All posts by Guest Contributor

by AL DIMOND

A few weekends ago, I forgot to check the construction and traffic alerts before getting in my car and got stuck in one hell of a traffic jam on Aurora Ave N, headed south toward downtown Seattle from Greenwood. Highway 99 was closed from Valley through the Battery Street Tunnel yet I, unaware of what was going on, failed to plan and drove right into an complete standstill, made worse by the difficulty of exiting the road south of the exit to Dexter.

Maybe such a failure of planning is to be expected for some portion of normal drivers. But when I came home and checked how the bus routes on Aurora were being rerouted I was surprised to see they were staying on 99 all the way down to Valley! That’s several trips per hour, on routes that use Aurora for its speed, moving few people very slowly. Watching King County Metro and the state and city transportation departments fail as badly to plan as I did was hard to take.

When severe congestion makes transit severely unreliable, people who absolutely must get where they’re going are more likely to drive, making the congestion even worse. People considering optional trips are more likely to stay home, causing economic impacts in the area and generally frustrating people’s desires, making them less happy. Mass transit has the ability to use road space very efficiently, to provide more trips with less congestion. But people have to be willing to take it; there has to be an incentive.

This is, of course, the reason we’ve added bus lanes on Aurora and parts of 520, and will be adding more. It’s the reason we need to add bi-directional bus lanes on I-5 all through Seattle, and on the route the West Seattle buses will take after the Viaduct comes down. And it’s the reason we need bus lanes through construction zones.

That weekend there was a hard bottleneck at Aurora and Valley and only a limited number of vehicles could get through. But if we had maintained a bus lane all the way through the bottleneck we could have made the most of that limited number of vehicles. We didn’t. It was miserable. And we aren’t, by any current plans, going to maintain bus lanes through the long-term bottleneck caused by Mercer West construction, and that will be miserable, too.

Continue reading “Transit in the Construction Zone”

By MIKE ORR

Shoreline started its Link station area planning with a public meeting on May 22nd at Shoreline City Hall. It was mostly an informational meeting, introducing the planners and the study areas. There was a wide variety of speakers, ranging from city staff to Sound Transit, the Puget Sound Regional Council, King County, a TOD consultant hired by the city, the activist group Futurewise, a seniors’ outreach group, and citizens’ groups. Roger Iwata from Sound Transit explained the rail line’s status along with Alicia McIntire, a Shoreline transportation planner. Shoreline land-use planners Miranda Redinger and Steve Szafran explained the station study areas and the process to reevaluate their zoning.

Continue reading “Shoreline Light Rail Powwow”

by B NOURISH

We’ve written before about SDOT’s long-running efforts to improve transit speed and reliability, and the rider experience, at heavily-used stops on key corridors, by constructing sidewalk extensions (or transit islands) to improve bus speed and reliability, reconstructing the sidewalks at and around the stops to improve pavement quality and accessibility, and installing or upgrading shelters. For maximum efficiency and effect, these small projects have often been combined with Metro stop consolidations (e.g. Market, Rainier) or SDOT repaving projects (e.g. Dexter, 85th, Northgate).

Soon, riders will reap further rewards from this low-profile but important work: 25 new real-time arrival signs on the Jackson/Rainier and Market/45th corridors. SDOT is currently working on the 13 signs on Jackson/Rainier, and will install the Market/45th signs as funding permits.

The stop locations slated for real-time signs are as follows:

• On Jackson, serving Routes 7, 14 and 36, eastbound at 12th and Maynard.
• On Rainier, serving Routes 7 and others, at the following cross-streets, northbound only except where noted: Walker (also southbound), Forest (also southbound; transfer point for Mount Baker Station), Walden, Andover, Genessee, Orcas, Graham, Rose, Henderson.
• On Market/45th, serving Route 44 and others at the following cross-streets, in both directions except where noted: Ballard Ave, 15th Ave NW, Phinney Ave (eastbound only), Roosevelt/11th Ave, University Ave.
• On 15th Ave NE in the U-District, at all stops in both directions between Pacific and 45th.

