dock, and you’re done. The downside is that there’s a lot of time lost in the modal transfer. Unless you live right near the water, you have to first take a bus or drive to the dock, then wait for the ferry, etc. But for some routes — like Kirkland-to-UW, or say Gasworks-Park-to-South-Lake-Union — it could make sense.

Update: The UW Daily has more on the potential UW-Kirkland ferry route.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

The Highline Times channels the ghost of Sprio Agnew to editorialize in favor of november’s RTID. Money quote:

Unfortunately, the uneasy coalition of roads and transit proponents is threatening to come unraveled.

The roads crowd thinks it is weighted too much toward transit while the Greenies think highways get an unfair advantage.

The measure is expensive and does not solve all our long-delayed transportation problems.

But voters should reject the nattering nabobs of negativism, as a disgraced former vice president put it, and consider the measure carefully before November.

(not to be confused with this great Queen Anne bar)

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Erica Barnett reports that the Surface-Transit option has just been “officially endorsed” by the City Council, which just approved spending $8.1M to formally study it:

The council approved the measure unanimously–a seismic shift from the days when only Peter Steinbrueck supported the surface/transit proposal, and a sign that the council is taking seriously last March’s “no/no” vote on two new waterfront freeway options.

“[The plan] focuses our energies on the substance of the solution rather than design of the solution, which is what got us sidetracked” previously, council president Nick Licata said. Licata, once the council’s staunchest supporter of rebuilding the viaduct, cosponsored the resolution.

You can view the surface-transit option in our new “Hot Docs” section.

Update: The P-I provides some more context: the report will be done by July 2008.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Peter Steinbrueck’s $8.1M urban mobility study for replacing the Alaskan Way Viadcut. This is the closest thing to a formal study of the so-called “surface-transit option.”

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

The P-I has a vague and rather uninformative article on a new financing scheme for replacing the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge (a.k.a. the 520 bridge). Fortunately, Mike Lindblom at the Times is much more detailed:

The latest strategy improves on earlier versions by slashing a potential $340 million in construction taxes and financing costs for a possible $4.4 billion, six-lane span across Lake Washington.

If the Legislature agrees, the “Regional Transportation Investment District” would fund several highway projects using high-rated, low-interest state bonds, for a potential savings of $200 million. And it might save an additional $140 million in sales taxes — paid on construction materials and other items — if the state funnels that money back into the RTID.

Even after those steps, questions remain about whether the funding plan is solid.

Today’s announcement says that tolling, previously assumed to raise $700 million, might bring in as much as $1.2 billion, without a real plan on the table yet. And, the group assumes Highway 520 can use money from a future cash pool worth $600 million to $1 billion, but that pool must be shared with the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Another $1.1 billion hinges on whether voters pass the regional ballot measure.

So, with some simple changes to the arithmetic, the bridge is suddenly fully funded! Does that seem a bit dodgy to anyone? Sounds like the planners want to kick the can down the road, figuring that if they can paper over the financing for now, it’ll just mean that we have to go with a cheaper option down the road.