All posts by Matthew Johnson

How many of you were riding Link on this day in 2009?  From the ST Press Release:

Sound Transit’s Link light rail celebrates its fourth birthday today amid continued strong ridership growth and record-setting trends this summer. The line has carried more than 30 million riders since it opened to the public on July 18, 2009.

Link has seen double-digit annual ridership growth since opening and averaged almost 32,000 weekday boardings in June, a 14% increase over June, 2012. Link also saw its busiest day ever when it carried more than 38,000 riders on Tuesday, June 11.

Great news to share on a birthday!  While a bunch of wonks like us can debate anything to death, I think we can all agree that Link is leaps and bounds better than any service this area has ever had.

Four years from now we’ll be a year past U-Link opening and only four more years to the opening of North Link.  That itself is exciting to think about. Here’s to the next four years and the next forty!

The below numbers come from the normal monthly ridership report for May but the charts underneath the fold include June estimates for Link.

May’s Central Link Weekday/Saturday/Sunday boardings were 27,428/23,844/17,412, changes of +3.1%, +4.1%, and +9.3% respectively over May 2012. Sounder’s weekday boardings were up 7.7%.  Tacoma Link ridership declined 3.2%. Weekday ST Express ridership was up 6.2%.

Continue reading “May 2013 ST Ridership Report: Birthday Edition”

Community Arts group ROCKiT and the Beacon Hill Merchant’s Association are teaming up to provide a packed afternoon of music, arts, and culture this Saturday, July 20th.  Stepping out of Beacon Hill Station there will be maps as well as red balloons marking the paths to different event areas.  There will be live music from 4pm-9pm, a Bite of Beacon event at Stevens Triangle Park (4:30 until gone) as well as specials at nine participating restaurants, and a scavenger hunt.

For all the details, see the event’s webpage.

See past Link EotWs here.  If you know of a community event along Link that our readers would be interested in, please contact us.

Urban Highways we’re 23nd.  Bridges 32nd.

Washington ranks 1st in rural interstate pavement condition, 8th in fatality rate, 14th in urban interstate congestion, 23rd in urban interstate pavement condition, and 32nd in deficient bridges.

The Reason Foundation‘s (Libertarian Thinktank) full report here, Washington’s report here.

In related news, Governor Jay Inslee is considering a 3rd Special Session this fall to try and pass a Transportation Package.

Mount Rainier over Columbia City light rail station by litlnemo

According to Sound Transit’s Rider Alerts:

Posted: July 5 – 12:09 pm

• On Saturday, July 6 and Sunday, July 7, from 6 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. each day, Link trains may have minor delays between Rainier Beach and Tukwila International Blvd stations due to track maintenance.

Continue reading “Weekend Service: Clearing the Air”

On Friday the Senate declined to take up the House transportation package, meaning no local option this year for King County Metro. In a procedural vote to bring the measure to the floor, King County Senators Joe Fain (R-47), Steve Litzow (R-41), Andy Hill (R-45), Pam Roach (R-31), and Rodney Tom (D-48) voted no. There will be another chance next session to provide either direct funding or a new funding source for Metro to stave off impending service cuts, but in the meantime, staff resources at the agency will be directed to prepare for them. This means staff aren’t available to plan for much else, so the City of Seattle is funding a full time planner to assist Metro.

It’s important to remember that this entire situation was created by the legislature, in decision after decision after decision. It was the legislature that limited the Congestion Reduction Charge (which passed the KC Council with a supermajority) to only two years. It was the legislature that only provided Highway 99 construction mitigation money for half the length of construction disruptions. Both temporary funding sources expire in 2014, resulting in the current crisis. However, these are only issues due to an earlier and much larger attack on Metro: SB 6865. It wasn’t Tim Eyman that took away Metro’s stable funding, it was the legislature:

At the November 1999 election the voters approved Initiative 695 which replaced the 2.2 percent state tax and the $2.00 clean air excise tax with a maximum annual license fee of $30 per vehicle. Although the Initiative was subsequently declared unconstitutional, the Legislature repealed these state taxes and established the $30 vehicle license fee by enacting SB 6865, Chapter 1, 1st Special Session, Laws of 2000, which was effective on January 1, 2000.

