I hear there’s an election today. This article will be updated as results come in. King County’s results will be on the county site or state site (other counties are also on the state site); the first batch usually comes around 8:15pm. The STB Election Committee made some endorsements on local transit and land use issues. Earlier today, the Urbanist reviewed what’s at stake in local and statewide elections. The Seattle Times has their live tracker running without paywall. KUOW is live-blogging as well.

What do you see happening or what do you think about the election?

8:15pm, 11/5:

First results have dropped in King County: 777,581 ballots counted of an forecasted turnout of about 1,168,000 voters (82% of the total 1,425,313 registered voters).

• 43rd Leg. District Pos. 2: Shaun Scott (67.77%); Andrea Suarez (31.41%)
• Seattle Council Pos. 8: Alexis Mercedes Rinck (57.32%); Tanya Woo (42.28%)
• Prop 1 (Transportation Levy): Yes (66.82%); No (33.18%)

8:41pm, 11/5:

The four “Let’s Go Washington”-funded initiatives have ~57% of votes counted state-wide:

• I-2066: Ban on Natural Gas Bans: Yes (1,269,813, 51.2%); No (1,212,471, 48.8%)
• I-2117: Carbon Tax Credit Ban: Yes (956,395, 38.2%); No (1,549,070, 61.8%)
• I-2109: Capital Gains Tax Repeal: Yes (921,835, 36.7%); No (1,592,015, 63.3%)
• I-2124: WA Long-Term Care Opt-Out: Yes (1,102,740, 44.4%); No (1,380,209, 55.6%)

9:16pm, 11/5:

The statewide turnout summary shows the next ballot count will drop at 1pm tomorrow. As of 8:59pm, the 39 counties are estimating there are 793,865 ballots left to count. With 2,642,738 ballots counted plus the remaining ballots, the estimated statewide turnout is about 68.47% of the 5,018,747 registered voters.

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This is an open thread.

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There’s been a rush of topics the past three weeks, including in Wednesday’s roundup which has now reached 172 comments. So here’s something light to start the weekend with. And what can be lighter than Sesame Street and the Muppets?

Continue reading “Weekend Light Reading” | 28 comments

Transit & Streets:

• The Urbanist: Sound Transit Board Rubberstamps West Seattle Link Route, Amid Cost Issues
• Seattle Bike Blog: SDOT set to start Aurora-Licton Springs healthy streets upgrades on N 100th St, Fremont Ave N
• West Seattle Blog: Bus service modifications (feedback wanted!) and community updates at HPAC October meeting
• Kent Reporter: ‘Drivers going too fast’ led to 45-vehicle collision in Kent on I-5; also on KOMO.
• Seilbahnen (Cable Car) International Magazine: Study shows: cable car is more sustainable than the electric bus for point-to-point transit with no intermediate stops.
• Bloomberg CityLab: Robotaxis Are No Friend of Public Transportation
• The Seattle Times ($): Lynnwood light rail is super popular — but there’s a problem; the times presents anecdotes from Lynnwood commuters who say they drive to downtown if there isn’t enough parking at the station. Sound Transit and Community Transit suggest taking the bus.
• The Urbanist: Bellevue Reveals Initial Designs for Pedestrian Bridge over I-405
• Streetsblog USA: Why America Has So Much Road Safety Research, But So Little Actual Safety

Continue reading “Midweek Roundup: 45-Car Crash” | 209 comments

Back in March of this year, Sound Transit appointed Terri Mestas to be the deputy CEO of megaproject delivery, a new position that was created specifically to oversee delivery of the agency’s large capital projects. Mestas is a seasoned leader of capital program management, most recently being the chief development officer at Los Angeles World Airports and holding stints at AECOM and CalTech, where she oversaw projects in aviation, national security, and more.

I had a chance to sit down with Mestas at the end of summer to hear directly from her about her vision for the agency and how she hopes to guide system expansion in a period where some missteps have set projects back.