To give a sense of what these things (and public works generally) cost, from the numbers SDOT gave me, a three-line realtime sign and a pole to mount it on costs just over $6,500 — not including installation or setup. These signs require a fiber drop to be in place to deliver data, so their installation must almost always be preceded by a complete rebuild of the stop. A stop reconstruction, including a fiber drop but minus the cost of poles, shelter and furniture, is roughly $100,000 (if it’s not included in a larger paving project, in which case it’s effectively free).

More after the jump. Continue reading “SDOT Getting Crazy with the RTIS”

by TIM BOND

[UPDATE: Minor corrections from Sound Transit below.]

On Wednesday night, Sound Transit held an open house to present the latest updates on Angle Lake Station. This is the name the board adopted for the station at the end of the 1.6 mile extension south of SeaTac/Airport station. The extension is projected to add 5,400 daily boardings by 2018, just two years after it opens alongside U-Link. Riding from Angle Lake to University of Washington Station (at Husky Stadium) will take 47 minutes; downtown just 38.

In the process of naming the station Sound Transit received over 450 comments, overwhelminingly in support of Angle Lake. Even though I grew up in the south end of King County, I’d never heard of Angle Lake and I suspect that the majority of the support came from those that live very near the project area. The station might popularize a name for the area, just as Renton Landing did just a few years ago.

The station will feature 1,150 parking spaces when it opens. 750 of those will be in a garage adjacent to the station and the remaining 400 in a surface lot. When the Kent/Des Moines (Highline Community College) station opens in 2023, demand is expected to reduce considerably as people driving from the south will park instead at KDM. The 400 stall surface lot would then be transformed in to some yet-to-be-determined use. Procurement is currently underway for the parking garage, plaza, retail and surface improvements.

More after the jump.

Continue reading “Angle Lake Open House Report”

by SARAH SNIDER

In many North American cities a growing number of parents choose to stay downtown after they have children rather than immediately flee to the suburbs. Thanks to the Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and their Emerging Professionals Travel Scholarship, I was able to travel to a handful of these cities to learn the secrets to creating a family-friendly downtown. I dug into issues of neighborhood design, urban housing, recreation, and transportation. I also looked carefully at the incredibly important link between education and housing for parents, as Jon Scholes recently described.

Through a series of interviews and neighborhood visits, I noticed a series of trends that are happening nationwide. One such trend is that these new urban parents are organizing to change cities, hoping that they can stay in the downtown neighborhood they love while still supporting the needs of their growing family. They are using their collective power to fundraise to build playgrounds and make their voices heard at school board meetings and city council meetings. I also came away from my travels with a number of suggested policy and design solutions to help make cities, including Seattle, more family-friendly. Those research findings are compiled in a Family-Friendly Urbanism exhibit currently on display at AIA Seattle’s gallery space* through April 26th.

More importantly for the future of Seattle’s family-friendliness, AIA Seattle, the Seattle Department of Planning and Development, the Seattle Planning Commission, and the Downtown Seattle Association are co-hosting a day-long forum about the topic. Ingredients for Designing a Family-Friendly Downtown will take place at City Hall on April 11th. International, national, and local speakers will be in attendance to discuss housing, education, recreation, transportation, and the market realities of retaining families with children in urban neighborhoods.

Will you join us on April 11th to further the conversation?

*1911 First Avenue, open Tuesday through Friday from 10 am to 5 pm.

by KATIE WILSON for SEATTLE TRANSIT RIDERS UNION

Late Saturday evening, transit riders and supporters, joined by King County Councilmember Larry Phillips and other representatives from local and state government, will march up the Magnolia bridge to highlight the impact of cuts to transit service and to show state legislators that King County needs sustainable funding for Metro.

The idea for the Midnight March originated when transit riders in Magnolia, organizing to restore their late evening service, challenged their Council Representative Phillips to walk the route that they now must walk when they miss the last bus to their neighborhood at 10:20 pm.