In 1999 the state provided 23% of transit funding in Washington, today it provides only 2%. For a state that claims to be a progessive leader we are at the bottom of the rankings in terms of state support for transit (national average is 22%). For a party that claims to dislike big government it is the height of hypocrisy to block local governments from enacting the will of their voters when it comes to local services.

Three months ago I shared Tom Fucoloro’s lament that “right now, the nervous pack of challengers is playing it “safe” and letting McGinn run away with the label as the most progressive and inspiring candidate on transportation issues.” Unfortunately, since I wrote that piece the situation has only gotten worse.

Tim Burgess, who is generally a friend of the kind of transit system and infrastructure improvements this blog supports, has dropped out.

Although Peter Steinbrueck told Martin he supported Link and ST3, when in front of his lesser Seattle base he stated his opposition to spending city money on studying Downtown to Ballard Light Rail.

And then when Bruce Harrell finally broke his silence on transit issues, it was to call for more parking at Rainier Valley Link stations.

Right now it appears the only McGinn challenger who isn’t openly hostile to the ideals of this blog and our readership is Senator Murray – although his constant framing of two highway expansion bills and the 99 tunnel as his greatest transportation achievements is worrying.

As a transit/livable city supporter first and a McGinn supporter second, it is disconcerting that my main issues are only being championed by one candidate.

NOTE:  I am not on the STB editorial board.  The opinions expressed above are solely my own.

For an agency like Metro that has been forced to largely fund itself by sales tax the recent State revenue forecast revision could have significant ramifications.  About half of the State’s revenue comes from sales tax so an increase in state revenue generally means an increase in sales tax revenue.  With that in mind I contacted the County inquiring about their projections and Metro’s shortfall.  Here’s David Reich, King County’s chief economist:

The county has its own models for forecasting revenues. Transit gets revenue from various sources including bus fares, sales tax receipts, property taxes, the congestion relief charge, intergovernmental transfers and others. Any impacts to metro’s financial situation would depend on the sum of all these factors (along with updated expenditures). We do forecast metro sales and property taxes in March, July and August.

It is too soon to know if these values will be revised up for the July forecast. Generally speaking, economic conditions are not worse than when the March forecast was done. The July forecast should be available July 24.

STB will check back at the end of July but in the mean time I have done some VERY ROUGH back of the envelope number crunching.  Digging into the State’s numbers (pages 27 and 28), the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council projects the Department of Revenue will collect an additional $112.8 million this biennium.  For the 2013-2015 biennium the State projection increased $101.2 million.  Since sales tax is half of state revenue I cut those numbers in half.  Using Martin’s estimate that Metro’s sales tax revenue is about 5.6%* of the state total, that would amount to $3.2m extra this biennium and $2.8m** extra for the 2013-2015 one, so $6m total additional sales tax revenue for Metro.

With Metro’s total 2015 budget gap at $60m that would come out to about 10% of the shortfall.  So a little less bone and muscle cutting and if a tax package does pass it’d be a little more new service and less back-filling old service.

Now, it could be that the factors that caused the State to revise their forecast upwards were already incorporated into the County’s March estimate, so there will be no change.  On the other hand it could be that since Seattle and King County are leading the economic recovery our tax receipts will grow faster than the State’s.  There are really too many factors involved for anything but the clumsiest of estimates.  I look forward to seeing the real numbers next month.

* His 5.6% number is based on the 2012 State sales tax estimate of $7.241 billion and 2013-14 Metro budget’s 2012 sales tax estimate of $402.9m.

** The State projections show a ‘non economic changes’ debit of $55 in the 2013-2015 biennium.  If this debit doesn’t effect Metro’s revenue then that comes out to an additional $1.5m for that period, for a total of $7.5m.  Or about 12.5% of the $60m shortfall.

Sound Transit spokesperson Bruce Gray has informed us that a compilation error caused some of the station level data we released earlier to be incorrect.  In Service Change 19 (June 9, 2012 to September 28, 2012) the information from page one did not match that from page four.  I’ve uploaded the corrected data here and updated the original post and my spreadsheet.  While on the subject of station data, I’d like to draw your attention to some analysis done by John Niles at his Public Interest Transportation Forum.  Link’s high seasonal variation is almost entirely due to fluxuations at Westlake, SeaTac and Stadium Stations.  John’s interesting graphs below the fold:

Continue reading “ST Updates Link Station Data Report”

Sound Transit’s April 2013 ridership report is out and shows continued year-on-year gains for all services.

