All posts by Martin H. Duke

The Tacoma Dome Link Extension (TDLE) delivers rail from Federal Way to the Tacoma Dome, not to be confused with the “Tacoma Link” streetcar running today. It will offer a 35 minute ride from the Tacoma Dome to Seatac in 2030, compared to 37 to 74 minutes, less frequently and reliably, scheduled on ST 574 in 2020.

Last week’s board meeting provided a progress update (video, at the 2:00:00 mark). The last glimpse was a July 2019 motion to reduce the options under consideration. As the Draft EIS grinds on, ST has revised and refined these options.

The track is all elevated [1] except for a few sections along I-5. While track alignments are often what cities care about, because of “impacts,” I’ll focus on the station locations, as that’s what will affect riders most. Moving south from the Federal Way TC:

• RapidRide H construction about to start.
• Seattle seeks federal money for the West Seattle Bridge, which makes feel better about prospects for light rail.
• Bike trips way up.
• Friend of the blog Greg Nickels and environmental activist Paulina Lopez to help sort out the West Seattle Bridge mess ($).
• Homes for 35,000 by light rail — or a public golf course.
• How to ride during a pandemic.
• Here come the Bombardier Sounder cars.
• PSRC looking at 15 (!) passenger-only ferry routes.
• Kent gets it — incentives for dense construction near their future Link station.
• But of course reopened restaurants should take over sidewalks and streets.
• Now Amtrak is getting out the knife.
• Jump Bikes headed to the crusher.
• Walla Walla Transit has a reopening plan.
• Portland’s fight over fourplexes is underway.
• Peak vs. all-day trips, pandemic edition.

This is an open thread.

SDOT’s got a new survey out about light rail to West Seattle and Ballard. It’s different than the usual fare with a bunch of alternatives on a map. Instead, it’s a high-level questionnaire about principles.

It asks respondents to rate 20 different values as “important” or “not important”. These values are sorted into bins called “dependable transit”, “vibrant communities”, “climate action”, and “equity”.

I’ve sometimes argued that the system doesn’t value enough simply running the trains frequently, rapidly, reliably, and directly to the activity centers. Instead, the agency ends up mitigating “impacts” instead. Well, if you agree with me, or don’t, this is the chance to have your say. All of these the values are great (except, of course, plazas), but please resist the temptation to list everything as “extremely important”, and instead help the agency set priorities among things that have tradeoffs.

There’s also some demographic information you should fill out, although the survey software is too buggy to allow you to choose more than one race.

State Route 520 Redmond Pedestrian Bridge from Sound Transit on Vimeo.

• Happy 50th Forward Thrust, Take 2.
• C-Tran hasn’t cut anything but commuter routes; ridership fell in March but steady in April.
• A Trump tweet that doesn’t make you wince.
• Metro fined for “training violations.”
• ST restoring some service to Pierce County May 24th.
• ECB reveals the homelessness angle to ST’s new pandemic fare, and some dodgy use of statistics.
• Apparently it’s “Stay Healthy Streets” if they’re permanent, and “Keep Moving Streets” if they’re not.
• Compare traffic patterns ($) in January and April.
• TriMet ridership climbing again as well.
• STA gets $23.4m from the Feds.
• When your Elementary schoolers are bored during a summer lockdown, Amtrak may have something for them to do.
• The transportation choices people make after the pandemic are not immutable; they will be the product of policy.

This is an open thread.

• Now the U-district contemplates a freeway lid.
• 20 miles of “Stay Healthy Streets” now permanent.
• Meet local hero Dongho Chang.
• I am not sure how STB will navigate a potential future where transit is once again primarily a social service rather than something people with economic options might use.
• Provide feedback on Star Lake Station.
• Mountlake Terrace Station time lapse videos.
• Pierce Transit lays off or furloughs 90 employees.
• PT’s planned BRT line has an online open house.
• Heidi Groover on the potentially grim future ($).
• Metro’s projected sales tax hit is $185m in 2020. ST predicts $628m shortfall in 2020-21.
• Use of idle buses as WiFi hotspots is spreading statewide.
• Survey on north-end bus changes to feed Northgate extended till June 6.
• TransLink delays layoffs while provincial negotiations continue.

This is an open thread.

In response to “crowding” (by current standards) on some routes, Metro is restoring some trips this week on weekdays from 10am to 5pm:

Based on operator availability, we are dedicating roughly 15 additional buses starting today to six routes where coaches are either reaching capacity or passing up customers to maintain social distancing guidelines. These high-demand routes include:

• Route 7
• Route 36
• Route 180
• RapidRide A
• RapidRide D
• RapidRide E

The buses have been added on weekdays between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., as that period has the highest ridership and most reports of pass-ups.

Metro continues to demonstrate operational flexibility that some observers, including me, thought was not in its nature. Other than the D, these are among the routes that have seen the smallest ridership drops, presumably because of transit-dependent riders and “essential” but not virtualizable jobs.

Last week Metro also released ridership numbers for the week ending May 1. Overall weekday boardings are at 105,000, or a 75% decrease from 2019. Not surprisingly, the drop is deepest in the weekday peaks, with late-night and weekend ridership declining much more gently. Meanwhile, bus service has dropped only 27%, meaning the average bus has almost three times fewer riders.

