All posts by Martin H. Duke

It occurs to me that if you were to try to implement something like this in Seattle, you might start by demolishing the West Seattle Bridge.

• Navigating the thicket of fare discounts.
• West Seattle bridge alternatives analysis is done.
• You can dine in the street for at least another year. Nice one, SDOT.
• WS low bridge fines are coming.
• An interview with Metro GM Terry White.
• Kevin Desmond leaving TransLink, returning to the United States.
• Lynnwood garage construction starts.
• Heidi Groover on KUOW.
• Car damages Alki bus stop.
• Vote on big Portland transit package will be close.
• Mulling a Portland-Vancouver ferry.
• Cascadia corridor process still chugging along, but it will be years before there’s any kind of plan.
• Boring Company tunnels are underdelivering.

This is an open thread.

No details as of yet, but who needs the details:

WA Supreme Court strikes down Tim Eyman’s I-976 to cut car tabs. Story soon at https://t.co/DnQLxkhcnI.

— Heidi Groover (@heidigroover) October 15, 2020

The immediate practical importance is that various transit and transportation agencies will not have to refund the money they have been collecting since I-976 passed, easing pressure on budgets statewide.

All justices but Barbara Madsen, who found only one reason to reject it instead of two, signed the ruling. Story here ($).

Seattle loves its bus service. As pandemic measures temporarily reduce demand, new challenges like the West Seattle Bridge closure arise. It would be irresponsible to reject a measure that doesn’t even fully replace the tax that it succeeds.

In 2014, Seattle approved a $60 vehicle license fee and 0.1% sales tax to fund increases in bus service that greatly increased the number of Seattle residents within walking distance of bus routes that run every 10 minutes all day. That tax expires on December 31st, and Metro has already cut some service in anticipation of losing that revenue.

Booming tax revenues, and a lack of bus capacity at Metro, led Seattle to find other worthy transit-related goals. Notably, Mayor Durkan introduced the “ORCA Opportunity” program, providing free passes to Seattle Public School students and therefore nearly eliminating youth fares in the City of Seattle.

• Now the 1st Avenue South Bridge, the most obvious alternative to the West Seattle Bridge, is facing sporadic partial closures for maintenance.
• Uber/Lyft minimum wage is now law.
• There’s a town hall tonight on Metro restructuring.
• Is Lime pivoting to be a platform company?
• Apply to the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board.
• Bellevue fills out a bit of street grid.
• Even the Seattle Times ($) wants you to vote yes on Prop 1.
• Possible Port Townsend ferry cuts get pushback.
• The Lander bridge should be last of its kind.
• TriMet having labor problems.
• White House blocked CDC guidelines ($) for masks on transit.

This is an open thread.

• Changes to Access coming soon.
• Survey for Southworth fast ferry.
• Kent Sounder garage is back.
• Mercer Island talks continue.
• The Lander Street Bridge is open.
• The equity target ($) for scooter rentals.
• A wonderful feature on the Metro drivers we’re losing to retirement ($).
• Options for the Columbia River Crossing.
• Living in a train depot ($).
• Road fatality rate goes up, which makes sense because congestion reduces driving at unsafe speeds.

This is an open thread.

From current trends it’s worth reminding everyone that STB has a comment policy. If the post is about a Queen Anne bus lane or the SDOT budget, and you’re deep into homeless policy or Thomas Piketty, you are off topic.

We don’t really encourage non-transit discussions here, but if you must have one, we provide two open threads a week where you’re likely to be left alone.

Commenters compulsively incapable of staying on topic (or routinely violating other aspects of the policy) will have their comments delayed in a moderation queue, and in extreme cases of ill intent will be banned.

Thanks.

• Metro fares are back today, with no enforcement.
• Council approves traffic cameras for low bridge transit lane enforcement, 9-0 (see 1:01:53). Background here.
• Amtrak may cut long-distance routes. Bruce Nourish might approve.
• Summary of last week’s ST Board meeting: a few projects are unpaused.
• Alex Hudson has a transit recovery plan.
• Mill Creek approves Orange Line plan.
• Uber/Lyft minimum wage is coming.
• Tacoma Dome Link extension has an online open house.
• 4th Ave PBL now open.
• King County launches “Leafline” trail coalition.
• Ellensburg’s new Active Transportation Plan.
• A chat with TriMet’s GM.
• California exempts transit from long environmental review — let’s do that here.
• Farewell to the streak.

