All posts by Oran V

Reader Michael Arnold tipped us off to new clocks at Rainier Beach and Mount Baker stations that count the time since the last train left the station. At Rainier Beach, the clock is installed on a pole by the northbound track before the crosswalk near existing train signals. At Mount Baker, it is installed on the overhead catenary support just south of the platform for southbound trains. “They’re designed to help keep the trains from bunching up on MLK,” according to Sound Transit spokesperson Bruce Gray. He says the “shorthand for operators is this – if flashing, hold. If solid, make your signal call to proceed.”

Every time a train passes by those points and leaves a station, the clock resets to 0:00 and begins counting up. The elapsed time flashes until 4.5 minutes have passed at Rainier Beach or 5 minutes at Mount Baker, then stays solid. Although trains are nominally 10 minutes apart during the day, I observed that trains depart as soon as possible which can be a minute or two under ten.

Watch the clock in action in this video.

You may have noticed a change in the priority seating area on some of Metro’s buses lately. Metro is retrofitting its 60-foot low-floor articulated bus fleet with a new configuration for the priority seating area that matches the one found on the newest hybrid buses in service (6800 series). The new configuration features a split 1+2 flip-up seat and a barrier in front of the first row of front-facing seats. The barrier replaces the flip-up front-facing 2-person seat. Metro fleet procurement says this arrangement will “enhance passenger safety.” In addition to enhanced safety, the new arrangement adds an extra seat while a wheelchair user is occupying the space, even if it means a net loss of 2 seats per bus.

In related news, Metro is currently evaluating rear-facing ADA seating positions for passengers with mobility devices and a passive restraint system. The rear-facing position and passive restraint system is widely used on European and Canadian transit buses and can be seen locally on Swift BRT buses. No decision has been made to proceed with their installation, which could be on all new buses or specific buses like RapidRide.

For those of you who never had a chance to attend our meetups, this is a glimpse of what it’s like. After some mingling, Martin introduces the bloggers and other notable guests. In the last meetup, Representative Marko Liias of Edmonds, a champion of transit in the State Legislature along with Geoff Simpson, got to speak briefly on the last legislative session. He expressed the need for a “broad base coalition” to get the Legislature and Senate to help transit agencies in crisis.

Many thanks to punkrawker4783 for producing the video.

The Sound Transit Board unanimously moved to modify the preferred alternative for the East Link project as reported yesterday. B2 modified (112th Ave SE) and C9T (downtown tunnel) are now selected as the preferred alternative for the South Bellevue and Downtown Bellevue segments for East Link.

The Board also adopted a new fare policy and ST Express bus and Link light rail fare changes.

[Update from Sherwin:] Here is a press release (PDF) from ST that breaks down the meeting and motion.

Sound Transit is asking visitors to their website to fill out a short two-minute survey. We’ve brainstormed ideas on improving ST’s website back in October. It wouldn’t hurt to fill out the survey and let them know what you want to see improved.

Many people, like myself, now have ORCA cards issued by their employer in addition to the personal card they own. I carry both of them in my wallet. The problem is I can’t tap my wallet on the reader with two cards. The reader tells me “one card at a time please” and prevents double-charging, which is a good thing but it requires me to take the card out to tap. My solution to this is to wrap my personal card in aluminum foil, then keep the card separated from the other ORCA card with the other cards in my wallet. The first time I did this was with 10 layers of foil but I tried with just a single layer and it works. The metallic foil effectively shields the card from radio waves and prevents it from being read. The other cards keep the foil far enough from the card you want to be readable. This means only the side of the wallet that the unwrapped card is on can be read.

I’m aware that there are similar products for passports, enhanced drivers licenses, debit cards and other contactless cards but this is a quick and cheap solution you can do at home. This trick also appeals to people who don’t want strangers ‘sniffing’ their contactless cards for potentially malicious purposes.