All posts by Martin H. Duke

• Move Seattle has a public dashboard
• TCC is hiring
• Also a quarterly report on Reconnect West Seattle
• Judkins Park gets Jimi Hendrix themed art
• Comment on the Federal Way station design
• There’s going to be a new bus layover facility on Eastlake Avenue
• Sen. Joe Nguyen (D-West Seattle) will challenge Dow Constantine for King County Executiye, the most single most important office for local transit
• Claudia Balducci is the new president of the PSRC
• It was a historic legislative session but not a big one for transportation, unless they later pass a package and thus the carbon legislation takes effect
• RapidRide I (Renton/Auburn) to have 3 tiers of station quality
• Nobody wants to be displaced for a Link maintenance facility, but a former Auburn Mayor is thinking clearly about the problem
• Here come the curbless streets
• Who gets what from the stimulus
• Provide feedback on parking and curb space near Roosevelt
• Americans should learn more about rail from other countries

This is an open thread.

April 30th is the deadline for the public to comment on Sound Transit’s various options to make up for the current mismatch in projected costs and revenues for ST3. Here’s where we stand:

There is no effect on the Sound Transit 2 projects (Link to Lynnwood, Redmond, and Federal Way) and these are expected to arrive in accordance with current schedules, and roughly 1-2 years after the timeline voters were given in 2008.

Updates to the economic model have reduced the funding gap from $11.5 billion to “only” $7.9 billion. $527m from the first Biden stimulus, plus $4.6 billion more in projected tax revenue is partially offset by $595m more in cost inflation. The NE 130th St Station alone has increased $64m as engineering went from 30 to 60%.

This handy graph shows how other considerations have more than made up for lower tax receipts, and it’s exploding capital costs that have put the project in doubt:

• You have until April 30th to tell ST what to prioritize during “realignment”
• A long and nuanced look at the MHA program
• Stephen Fesler says to cut Paine Field from Link and run BRT instead
• Artists will design limited-edition ORCA cards
• Amtrak restoring local trips next month
• Wayfinding updates at ST
• Legislature passes ban on gasoline car sales after 2030
• Tiny houses coming to the U-District
• Bickering over the carbon pricing model is less important than passing one

This is an open thread.

• West Seattle bridge privileges are slowly expanding
• WSDOT restriping northbound I-5 chokepoint through downtown
• Federal Way track construction underway
• I’ve always wanted the gondola people to get traction but am sad it took rail skepticism to get them there
• Oregon congressman to insist on light rail across the Columbia

This is an open thread.

On Friday, Sound Transit announced that Northgate, Roosevelt, and U-District stations will open for service on Saturday, October 2nd. There is no word about any celebration for what, with luck, will be a nice symbol of our emergence from the pandemic. We might not get one, with ST having endured bad-faith critiques about marketing expenses for the U-Link opening, and potential public health restrictions lingering.

It is a cause for celebration. The U-District is an obvious place to put a subway station. Roosevelt is the rare fashionable neighborhood where some growth is legal. Northgate is simultaneously a transportation hub, a blank slate for major redevelopment, and a logical interim terminus for buses coming from further north. Link will provide an alternative to the very worst bit of I-5 congestion, 5 minutes to the U-District and 13 to Westlake.

Better yet, this is the first major Link deliverable from the Sound Transit 2 vote in 2008. It arrives only one year after the proposed date at election time (2020). Combined with East Link 1-2 years late (with City of Bellevue dithering) in 2022 or 2023, and Lynnwood and Federal Way also a year late in 2024, ST2 is going to have an excellent delivery record after weathering an unprecedented recession, far better than Sound Transit 1 and a testament to the abilities of former CEO Joni Earl (2001-2015).

ST3, in year 5, is already in quite a bit of trouble on these terms. Thanks to poor cost estimation, the most likely outcome is some major projects suffering a couple of years delay, and either a large new infusion of cash or the other projects sliding over a decade.

• Feds send $60m for RapidRide G — in theory they can finally start construction in 2021 and open in 2024
• $37m for the Swift Orange Line, too
• Legislature about to remove obstacles to ST implementation of a less punitive fare enforcement system
• Metro gets fresher air
• Monorail gets updates ($) before they release the Kraken
• Open House about access to Lakewood and South Tacoma Sounder
• Some transit activists criticizing the big transpo bill
• Metro phasing in more crowded vehicles
• A progress report on the Northgate ped bridge
• Plans at Lynnwood Transit Center
• Guessing how the Biden infrastructure push ($) could affect Puget Sound
• A summary of Move Seattle work in 2020
• Who needs the CCC when you can have the Infinity Bus

This is an open thread.