It turns out that not all Magnolia residents are rich and own cars. Jim McIntosh, founder of the Magnolia Transit Riders group, explains: “It is the elderly, the low-income, the blind and visually impaired, people with other handicapping conditions, people who do not drive and the young who suffer the most when there is no public transportation.” He hopes the march will help elected officials to recognize the devastating impact of transit service cutbacks on communities and neighborhoods.

But of course this is not just a Magnolia issue. Metro is facing possible 17% cuts next year, and restoring service in Magnolia could mean cutting needed service elsewhere. So the Magnolia riders are working with the Transit Riders Union to turn this event into a broader statement about the need for sustainable and progressive funding for public transit. All county and city elected officials and 36 th District state legislators have been invited to participate.

Please join us! We are working on arranging carpools and other transportation for non-Magnolia residents after the march. On that same day the Transit Riders Union is also having a potluck from 12-3pm at the Downtown YMCA, 909 4th Avenue, at which we will be launching their new Transit Reader newsletter and making phone calls to key state legislators. All are welcome.

• Place: 1541 15th Avenue W, in front of Staples at the foot of the Magnolia Bridge.
• Meeting Time: 11:00 pm for speeches and rally
• March Time: 11:30 pm; we expect the walk to take about 45 minutes
• End Point: Magnolia Village Pub, 3221 W. McGraw St.

For more information:

• Magnolia Transit Riders: James McIntosh – MagnoliaTransitRiders@Centurylink.net – 206-518-0885
• Transit Riders Union: Katie Wilson – katie@transitriders.org – 206-651-4282
• Website: www.transitriders.org
• Facebook: TRU Facebook Page, Event Page, Potluck Event Page.

 

by B NOURISH

SEATTLE TRANSIT BLOG EXCLUSIVE:

by ANN DASCH

The Washington State Legislature has many goals for ferry pricing policy. Fares need to provide an adequate percentage of operation and maintenance expenses (about 66% in 2012). Fares should encourage desirable behaviors – reducing vehicle peak demand, increasing non-peak ridership, etc. Simplifying the fare structure is a high priority.

Ferry pricing policy changes enacted since 1998 worked against many state goals. Washington State Ferries (WSF) eliminated the joint monthly transit pass, which gave an additional 10% discount to walk-on commuters using other transit systems. WSF used to offer a “10 for the price of 6” ticket book and half-price fares for kids ages 6 to 11. Since 2003, youth and frequent passengers pay about 80% of the full fare. Meanwhile, WSF no longer charges 20’ to 22’ vehicles the oversize vehicle surcharge and their drivers are now eligible for senior, disabled, or commuter discounts. A “small car” now pays 20% less than the base vehicle fare; WSF is considering increasing that discount to 30% off. (Frequent and senior/disabled drivers receive additional discounts.) Adding the small car categories greatly increased the complexity of the fare structure. And today, some commuters find it cheaper to drive across on the ferry than to pay for parking, walk-on ferry fares, and transit.

The outcomes of those policy changes are striking when customer costs are compared for different user types. (All examples are round-trip fares for Central Sound routes in Summer 1997 and 2013, using multi-ride passes if applicable.) A 21’ truck driver paid $21.20 in the summer of ’97 (ineligible for discounts), but pays $21.14 today with a multi-ride pass. A walk-on family of four frequent riders (2 kids ages 6-11, and 2 non-senior adults) paid $7.70 in 1997, but is charged $24.80 today. These and other fares are shown below.

Continue reading “Washington State Ferries Considers Restoring Deep Passenger Discounts”

by PETER STEINBRUECK

STB’s posting last Friday morning challenged me on a couple of my comments at the recent Seattle Neighborhood Coalition breakfast meeting. I spoke and answered questions for 45 minutes– the brief quotes you picked up from PubliCola were only a small fragment of what I said.