April’s Central Link Weekday/Saturday/Sunday boardings were 27,019/19,515/14,643, changes of +11.1%, -5.7%, and +4.4% respectively over April 2012. Sounder’s weekday boardings were up 6.0% (despite mudslides on the North Line). Total Tacoma Link ridership was up 2.2% but weekday ridership declined 0.4%. Weekday ST Express ridership was up 11.0%.

April was the fourth month in a row where Central Link Weekday ridership increase 10% or more year over year and the eleventh month of the last thirteen.

My Link charts below the fold.

Continue reading “April 2013 ST Ridership Report”

Sound Transit has one-upped our Link Excuse of the Week, and put together a great website highlighting events up and down Central Link for the entire summer.  Check out the Link to Fun page and go do something new!  As an extra incentive, at events that have an asterisk beside them, Sound Transit will host an info booth where you can enter to win an ORCA card.   These last couple of months from SDOT’s Ride Route 7 promotion, to Metro’s Route 50 promotion*, and now Sound Transit’s Link to Fun, I have been very impressed with the outreach work our agencies have been doing; especially the ORCA card tie ins.

*Although not mentioned in the linked press release, the mailer had a postcard you could send in for a complete Route 50 information pack and a $10 ORCA Card.

Two weeks ago as part of our semi-regular Link Excuse of the Week series we highlighted the Columbia City Farmers Market and the Ride Route 7 Promotion.  The event was a smashing success.  When I arrived after work the line was around the block.  While I was waiting they ran out of pledge cards.  When I left an hour and half later the line was still around the block.  Curious, I wrote to SDOT asking about the event.  Many thanks to Jonathan Dong and the whole Ride Route 7 team at SDOT for the quick and thorough response (below the fold):

Continue reading “Ride Route 7 Promotion Followup”

Back in March Sherwin had a great post on polling and context, using an Elway poll as reference.  Yesterday Elway released an updated poll conducted in the aftermath of the Skagit Bridge Collapse.  From the Seattle Times ($):

A gasoline tax remains particularly objectionable, opposed by 63 percent of those in the new survey — down from 72 percent in March.

In the new survey, 53 percent opposed a license-tab tax increase, down from 62 percent in March.

And 52 percent opposed tolling major roadways, down from 61 percent in March.

Overall, 54 percent of those in the new survey agreed with the statement that we cannot afford to raise taxes to pay for transportation improvements at this time. Forty percent said we can’t afford not to improve our transportation system, so taxes will have to be raised.

For transit supporters this is a mixed result.  While many feel the current highway expansion package is flawed and hope it will fail (see comments at link), most agree that we need to raise the gas tax and other user fees in order to maintain what we already have and fund alternatives to driving.

Thankfully, an EMC poll was released today with starkly different results.  On the surface the poll subject seems similar, but Erica Barnett at PubliCola made some good points about differences between the two. However, I think she missed the most important distinction.  The Elway poll asked only about unspecified “transportation improvements” while the EMC specified a “statewide transportation package this year to address congestion and safety issues; fund road and bridge maintenance and improvements; and provide additional transit funding.”

In other words, when the question is framed as Fix It and Transit, it wins across the board.

The Columbia City Business Association has revamped and upgraded Beatwalk for it’s 19th year.  Events are now on the second Sunday of the month June-October from 4-9pm and FREE.  Location is Downtown Columbia City, a short walk east from the Columbia City Link Station.

Each Sunday event will have it’s own theme and unique lineup.  June 9th is “Funky Times”:

4 to 8 – Roving Street Performers
4:30 to 8:30 – Cyrille Gosselin at Tutta Bella
5 to 8 – DJMCG5000 – live funk DJ on the street
5 to 6:30 – Kid Feature at Arc Lodge Cinema
6 to 7 – The Beaconettes at Columbia City Gallery
6:30 to 8:30 – Jeff Fielder & Friends at Island Soul
7 to 9 – Thadillac at The Royal Room
7:30 to 9:30 – Eldridge Gravy & The Court Supreme at Columbia City Theater
8 to 10 – McTuff at Lottie’s Lounge

For more inforation and to see the full summer lineup check out their webpage or facebook page.