As Sound Transit grapples with escalating costs for ST3, one emerging option focuses on delaying parking construction to prioritize transit. In the past month and a half, we have:

• WSDOT Secretary Roger Millar’s most righteous February 25th letter demolishing the importance of parking to a transit system
• The Sound Transit Board reviewing a “Delay Parking Not Yet Designed” scenario (see slide above) at its March 25th meeting
• An April 4th executive committee review of nuances of parking in ST3

Delaying parking has a number of advantages. It allows ST to complete the “lines on the map” that captivated most voters with the least delay. Parking is an expensive way to acquire riders, averaging $128,000 per net new space in ST3. By comparison, upzoning and selling the land to a market-rate developer adds riders and is revenue positive.

• Comment on the equity aspects of Northgate Link
• Alon Levy explains why Pacific Northwest HSR is marginal based on the return on investment
• BLM buses
• Longer pedestrian signals ($)
• ST contractor was defrauding its workers
• Here’s a good primer on there is no substitute for building more units
• Shoreline apartments popping up everywhere
• Metro’s survey on transit needs in Skyway
• An update on Everett Transit merger options ($)
• 26 minutes on the new Southworth foot ferry ($)
• Good that SeaTac may reduce parking requirements but the Downtown Chicago comparison is… overheated
• But “modest upzones” around Seattle’s nearby Link stations
• State transportation budget may just focus on the basics
• Jarrett Walker is hiring in Portland

This is an open thread.

• SDOT has prioritized its spending plan for the new $20 Vehicle License fee; comment by 3/30
• Maybe the feds will bail us out on the West Seattle Bridge
• New startup will let you lease an e-scooter
• Surprise: anti-rail Washington Policy Center doesn’t like bus improvements either
• PT service ($) starting to recover
• Hilltop Tacoma Link now 75% complete
• Vancouver, WA transit activists getting organized
• Seattle Process starts for Fauntleroy Dock replacement
• Meet Washington’s traffic safety honcho
• Amtrak is liable ($) for the 2017 Dupont crash
• Beyond “ridership” and “coverage”, there’s “access“
• Learning to love the bus ($)
• If Alon Levy is HSR fantasy mapping, it’s not really a fantasy anymore
• Transit marketing is simply different

This is an open thread.

• Southworth Ferry starts March 29th
• Transit workers vaccine-eligible on March 17th
• Speed limits falling on Seattle’s state routes
• Feds will send $800m ($) to Puget Sound transit agencies
• Link to your vaccine appointment is free
• Seaway TC receives green award
• Mercer Island still suing ST over getting too many buses
• Land use bills advancing to Senate
• Remember: weekend Link construction closures all through April
• Pierce Transit considering large-scale stop consolidation ($)
• Tax exemption for electric bikes passes Washington House, on to Senate
• Fed stimulus will restore the Empire Builder to daily
• Hear about how to revitalize Portland

This is an open thread.

• Speed limits dropping to 25mph
• Cascades Talgos off to the scrap heap
• “Suspicious device” closes TIBS for a while
• Safe access to Judkins Park Station
• Finally, the highway-industrial complex steers towards maintenance ($)
• Comment on OMF South — should ST pay to clean up a toxic site, or focus on transit? Here’s a writeup of alternatives
• Southworth fast ferry might open this month
• If the gas tax is racist, you’ll have to cancel me
• Clean fuels bill ($) is making progress
• Local grant to improve transit information for the underserved
• A tunnel to Whidbey?
• Four bills to fight car dependencies

This is an open thread.

East Link might open in as little as 18 months. Like any rail opening of that magnitude, there are many opportunities to reorganize bus service to reduce redundancy, improve access, and serve new priorities.

Metro and Sound Transit are creating a citizen sounding board for these changes, and they’re paying $50 per hour:

“Are you someone who:

• Lives, works, and/or travels within Eastside communities? These communities include but are not limited to areas east and south of Kenmore, east of the I-90 and SR 520 bridges, north of east Renton (such as Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond), and west of Sammamish and Issaquah? Or do you live, work, or travel in Seattle’s Chinatown/International District and/or Judkins Park?
• Is a transit rider or a potential transit rider?
• Are able to bring your perspective as an individual, not representing the interests of an organization?
• Are willing and interested in drawing connections between racial equity, transportation issues, and access to opportunities?”

Apply by the end of this month to participate from April to November 2021. It’d be helpful for some board members to have an appreciation for transit planning principles.

