Sound Transit just released its Q4 2011 Ridership Report, an encouraging trinity of big ridership gains, increased punctuality, and reduced (though still high) costs.
ST Express: Ridership is up 13% on weekdays and 10% overall, with average weekday boardings of 48,094. Strong growth on Snohomish County routes is likely due both to ST absorbing riders affected by cuts at Community Transit and the completion of Mountlake Terrace Transit center in March 2011. Ridership is up 20% on #510, 28% on #511, 44% on #513, 20% on #532, and 7% on #535. Other routes saw healthy increases of 4-15%, the only exceptions being ridership losses on #560 (-10%) and #566 (-11%). Cost per boarding declined from $7.48 to $7.04. On-time performance increased from 87% to 88%.
Sounder: South Sounder ridership is up an impressive 22%, and North Sounder is up 15% (though it must be noted that 22% of total North Sounder boardings were on Special Event service). Overall weekday ridership is up 27%, with average weekday boardings again exceeding 10,000. Cost per boarding declined from $13.74 to $12.71, with an on-time performance of 97%.
Central Link: Ridership is up by 12%, with average weekday boardings of 24,070, though ridership is still 24% below budgeted estimates. Cost per boarding declined from $6.78 to $6.29, and on-time performance improved dramatically, from 81% to 87%.
Tacoma Link: Ridership is up by 20%, on-time performance is 99.9%, and cost per boarding declined from $3.93 to $3.59.
Okay then! In the interest of being solutions-oriented, let me offer something positive.
Compared to, say, most of Europe, Seattle falls short when it comes to building dense, transit-oriented development. Compared to most of America, though, I’d say we’re doing pretty darn well. But I get it, it’s not good enough. We can do better.
At the 30,000-foot level, Roger’s question is about power and influence: how does density win? How does it beat the other guys: the NIMBYs. Well, basically you either out-organize them or out-fundraise them. Liberals often think politics is a battle of ideas, when it’s usually a battle of interests. If you want your interests to beat out the other guys’ interests, you either need more money, better organization, or both. Having good ideas is important, but it’s a second-order importance. Ideas help you raise money and organize. But you still have to raise money and organize.
So, how do we get there?
Organizing in favor of change is always harder than organizing against it. People come out of the woodwork to oppose something, whether it’s to protest the Iraq War or changes to the Route 2, more often than they come out in favor of something new. But people do come out to celebrate the new, if they sense possibility and excitement around it. Witness the crazy crowds that surrounded the opening days of the Seattle Streetcar and Link. Positive, change-oriented agendas can have their own power, but they have to be specific, tangible, and actionable. Think Obama 2008: Change = Hope = Vote for This Dude. End of story.
For density advocates, raising money is in some ways the easier task. There are plenty of organizations – from developers to construction firms to trade unions – that benefit from urban development. But that money comes with strings attached. These folks are often just as happy to build sprawl. More happy, in fact, since it often requires less onerous soil remediation and environmental permitting. Also, the amount of money that can be made from infill development is proportional to the restrictions on said developments. If it became easier to build in the city, then building in the city would by definition be less profitable. I think pro-density folks often think that developers are their friends. In truth, it’s often a marriage of convenience.
I’m afraid there are no magic solutions here. “Politics is a long and slow boring of hard boards,” as Max Weber said. But I do think the broad outlines are right: a coalition needs to form — call it a political party or not — that has the power to change policy and can back it up with money and votes. It needs to be difficult for a politician to defy this coalition. From time to time, the coalition will do things that individual members disagree with, and these members need to find a way to support the coalition and not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. This is often a very difficult task for some, who may immediately defect if the percentage of funding for their favorite pet transportation mode isn’t exactly what they wanted.
Finally, the only way for such a coalition to survive this inevitable infighting is to have a common creed, a similar worldview. This worldview needs to be broad enough to be inclusive, but specific enough to actually mean something. Part of it is about climate change, but I’m pretty sure if we converted our entire auto fleet to zero emissions overnight, many of us would still be urbanists. Part of it is about the economic benefits of urbanization. Part of it is about limiting sprawl. And part of it’s purely romantic. It’s decidedly not about mode choice or fantasy maps (sadly!).