See past Link excuses here.

Friend of the blog Bill LaBorde has informed us that the Government Performance and Finance Committee meeting scheduled for June 5, at which the Spokane Street savings issues (Ship Canal Crossing and UW-SLU HCT studies) were going to be decided, will be pushed back to June 19.  The reason for the delay is that Councilmember Burgess will be out of town with family.  In addition the council is waiting on more information from the City Budget Office on the savings.

We have written on the studies here and here.  If anyone would like to comment on them, the meeting will be in the Council Chambers (City Hall, up the stairs), Wednesday June 19th, at 9:30am. Come at least half an hour early to ensure you get a chance to testify!

The Northgate Station: Design and Access open house will be held at Olympic View Elementary School, 504 NE 95th Street from 6pm to 8pm May the 23rd.  The presentation will begin at 6:30pm.

Sound Transit staff will discuss:

• Refinements to station and plaza design.
• Preliminary results of Northgate Station Access Study (pedestrian and bike improvements).
• King County Metro’s transit center plans.

For more information, visit the Northgate Station page or contact the Northgate Link Extension project team at 206-398-5300 or northlink@soundtransit.org.

Thanks to Publicalendar for the heads up.

To highlight their Rainier Corridor work SDOT is conducting a Ride Route 7 promotion.  They’ve put together a website, a facebook page, sent postcards to residents, and will be hosting outreach events in the Rainier Valley this summer:

Columbia City Farmers Market (3698 S Edmunds St)

Wednesday, May 22, 3 – 7pm
Wednesday, June 5, 3 – 7pm

Saar’s Marketplace (9000 Rainier Ave S.)

Saturday, June 15, 11 – 3pm
Saturday, June 22, 11 – 3pm

SDOT staff will be there with information and to answer questions.  Those who come to one of the events and pledge to Ride Route 7 receive a $25 ORCA Card.  The Columbia City Farmer’s Market is a great excuse to check out the Rainier Valley in its own right.  If you have the money (it is not cheap, but worth it) check out the award winning La Medusa around the corner.  Every Weds during Farmers Market Season they will have a special menu featuring the freshest produce of the day.

Just be sure to ride the 7 back to Downtown and check out the improvements along the way.

See past Link excuses here.

Bruce Gray at Sound Transit was kind enough to send us the newest station level data report for Link.  These reports are a treasure trove of information, too much in fact for one post.  Some things I found interesting:

• During the week the Rainier Valley (Beacon Hill Station to Rainier Beach Station) accounts for 28% of all boardings and alightings.  During the weekend it is only 22%.  This suggests a strong commuter focus and room for continued growth.
• Growth rates at Rainier Valley stations are higher than system average, except for Rainier Beach Station which is half of system average.
• International District/Chinatown Station has the least weekday to weekend fluctuation, Stadium Station the most.
• SeaTac Airport Station, Tukwila International Blvd Station, and Westlake dominate weekend ridership (52% of all boardings and alightings).

Combined with earlier reports we now have data from February 6th 2010 to February 15th 2013:

• Feb 6th, 2010 to Jun 11th, 2010
• Jun 12th, 2010 to Oct 1st, 2010
• Oct 2nd, 2010 to Feb 4th, 2011
• Feb 5th, 2011 to Jun 10th, 2011
• Jun 11th, 2011 to Sep 30th, 2011
• Oct 1st, 2011 to Feb 17th, 2012
• Feb 18th, 2012 to June 8th, 2012
• Jun 9th, 2012 to Sep 28th, 2012
• Sep 29th, 2012 to Feb 15th, 2013

Also, see Station Level Data posts from 2010 and last year, and other related charts and a data posts from Bruce and Andrew.  I’ve also uploaded my spreadsheet (where I have a half dozen charts) if anyone wants to play around with the data.

Enjoy!

[UPDATE – 13JUN13]  As noted in this post, there was an error in Service Change 19.  Both the link and my spreedsheet have been upadated.

This week Franklin High School, across the street from Mount Baker Station, is holding its annual Arts Festival and Talent Show.

