• Sizeism: Why small homes belong in Fremont and Seattle-wide. Doug at the Urbanist pushes back on that awful Times op-ed ($). And here’s Heidi at the Stranger.
• A 14-story hotel at the entrance to Pike Place Market? Not so fast, say opponents ($). As an architecture critic remarks, “The zoning for it has been in place for decades. Sorry, just no substance.”
• Worthy causes pushing to get their solo drivers into carpool lanes.
• The most promising thing about the US 2 Trestle project is that it might be tolled ($).
• Four groups show interest in O’Hare express train project.
• For decades Alabama has not funded public transportation; bill aims to end that.
• A bid to solve California’s housing crisis could redraw how cities grow.
• The case against (actually, for) sidewalks, and how cities can create new avenues for pedestrians.
• Fight over household wells highlights rural growing pains.
• Northgate pedestrian bridge: City bureaucracy run amok ($). This take is a little hot for me, but between the ongoing #fix65th debacle, and this bridge, SDOT hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory of late.
• The case for a Ballard to UW waterfront rapid bus line. Not a bad idea, but Frelard and lower Wallingford would have to get a lot more dense, and the existing routes a lot more frequent, before this cracked my most-wanted list.
• SDOT unveils first five-year pedestrian implementation plan. Sweet, another plan.
• Metrorail is no longer the second-busiest rapid transit system in the country.
• Self-driving cars aren’t good at detecting cyclists. The latest proposed fix is a cop-out.
• The RPA Construction Cost Report: Alon Levy, Ben Kabak.
• With skyrocketing rents, Tacoma Housing Authority is forced to adjust.
• What would a truly disabled-accessible city look like?
• Downtown Seattle poised for even bigger residential and hotel boom.
• Snohomish County Council members air their Sound Transit grievances ($). Mostly they seem to be complaining about the consequences of subarea equity.
• Jarrett at Citylab: the Problem with (algorithmically determined) Transit Gaps.
• Amtrak will suspend some service ($) if safety system not ready this year, CEO says.
• Seattle makes little progress ($) on buildings that can kill in earthquakes.
• 11 ugly urban underpasses now functioning as public parks.
• Spokane hopes tiny homes and cottages will spur infill density.
• Transit ridership continues to grow in central Seattle, while solo car commutes decline ($).
• Kitsap’s fast ferry is headed for drydock. Will there be a replacement?
• To (partially) fix the New York City Subway, fix the schedule.
• Why transit nerds are so jealous of Seattle.
• The Uptown HALA rezone bears its first fruit.
• Empowering the vision impaired with indoor navigation tech.
• Free Atlanta Streetcar rides? MARTA considers changes.
• Biking in Magnolia and Interbay got a lot easier with recent SDOT project. This new bike path is great, but the intersection of Gilman & Emerson now needs a signal more than ever.
• Limebike’s electric-assist bikes are out and rideable right now.
• Trump is a grifter, his infrastructure plan sucks, and his budget threatens Sound Transit.
• Rail car swap eases overcrowding ($) on Sounder train.
• Ursula K. Le Guin: Urbanist.

This is an open thread.

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As Seattle is entering the “period of maximum constraint,” with downtown becoming even more inundated with construction projects, more workers in that area are leaving their cars at home and riding transit.

Last year, the drive-alone rate hit an all-time low of 25% of downtown commuters, even as 15,000 jobs were added to the area, according to the 2017 Center City Modesplit Survey. Nearly half of downtown workers instead chose to take the bus or train to their jobs. Adding employees traveling by foot, bike or carpool pushes non-single-occupancy vehicle commute rates above 70%.

Despite a 5% drop in the share of SOV commuting between 2016 and 2017, the share of transit ridership grew by only 1%. Instead, some former drivers were choosing to walk or participate in a carpool.

“Transit works, and we need more of it as quickly as possible. From working with employers to increase telecommuting to speeding up light rail, we can expand our transportation options that make it easier and safer for Seattle residents to get around,” said Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan in the press release accompanying the report.

Rates of drive-alone downtown commuters have steadily declined since Commute Seattle began tracking travel trends in 2010. Over the last seven years, as 60,000 jobs were added in the downtown core — an increase of 30% — transit usage among commuters has steadily grown, up by 6%, while the drive-alone rate decreased 9%.

Commute Seattle attributes the decline in driving alone to the voter-approved $50M yearly transit investment from the Seattle Transportation Benefit District, efforts from employers to discourage driving alone and new housing downtown, enabling people to walk to work.

Continue reading “Transit Investments Luring Commuters From Cars”

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Video explaining Translink and the Mayors’ Council 10 Year Plan.

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Looking for ways to accelerate the delivery of light rail, Sound Transit is considering using private-public partnerships (P3) for ST3 projects. But to take advantage of potential savings, CEO Peter Rogoff warned the Board it “would have to cede some decisions to a private vendor that it customarily reserves for itself.”

P3s are a procurement form which uses a single private entity for the design, construction, and possibly the financing, long-term operation, and maintenance of projects. The partnership offers several potential benefits to public entities, including reducing risk and costs, lowering agency workloads and providing additional debt capacity, without having to privatize the project.  

Reducing agency workload

In the short term, P3s are more work for public agencies, which are still responsible for completing both the environmental review and design specifications for the bid process. In the long term, however, the partnership can eventually transfer a lot of work to the private company, freeing up agency resources.

“When we are facing a project list [for ST3] this long, if there is an opportunity to have a public/private consortium take on an entire project, and not therefore have to grow the staff as robustly… just relieving us of some of that bandwidth would have some benefit,” Rogoff said during the Thursday Executive Committee meeting.

Risk Transfer and Cost Savings

Once contracts are signed, ST would lock in a cost and timeline for the project, along with (if applicable) a long-term operational cost agreement, passing future risk onto the private company. Continue reading “ST Explores Private-Public Partnerships”

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