• Why is Roosevelt development so far ahead of Northgate?
• 165 new units in Downtown Kent.
• Restricting development is incompatible with progressive politics. So of course, some unions and immigrant groups are fighting development.
• HALA Briefing for West Seattle comes up with lots of excuses for why development can’t occur in particular stretches.
• U-District upzone meeting has split public comment.
• Seattle will sell $29m in bonds to build “hundreds of units” of housing.
• Roger Valdez says Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning won’t work.
• I-405 toll revenue exceeds predictions. But it’s not meeting speed standards. In other words, the toll is set too low and the legislature should remove the $10 maximum.
• Better retail districts.
• Tigard, OR light rail winning by 130 votes.
• A nerdy look at bus scheduling.

This is an open thread.

Lakewood Station finally gets a reverse-peak commuter trip from Seattle … on Black Friday only.
Photo from Sound Transit on flickr

Many transit agencies close down for Thanksgiving, and a few reduce service the day after.

Sound Transit is continuing its tradition of providing at least some Sounder service the day after, with two morning runs from and one morning run to Lakewood, a morning run from Everett, and the reverse in the evening. That unusual reverse-peak trip to Lakewood results in the second morning run from Lakewood arriving after Macy’s Holiday Parade is over. Those who want to take the occasion to ride all the way from Everett to Lakewood are scheduled to miss the connection by 4 minutes in the morning and 23 minutes in the evening. Sorry.

UW routes are running their full schedule through Wednesday, as the University of Washington is in session. Continue reading “Thanksgiving Closures / Friday Sounder Service”

When Sound Transit decided to split the spine for the ST3 package – sending Everett trains to West Seattle and Tacoma trains to Ballard – it did so for a number of reasons. The unprecedented length of the spine corridor meant it was always infeasible to run trains end to end; and capacity concerns in the current downtown tunnel made adding a third line undesirable, leading Sound Transit to propose a fantastic second subway through downtown.

Now that ST3 has passed, it’s time to start making a good thing better. In particular, three operational disappointments lie ahead, all of which are fixable:

First, the still-quite-lengthy lines are planned to offer uniform frequency, meaning trains will cruise through Fife just as often as they do through SeaTac or South Lake Union. Even ardent defenders of the ‘light rail spine’ would have to admit both the asymmetry of demand between the city and outlying areas, and the need for additional urban frequency.

Second, the length of the lines and the nature of the radial commute mean that during peak hours passenger turnover will be relatively limited, leading to crushloads as early at Northgate or the UDistrict for the Red and Blue lines, leaving thousands of downstream passengers at UW or Capitol Hill with a consistently poor experience.

Third, this poor experience will occur while the brand new subway squanders its potential capacity, as the Ballard-Tacoma line cannot exceed 5 minute headways due to at-grade running on MLK Boulevard. With the same 400′ platform length constraints as the other tunnel, this means our brand new subway would be just half as utilized as the current tunnel.

What can be done? Expanding on an idea by Page 2 writer Devon Jenkins, I’d offer two possible solutions: turnback trains and point-to-point service. With regard to turnback trains, Sound Transit is already mulling the possibility of UW to Stadium trains as supplemental service to mitigate the likely 2018 closure of the tunnel to buses, so additional turnback options could potentially be considered under ST3, such as Ballard to SeaTac. Continue reading “Frequency Where It Matters: Right-Sizing ST3”

As reported by Mike Lindblom over the weekend ($), State Senator Steve O’Ban (R – University Place) has signaled his intent to file a bill in the upcoming legislative session requiring the direct election of Sound Transit Boardmembers. Just two weeks after an election in which voters explicitly affirmed Sound Transit 3, O’Ban’s contention is that Sound Transit “does not answer to the voters,” and that after ST3’s passage, “It is more important than ever for the people to have a say in the agency’s management.”

We’ve been here before. O’Ban also proposed this last January, Federal Way legislators floated the idea in 2012, and Governor Locke suggested it in 2003 during in the dark days of Sound Transit. Given that 14 of the 18 members are appointed rather than required by statute, there has been a consistent perception of Sound Transit as an agency of secondary governance, one step removed from direct voter accountability.

O’Ban’s bill would create 19 separate districts within the Sound Transit tax boundary, with direct nonpartisan elections every 2 years for staggered 4-year terms. Anyone could run for the seats, irrespective of transportation industry knowledge or competence, and they would be prohibited from holding other political office. For the sake of two public meetings per month (committee and whole), a prospective board member would need to staff and fund both a primary and general election campaign. While current board members have significant staff support as an in-kind extension of their other political office, O’Ban would cap compensation at $10,000 and presumably have no staff budget at all, leaving board members alone to educate themselves.

Sound Transit projects are built within an incredibly complex web of jurisdictional authority: cities, counties, the state, the feds, and metropolitan planning organizations such as PSRC. Each of these jurisdictions has incredible power (through zoning and permitting) to create friction for the agency. With direct election of boardmembers, these jurisdictions would retain this power while no longer maintaining a direct connection to the board. It makes far more sense for the board to act as an extension of those jurisdictions’ desires rather than as a separate wild card.

Just 2 years after embarking on a 25-year, $54B capital program and 5 years before completing ST2, O’Ban would replace the entire board wholesale and erase the board’s accumulated knowledge, experience, and relationships. Obviously, no board member would resign their other elected office simply to run for the board, so the outcome would surely be the elevation of political neophytes. Continue reading “Déjà Vu: State Senator Pitches Direct Election for Sound Transit Board”

Mesmerizing visualization of 24 hours of bus service across King County circa 2014. You can see the huge influx of buses into downtown Seattle in the morning, the thinning of service later in the evening, and the pulses of buses departing transit centers among many activities. The buses move in straight line between stops, so don’t confuse West Seattle expresses for water taxis. Read the video description for more info.

On Wednesday, the Seattle City Council passed a budget that includes a small pilot project for a parking benefit district (PBD).  The PBD pilot is the result of several years’ work by the Capitol Hill Eco District and the City Council, and were a key recommendation of the HALA report.

The pilot project is notable because it passed despite objections from SDOT.  In a memo to council, SDOT Director Kubly argued that PBDs raise equity concerns (there’s no paid parking anywhere South of Jackson Street).  He also noted that SDOT’s performance- and data-driven approach to parking management has built up trust with residents and businesses, hinting that there could be a backlash if parking funds were seen as a kind of neighborhood slush fund.   Currently, parking rates are adjusted according to demand to meet a specific vacancy rate. Continue reading “Capitol Hill Parking Benefit District Coming in 2017”