Festivities begin with an art opening at 5:30 pm, Thursday, May 16, at Mioposto, 3601 S. McClellan St, a one half mile walk from the station.  Walk north on Rainier until McClellan, then east.  Mioposto is located in my all time favorite building in Seattle.  A beautiful art deco building that serves as the anchor of that part of the neighborhood (but unfortunately could not be built today).  The main attraction is the talent show Friday, May 17, starting at 7 p.m. in the school’s auditorium, 3013 S. Mount Baker Blvd. The arts festival will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 18, on the plaza in front of FHS.

The events, which are open to the public, bring together students, their families, teachers and staff and Mount Baker neighbors. The festival raises money to benefit Franklin’s art, drama and music programs and student clubs, while the talent show raises money for the senior class of 2015. Tickets to the talent show are $3 for FHS students and $5 for others. The art opening and the arts festival are free.

The festival will feature student performances, including the steel drum band, fashion club, jazz band, Quaker band and lion dancers, along with displays of visual art, ceramics and wood arts. Student clubs will sell heirloom tomato and vegetable plants, treats and handmade crafts. Also for sale are woodcrafts, such as cutting boards, created by students and notecards featuring student art. Vietnamese sandwiches, chips and soft drinks also will be for sale.

For more information, see the full press release, check out the event’s Facebook page, or email elizabethlowry@comcast.net.   While my 10 week old son is the ultimate ‘decider’ when it comes to my schedule, we hope to check out the art opening Thursday.

See past Link excuses here.

A few weeks back ST released their corrected February 2013 ridership report (an Excel error threw off Sounder numbers in the earlier version) and once again the system had healthy year-on-year gains for most services.

February’s Central Link Weekday/Saturday/Sunday boardings were 25,370/18,015/12,934, increases of 14.4%, 21.0%, and 12.2% respectively over February 2012. Sounder’s weekday boardings were up 8.7% (21% North, 9% South)*, but Tacoma Link continued it’s downward trend, – 2.3% weekdays (although part of this is due to running Sunday service on President’s Day).  ST Express Ridership increased 7.5% (part of this is counting tunnel trips).  Overall weekday system ridership was up a very healthy 9.0%.

The report for March would normally be released around this time, but due to the cancellation of this month’s Operations Committee meeting the numbers will be rolled into the 1st Quarterly Report due out at the end of the month.  Bruce Gray was kind enough to provide us with their March Link ridership estimates which show continuing strong growth:  26,485 Weekday, 20,771 Saturday, and 14,603 Sunday riders.  Weekday ridership in March was up 13% from last year.  Ten out of the last 12 months have had higher than 10% year over year growth.

My charts below the fold.

Continue reading “February 2013 ST Ridership Report and March Link Numbers”

For those who couldn’t attend last Wednesday’s Government Performance and Finance Committee meeting, you didn’t miss much. Some time between printing the official agenda and starting the meeting Councilmember Burgess pushed back the Ship Canal Crossing Study and University District to SLU Study to the May 15th meeting. In an earlier post we mentioned some reasons why these studies are important:

The Ship Canal Crossing study is key to putting solid numbers to the results of the City/Sound Transit Downtown to Ballard HCT study. Besides that, a new crossing is a needed project in its own right (see Bruce’s great outside the box proposal). The Council has previously stated its desire to start the Eastlake study this year, but recently some members have started pulling back.

Both of these projects are needed. We have the money, the Council just needs to follow through on its prior commitments and allow the Mayor to fund them. The more shovel ready projects we have, the better able we are to compete when federal dollars come available.

Unfortunately, yesterday Councilmember Burgess’ staff let us know that the initial discussion of these items will be pushed back even further, to the June 5th Government Performance and Finance Committee meeting. Apparently, they need more time “to sort through technical and policy questions related to [the] transportation items.”

Quite frankly, that is a cop out. These are studies that have been in the works for at least a year. Not only did the council unanimously vote to adopt the Transit Master Plan, but the Council has previously stated its desire to start the UW-SLU study this year. A new Ship Canal Crossing is not only called for in the Transit Master Plan, but also the Pedestrian Master Plan and the Bicycle Master Plan. The Bicycle Master Plan was completed in 2007.

Continue reading “Councilmember Burgess Delays Transit Infastructure Projects…. Again”