This is an open thread.

Reconnect West Seattle’s bus brainstorm proposed replacing some car trips traveling between West Seattle and Southeast Seattle with an alternative that would take up less road space. This market certainly isn’t well served by transit today. Witness Route 50:

The eastern half of this route used to head downtown as the 39, but this was redundant with Link. The 50 is now a milk run that provides East-West connectivity between the major corridors in both the Rainier Valley (Rainier, MLK, Beacon) and West Seattle (Delridge, 35th, California).

In theory, it also provides a coveted East-West Connection in one of the few southern corridors that can do this in a roughly straight line. Indeed, zipping along the West Seattle Bridge would have been time-competitive with driving. But instead, it takes a costly detour through Sodo for a couple of reasons:

On September 21st, the Council approved 9-0 an agreement for street improvements funded by ArenaCo.

There are three transit improvements:

• “Converting a travel lane on 1stAve N to a bus-only lane between Denny Way and Republican St”
• “Installing a transit queue jump at 1stAve N and Republican St”
• “Converting a travel lane on Queen Anne Ave N to a bus-only lane from Mercer St to John St”

The total project cost is $990,000. $594,000 comes directly from ArenaCo. The remaining $396,000 will also come from ArenaCo, but will count towards the $3.5m in street use fees that ArenaCo previously owed.

The legislation also authorizes another $445,000 in credits for various bike and pedestrian improvements, including a raised protected bike lane.

• Pierce County’s BRT brand will be “Stream“.
• Feds provide $8.3m for Swift.
• Mercer Island raises taxes to sue Sound Transit to reduce bus volumes in their city (!).
• SLU streetcar is back.
• The Reconnect West Seattle “Implementation Plan” is out, but it doesn’t contain any big decisions about transit. They have, however, issued an RFP for another water taxi, though there’s no funding for one.
• More on delays to Kent Sounder Garage. Auburn, too.
• Feds announce $3.7m to mitigate North Sounder mudslides.
• How Seattle commuting has changed ($) over the years.
• Link construction in Kent.
• Seattle’s latest climate policy won’t actually make them make the hard decisions to attack where emissions really happen.
• Lime scooters are already here.
• Happy 20th, Sounder.
• California bans new gasoline-powered cars from 2035.

This is an open thread.

SDOT’s plan for replacing 4,800 cars per hour that used the West Seattle Bridge at peak includes 1,280 more people per hour riding buses in the peak direction. Once Covid has receded to the point that most people are returning to work, how feasible is this?

That’s a little under 11 full articulated buses over what was running the bridge in 2019, or a 42% increase in people. The July 2020 draft SDOT framework comes up with a bunch of ideas:

• The three e-scooter pilot candidates are Lime, Wheels, and (confusingly!) LINK. Here’s the difference between them.
• The West Seattle Bridge may be reparable ($) after all.
• Keep Moving Streets extended through October 5th.
• Transit lanes on the Fremont Bridge.
• Puyallup reviews its Sounder garage plan.
• Public comment on $4.3 billion in spending allocated by PSRC.
• Everything you wanted to know about collisions in Seattle.
• Suraj Shetty now running ST’s operations.
• Las Vegas Monorail bankrupt.
• How to reform USDOT.

This is an open thread.

Feigned helplessness is one of the least attractive qualities in a state or local politician. Dunking on Olympia, or on President Trump, is the cheapest kind of talk when policy tools exist in Washington to address our most serious problems. Not all of our current crises are solvable with money, but it could blunt the worst effects, and nothing is stopping us except political will at the state level.

Of course, it’s much easier to blame Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell for failing to rescue state and local governments. This blame is richly deserved: the federal government can borrow at very low interest rates, in a currency it can print in theoretically infinite quantities.

• Alex Pedersen floats the idea of canceling RapidRide J (Roosevelt), but it’s still on track.
• Update on Rainier Ave improvements.
• Metro rolls out new Covid safety measures.
• This TNT editorial ($) is wrong, but does provide important information about how Pierce Transit will change.
• After Council vote, scooters are formally coming to Seattle. Alex Pedersen is only vote against.
• Spin joins Lime e-scooters in White Center.
• Some Intercity Transit service coming back Sept. 20.
• SF Muni Metro closing for the rest of the year (!) due to maintenance issues.
• Uber boosting electric vehicle incentives.
• The trouble with angled parking.
• Similarities between the USPS and transit agencies.

This is an open thread.