At a few minutes after eight on election night, November 3, Shafali Ranganathan, deputy director at Transportation Choices Coalition, was a bundle of nerves. Standing behind a pool table set up with computers and a projector in an upstairs room at the Belltown Pub, Ranganathan and about 100 supporters of Move Seattle, the biggest transportation levy in Seattle history, had their eyes glued to the screen at the back of the room, where TCC staffer Carla Chavez was updating the “results” page on King County Elections’ website every few seconds. 0.00. 0.00. 0.00.

TCC, and others who had worked for months on Move Seattle, considered the measure a tough sell, and many told me they expected to end the night several points in the red. As if to emphasize that point, many in the room had been in the process of getting loaded since earlier that afternoon. But Ranganathan was the quiet, focused center of the room, and when the results came in–57 to 43–the 5-foot-tall deputy director issued a surprisingly fierce roar of victory, then quickly composed herself and went off to face the cameras.

Another winner that night was Rob Johnson, TCC director, Ranganathan’s boss, and, as of next January, council member for Northeast Seattle’s District 4. After the election, I called Ranganathan one of the major victors that Tuesday night, not only because her group prevailed on Move Seattle (a victory that can only help the Sound Transit 3 ballot measure in 2016), but because the win solidified her position as the “heir apparent” to Johnson at TCC.

On November 12, TCC announced that Ranganathan would be the group’s new director. A few days later, I sat down with her to find out what the leadership change will mean for the group, how TCC plans to shift its focus in the future, and what it means when a mainstream transportation organization is run almost entirely by women and people of color.

Erica C. Barnett [ECB]: Rob has been at TCC for more than a decade, and has obviously made his imprint on the organization. How will the organization change under your leadership, in terms of strategy or mission?

Continue reading “New TCC Director: “For Our Movement to Succeed, We Need to Build Power.””

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You can plan for growth, or you can be overwhelmed by it. This community is planning for it. — Peter M. Rogoff, next CEO of Sound Transit

The Sound Transit Board held its monthly meeting Thursday, featuring a hotly-debated fare change on ST Express and Sounder and the confirmation of Peter M. Rogoff as the new CEO of Sound Transit.

Sound Transit staff had just held a party for outgoing CEO Joni Earl Wednesday, on her 15th anniversary at ST. When Rogoff was given a chance to speak just after the board voted unanimously to confirm him, he looked back on the interview, when he was asked why he was the best candidate for the job. “I thought about it, and then answered that I’m not the best candidate. The best candidate is a healthy Joni Earl.”

Rogoff is currently Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy, a post to which he was appointed by President Obama in January of 2014. Previously, he led the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) from 2009 to 2014.

Rogoff was the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Transportation Equity Award from the Transportation Equity Network, in 2010, for helping overturn restrictive transit funding guidelines and allow livability, equity, and sustainability to become criteria in funding major transit projects.

Continue reading “ST Board Confirms New CEO and Fares”

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Coach 91501 on display at Union Station yesterday afternoon. (Photo by author)

This morning at Everett Station, the first of five new double-decker buses began regular service on Sound Transit Express routes. The double-decker buses, ordered in March 2014 for approximately $5 million and first proposed in November 2013, are identical to the second generation of Alexander Dennis Enviro500s that Community Transit debuted last month and will be operated by the agency’s drivers on contract with First Transit.

Measuring 42 feet long and 13 feet, 6 inches tall, the buses can seat 82 and accommodate some standees on the lower deck. The stairwell has a monitor with four camera feeds of the upper deck, allowing riders to know if there’s room upstairs. There’s a few backwards-facing seats at the back of the bottom deck over the wheel wells. Out front is a triple bike rack manufactured by Sportsworks.

The buses will be used on crowded runs of routes 510, 511 and 512, with some possible testing on other ST Express routes able to move forward once the full fleet is in service.

The first coach, numbered 91501, features a wrap around the upper deck with the hashtag #SeeingDoubleST, which is being used to promote the new buses.

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• New Link maps percolating through the fleet (see picture above). Reaction here.
• Tacoma Housing Authority planning 40 to 50-unit mixed-use development near future Tacoma Link station.
• Kirkland holding meeting Nov. 19th about BRT.
• Buried in this article about new buildings at UW ($), this little example of how our transportation money goes astray: “The Nanoengineering & Sciences building, also under construction, is being paid for with mitigation money from Sound Transit.”
• Taxis and Uber may be a cheaper alternative for the paratransit obligation.
• SDOT revamping their websites, has a survey for you.
• Shoreline tree falls on bus.
• Seattle Public Schools to give out bus passes to low-income students.
• New tower coming to First Hill.
• WSTC comes up with a West Seattle transportation agenda.
• Storm damage blocks Amtrak – on the south line, for once.
• ST search committee recommends former FTA head Peter Rogoff as its new CEO.
• Seattle Police enforcing rules against “box blocking.”
• Eastside Rail Corridor rails no longer usable, on their way out.
• Pronto station placement currently stinks.

This is an open thread

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Last week, I explained how the proposal to implement a low-income (ORCA LIFT) fare on all ST Express routes and raise fares to keep up with partner agencies would not just increase ridership, reduce operating costs and travel time, and lower barriers to accessing public transit, but would also almost certainly increase fare revenue.

Some commenters took the opportunity to complain about the complexity of fare structures for other agencies, and among the agencies.

Sound Transit’s fare policy lays out some goals for regional fare coordination:

Coordination with other regional transit systems – fare media and pricing are integrated regionally among partner transit agencies to:
o avoid conflicting pricing;
o facilitate customer and transit employee understanding;
o minimize fare payment confusion as a barrier to regional transit use;
o promote regional consistency in provisions for low income and transit dependent riders; and
o promote public safety

The proposal for raising ST Express fares and implementing a LIFT fare on all routes follows from these goals. The proposal to implement LIFT fares just on routes operated wholly within King County (522, 540-567, and 577) confuses the situation and contravenes some of these goals.

It is useful to chart out how fares on all the agencies that accept PugetPass would look before and after the various proposals, including a proposal pending before the Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners.

Continue reading “Regional Fare Coordination and ORCA LIFT”

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