The entire extended interview, edited for clarity and brevity, has been included below.

Continue reading “An extended interview with Terri Mestas, Sound Transit megaproject delivery chief” | 23 comments

King County Metro’s RapidRide D Line travels inbound from Crown Hill to downtown Seattle, primarily through Ballard, Interbay, and Uptown. Outbound trips travel north from downtown to Crown Hill. In August 2024, the D Line was the fourth busiest bus route in King County with 8,824 average weekday boardings. 

Average Ridership Per Trip

The plots below show the average weekday ridership by stop in each direction, color-coded by time of day. For a more detailed breakdown of how the plots are set up, please refer to the How to Read the Plots section of the article discussing Route 70.

Continue reading “Ridership Patterns for RapidRide D Line” | 17 comments

This is an open thread.

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Community Transit will be improving Swift Blue along Evergreen Way in Lake Stickney (an unincorporated area north of Lynnwood) and Everett. The Swift corridor consists of Aurora Avenue, Pacific Highway and Evergreen Way. It currently has some BAT lanes with gaps. The new projects will fill in those gaps with new BAT lanes and potentially the missing sidewalks along the corridor.

These improvements follow up after the recent Swift Blue extension to Shoreline North Station via 200th St, Meridian Ave, and 185th St.

Continue reading “Swift Blue Improvements” | 39 comments

Although the RapidRide R project to replace Route 7 on Rainier Avenue has been postponed to 2031, SDOT (the Seattle Department of Transportation) has continued to implement bus lanes along Rainier Avenue. We’ll go over a moderate recap of the changes made of the past decade starting from 2015, focusing on the transit improvements, as well as outline some near term future changes.

Previous STB Articles

Description	Article Link
Ridership Patterns for King County Metro Route 7	https://seattletransitblog.com/2024/10/21/ridership-patterns-for-king-county-metro-route-7/
Work resumption on RapidRide R	https://seattletransitblog.com/2024/07/27/work-resumes-on-rapidride-r/
Metro survey on RapidRide R	https://seattletransitblog.com/2020/02/21/metro-seeks-feedback-for-rapidride-r-to-replace-route-7/
SDOT debating between protected bike lanes and bus lanes on Rainier Avenue	https://seattletransitblog.com/2017/08/24/rainier-avenue-will-decide-between-buses-and-bikes/

Rainier Avenue Improvements Overview

There have been multiple SDOT projects on Rainier Avenue. In 2015, the Vision Zero Rainier Improvements debated between bike and bus lanes and chose bus lanes. In 2023, the Route 7 Transit Plus Multimodal Corridor fixed the sidewalk along the northern portion of Rainier Avenue. In 2022 and 2024, the Rainier Avenue S Bus Lane added bus lanes in two phases from Edmunds Street to Grand Street.

Continue reading “Route 7 Transit-Plus Recap” | 6 comments

Transit & Streets:

• The Urbanist: Why Ballard Link Is Still Trapped in Planning Limbo; as of 10/22, scoping is now scheduled to begin tomorrow.
• The Seattle Times ($): Another North Seattle light rail breakdown slows passengers
• The Urbanist: Tacoma Set to Slash ‘Vision Zero’ Road Safety Budget by 90%
• SDOT Blog: Spokane St Swing Bridge (low bridge) will close October 25–27 for turn cylinder installation
• The Platform: Stepping up our game; Sound Transit blogs about how it’s improving rider experience in the face of growing pains.
• Sound Transit: Seeking public feedback on proposed ST Express fare change
• The Seattle Times ($): Can $1.55 billion make Seattle streets safer?
• Mass Transit Magazine: Community Transit collects community feedback on plans for new Swift Gold BRT Line
• King County Metro Matters: Proposed budget focuses on cleanliness, equity, reliability, safety and sustainability
• Seattle Times ($): Fare gates become more popular nationwide

Continue reading “Midweek Roundup: Limbo” | 102 comments