• Volunteer for ST’s Citizen Oversight Panel
• Sound Transit appealing Mercer Island permitting decision
• Sharrows as a “compromise” between bike lanes and doing nothing
• Kitsap Transit buys a used foot ferry as a Southworth backup
• Here comes the Northgate Pedestrian bridge
• Virtual tours of this year’s new Link stations
• Everett considers an “offensive” to bump itself up in Link priority
• Checking in on C-Tran
• More ST land donated for affordable housing
• SBB reports on the endless quest to fix Mt. Baker
• Lowering highway speed limits
• Land use planning in the area south of Tacoma
• Two-person freight railroad crews ($) still required
• Suburban road grids make buses more expensive
• “Cut-and-Cover is Underrated”
• Study says it’s largely the sacred “public input” that makes infrastructure in the US cost so much

This is an open thread.

• Apply for the Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board
• Seattle’s car population plateaued ($) at about 460,000 2017-2019
• Paid parking rates adjust
• Metro hiring a new finance person, no public agency experience required
• More towers coming to the U-District; as always, it’s not nearly enough
• Republican transportation proposal ($) has new taxes on bikes and transit to fund roads, but at least it focuses on maintenance instead of new highways
• Sound Transit asks the legislature to help out
• Metro’s long range vision slips from 2040 to 2050, includes new service guidelines; more on this later
• SDOT considering loosening West Seattle Bridge restrictions
• Everett Herald ($), like the TNT, is more excited for light rail than the Seattle Times.
• Over 5,000 tickets issued there already
• New research on how market rate construction affects rents; here’s the local version
• VMT Tax comes up again; just raise the gas tax!
• Rizal Bridge gets a PBL
• Spokane’s Downtown Master Plan is ambitious
• Conditions for successful rail

This is an open thread.

CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

[UPDATE: Sources say HB1157 will be ruled “necessary to implement the budget,” which gives it some more time to live. But it still needs your help!]

Two companion bills, HB 1157 and SB 5390, would create incentives for local government to allow more housing, but at least one of them must emerge from its committee Monday (Finance and Ways and Means, respectively) to succeed in this session.

Both versions of the bill have a bipartisan group of sponsors. In the Senate, it’s Liias (D-Edmonds), Gildon (R-Puyallup), Nguyen (D-West Seattle), and Saldana (D-Rainier Valley). In the House, there are 18 sponsors from urban, suburban, and exurban districts, including Fitzgibbon, Harris-Talley, Hackney, Walen, and Ryu from Seattle and its inner suburbs. Thank your district’s delegation for its sponsorship!

The bill would allow cities or counties to create “real estate excise tax density incentive zones” where they get a portion of the REET proceeds. To qualify, the zone must allow “Single-family detached dwellings at a net density of at least six dwelling units per acre [1], duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, accessory dwelling units, and courtyard apartments.” To qualify, cities and counties cannot allow the units to be short-term rentals for more than 30 days per year.

There’s nothing that quite matches this community’s interests like open software in the service of transit. In a recent blog post, OneBusAway for Apple iOS maintainer Aaron Brethorst says that a complete rewrite of the software is ready for beta testing.

For most of you, know that beta testing will expose you to some bugs but help make the final product better.

For those of you who spend your lives gluing bits of software together, know that this new version is built on the ‘OBAKit’ library, which makes it much easier to build other real-time transit applications. There are certainly lots of rural transit agencies that don’t have the resources to deploy things of this nature, and this makes it easier for developers to apply their skills to help those in need.

• Prepping parking rules for Climate Pledge Arena
• There has not been enough attention to the bad behavior by Renton and others in burden-shifting the homeless
• See also Mercer Island
• Federal Way Link 25% complete
• Train cafe cars are dumb
• Transit managers matter

This is an open thread.

HB1304, which would allow existing monorail taxing authority to be used for light rail, happened to show signs of life at just about the time that ST3 projects sank into serious financial trouble. Inevitably, these two subjects have merged in the discourse. That’s unfortunate, because the bill is best thought of as solving a long-term structural problem rather than a current revenue shortfall. Transit advocates should seize the opportunity to clear this legislative veto point and then argue about how to use it.

The design of Sound Transit is driven by the “spine” between Tacoma and Everett. The basic narrative is that local leaders in Pierce and Snohomish Counties thought, and continue to think, that light rail is important to the economic development of their core cities and convinced the legislature to authorize an agency large enough to take their interests into account. And so supermajorities in Seattle offset skepticism in outlying areas to allow each subarea to fund its stated priorities.