First, let me be clear that “do density right” is not code language for keeping densities low. This is a dissing of caring, thinking people in our Seattle neighborhoods. There are many elements to “doing it right,” and one of the most important is having a thoughtful planning process that engages the affected neighborhoods, transit riders and community. For example, TOD should be planned and coordinated around the established neighborhoods, not the other way around. Well-planned TOD should and can be customized to the neighborhood it serves, using best practices proven to be successful to growing transit ridership and building walkable, livable communities.

Most citizens I speak to throughout the city support growth, but have legitimate issues that go beyond density. Density is a value-less term, and certainly not a panacea for curbing sprawl. Just look at the vast, sprawling metro regions of the densest cities in the U.S., Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles if you think that. Planning should be structured to put the community’s vision for true livability into play. Planning recommendations and decisions should be openly arrived at so ordinary citizens can have some confidence in the outcomes, and support goals for compact walkable communities.

It’s been my observation that most people in most neighborhoods accept that Seattle is going to grow. They hope it will grow sustainably, and I do too. The basic issue is where the new development is going to go, and its look, fit, and feel. I believe it should be channeled into Urban Centers and Urban Villages as called for in the city comprehensive plan. There is just no need to expand high-density development into traditional single-family neighborhoods. We have plenty of unbuilt capacity within the Urban  Villages to support growth for decades to come.

Regarding rail transit, I enthusiastically support Sound Transit’s Link light rail program. In fact, I was on the Regional Transit Advisory Committee in the 1990’s, which urged moving forward with regional light rail. The Link system is creating a needed backbone of major trunk lines in the region’s densest corridors. Link will connect almost all of our major Urban Centers in ways that buses could never accommodate. But the rest of the transit system in our region will remain almost entirely buses, one of the largest transit systems in the country, serving thousands of daily commuters.  Good, frequent bus service will always be necessary to connect the rest of our city neighborhoods and our light rail stations.

Successful urban transit around the country is always a multi-modal system, and it includes accommodation of pedestrian, cyclists and transit riders, both bus and rail. Good transit planning should identify the optimum mode in each corridor and not assume that rail (light rail or streetcar) is automatically the best choice everywhere we look. Density should then be planned sensitively to support transit ridership– light rail and buses- around established neighborhoods.

The author is a former City Councilmember and current candidate for Mayor of Seattle.

by JOE A. KUNZLER (“Avgeek Joe from Skagit County”)

We have a situation that requires your attention in Northwest Washington State: namely, the Tri-County Connectors linking Skagit, Island and Whatcom Counties are at risk. Even the Skagit Transit express bus to and from Everett is at risk.

How can this be so? Especially when, according to this Island Transit fact sheet, over 350,000 trips were taken on the five Northwest Washington State county connector routes in 2012? My math indicates for the 5-day week that’s over 1,300 regular users of these routes, and ridership has grown almost every year since 2006, despite the recession.

Yet, the state transportation budget that will come out in a few weeks must include a $6 million per biennium grant for the tri-county connectors. Not as part of some transportation package going to the voters, but in the current no-new-revenue budget. Otherwise, come the end of June… no more Tri-County Connectors.

Arguably, that’s over 1,300 cars off the road. That’s creating capacity on currently existing roads, cutting harmful emissions, saving money that would have to be spent either on road repair or expensive efforts to expand road capacity. That’s also transit access to places in our region such as the Cascade Mall, Naval Outlying Field Coupeville, Bellingham Community College, Bellis Fair and more.

If we are truly one state, then we need to come together and demand that in the current transportation budget there is funding for the county connectors. This is a service that allows Northwest Washington State citizens – many of whom pay more in taxes than receive in services, plus live in that region for a multitude of reasons – to link up with the stellar Seattle area transit network.

Please look up contact the appropriate legislators on page 2 of the fact sheet. Also on that contact list is the entire State House & State Senate transportation committees. Although Rep. Dave Hayes has pledged that he will fight for funding both the Tri-County Connectors and the Everett Connector within existing revenue to protect these trips, until we have a transportation budget signed by Governor Jay Inslee, this is not a done deal.