• Overview of Sound Transit construction in a pandemic.
• ST piloting fares below ORCA LIFT.
• Take the park and ride survey.
• Now the Overlake garage ($) is cracking.
• Steam locomotives on display in Washington.

This is an open thread.

We just got the annual report, but now there’s an update for SDOT’s 1st quarter projects (full report here). Covid-19 looms over everything, but the agency spent only about 2/3 of its budget mostly because of more quotidian delays: weather, permitting, and finding unexpected stuff underground.

There’s tons of data on safety, sidewalks, bike improvements, and so on, but let’s cut straight to the transit.

The big corridor projects are divided into “Vision Zero” (safety) projects, “Transit-Plus” speed and reliability improvements, Rapid Ride, and the Burke Gilman Missing Link. You may recall that in 2019 none of the two transit categories had started digging yet. That’s still the case, but RapidRide H (Delridge) is accepting bids and expects to accept a bit this quarter. RapidRide G has completed design and is now dancing with the FTA.

Beyond transit, Missing Link construction started.

SDOT’s highly successful transit spot improvements program was right on schedule, finishing 5 projects this quarter out of 20 planned for 2020. They were:

• 8th Ave/James St rear door pad
• 24th Ave E/E Dearborn St curb restrictions at bus zone
• Lenora St, between 4th-6th Ave RapidRide bus zone improvement
• Airport Way S/S Royal Brougham, intersection improvement
• 15th Ave NW/NW 65th St bus zone safety improvement

The City also broke ground on the Northgate pedestrian bridge, and the Lander Street overpass continues to rise.

The plan is still to start construction on RR G and H this year, though obviously the pandemic has unpredicable impacts.

• SDOT closing more streets to cars. A few more suggestions.
• WSDOT’s budget ($) is in trouble.
• Pierce Transit buses now serving as WiFi hotspots (!)
• Snohomish County picks Link station locations ($).
• Spokane buys some buses for its BRT line.
• Some construction starting again, including more for Sound Transit.
• Murals of Capitol Hill.
• Zillow going all WFH for 2020.
• Here come the electric school buses.
• TransLink capital projects still moving ahead.
• Jarrett Walker with two thoughtful posts about Covid-19. Carla Saulter, too.

This is an open thread.

Dan’s report on the ever-increasing cost of Sounder parking garages demands a little rough math. The per-space arithmetic is damning enough. But the opportunity costs are the practical reason to hope for something better.

The most expensive of these is Auburn Station, which is now to cost $120m in year of expenditure (YOE) dollars for 675 spaces (555 net new). Generous assumptions about inflation [1] make this $107m in current dollars. If this money were instead spread over 30 years for bus routes to Sounder, it would allow 10 additional buses to serve the Auburn area during Sounder operating times [2]. A similar, though slightly less dramatic, story plays out at the other stations. The potential of these buses to improve several different outcomes is an exercise for the reader.

In my earlier days, this would be an occasion to slam the stupidity of the people in the charge. But in my thirteenth year of doing this, I know that things like this happen because of incentives:

• Mayor Durkan suggests combining the two bridges we have to build to West Seattle. The Urbanist agrees!
• SDOT closes some streets to cars to increase social distancing. The Edmonds waterfront, too.
• ATU demands hazard pay ($) and stronger protections. Nationwide, almost 100 transit workers have died of Covid-19.
• Bad news: they may have to close the lower West Seattle Bridge, too ($).
• PSRC finalizes federal transit allocations.
• A new footbridge over I-5 at Shoreline South Station.
• Durkan wants to suspend citizen design review. Make it permanent!
• The Council botches their first attempt to approve it, but can try again next week.
• ST demolition starts in Federal Way.
• California approves bonds ($) for private high-speed rail to Las Vegas.
• Translink to lay off 1,500 workers. Canada not doing squat to bail out transit. For once, we’re ahead!

This is an open thread.

Via CHS.

With the cuts more or less done for now, its getting slooooow in the transitsphere:

• Another way to report badly parked bikeshares. If able bodied, you could just, you know, move it.
• ECB writes about the plight of the bus driver today.
• Seattle and Uber/Lyft reach a deal: not pushing unionization, but a minimum wage for drivers.
• Pierce Transit adds more rider limits per bus; essential employees can now dial a ride.
• Biketown is now way cheaper.
• Dan Bertolet has some smart thoughts about the pandemic.
• Also, Jarrett Walker on the same subject, at length.

This is an open thread.

Frank and I will tape tonight. Please leave your questions for us in the comments.

A lifetime ago, King County floated a countywide 0.2% sales tax increase for the August ballot, to replace Seattle’s expiring Transportation Benefit District (TBD) and expand its benefits to rest of the county. Weeks later, King County Transportation Chair Claudia Balducci had to shelve it as the virus ate everything.

The last day to file a measure for the November election is August 4th. To make that date, committee work would have to start no later than mid-July. It’s worthless to speculate about conditions in mid-July, but it’s also not hard to imagine how a measure would be both compelling and plausible.

The policy case for raising transit spending is strong independent of economic conditions. With strong growth, the robust transit network we don’t yet have countywide is critical to building environmentally sensible living and travel patterns. Seattle’s TBD has dramatically improved the accessibility of frequent transit while frequent suburban lines are scarce. Conversely, when sales taxes implode, transit becomes even harder to use.