One last thing, as I approach the 700-word mark. I think the pieces of this coalition already exist, and great organizations like Sightline and Transportation Choices are absolutely leaders in it. It’s really a matter of finding the common thread and pulling it all together.
Two recent stories in the national media illustrated why I think it’s important to separate the push for density, which solves or mitigates a whole series of objective social problems, from the aesthetic distaste for bix box stores and chain restaurants.
First, the Atlantic takes the angle that in-city big-box stores reduce driving:
The researchers then took this data on the frequency, length and type of trips people were making and calculated monthly vehicle-miles-traveled estimates before and after the Target. Before, residents were driving about 97 miles a month for their cleaning supplies, patio items and such. After, that number dropped to 79.6 miles. The frequency of shopping trips to downtown Davis didn’t change much, suggesting the new Target was siphoning more business from far-flung big boxes than local downtown stores.
This result is consistent with my anecdotal experience — sometimes, the easiest thing to do is go to Target, even if it’s farther away — but I’d also suggest that big box stores, while not meeting the narrow-storefront nirvana of urbanists, need not be the pedestrian-hostile sea of parking we experience every day.
Consider the Northgate North complex that is, well, north of Northgate Mall, which consists of three big box stores (and several others) stacked on top of each other in one city block. I would never suggest this is ideal urbanism. The free parking garage isn’t great, the transit access is barely adequate, and it’s hardly a pedestrian paradise. Nevertheless, it’s a compact form for three big-box stores, and vastly superior to what you’d find from those exact same chains near Southcenter.
In the middle of winter most neighborhoods don’t have major activities to pull you in, but snow (which is rumored for the weekend) may shut down everything but Link. If you’re looking for something new to do as an excuse to ride Link, Bananas Grill, just north of Columbia City station, offers low-priced Mediterranean food. The ambience is fast food but it’s got a bit more of a halal focus than a typical Greek place. I’ve eaten there several times and find the Chicken Shawarma particularly tasty.
4556 MLK, about a block north of the station. Free wi-fi. Open every day.
The Washington State Department of Transportation has some good news for the rail corridors plagued with mudslides, but the project won’t be finished until late 2015.
Early Wednesday morning, a mudslide between Mukilteo and Everett, caused cancellation of Sounder and Amtrak Cascades service for 48 hours*. WSDOT’s $16.1m Corridor Reliability Slide Management Project will review problematic locations and reduce mudslides along the route.
In 2011, over 100 Sounder and Amtrak trains were cancelled due to mudslides. While this project will not eliminate all mudslide dangers, it is a step in the right direction to minimize service disruptions. Anytime a mudslide occurs, BNSF Railway (owner of the tracks in our region) imposes a 48-hour restriction on passenger trains. WSDOT and BNSF are working together to reduce and/or eliminate this rule, depending on the severity of the slide.
This is positive and much needed relief on what plagues on-time performance and reliability of our trains.
*Empire Builder service will be truncated in Everett and passengers bused to Edmonds and Seattle. Eastbound passengers will be bused to Everett and board the train there.
Both houses of Congress continue to struggle with the new transportation bill as they enter a one-week recess. Speaker John Boehner has delayed the justifiably maligned House bill, allegedly because it doesn’t have the votes.
(2) BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM.–The term `bus rapid transit system’ means a bus transit system–
`(A) in which the majority of each line operates in a separated right-of-way dedicated for public transportation use during peak periods; and
`(B) that includes features that emulate the services provided by rail fixed guideway public transportation systems, including–
“(i) defined stations;
“(ii) traffic signal priority for public transportation vehicles;
“(iii) short headway bidirectional services for a substantial part of weekdays and weekend days; and
“(iv) any other features the Secretary may determine are necessary to produce high-quality public transportation services that emulate the services provided by rail fixed guideway public transportation systems.
STB obtained an email to other transit operators from Metro Director of Service Development Victor Obeso, excerpted below the jump:
Photo by flickr user sillygwailo
SDOT is holding two open houses for the First Hill Streetcar project that begins construction in April:
Tuesday, February 28
5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Union Station – Ruth Fisher Boardroom
401 South Jackson Street
Seattle, WA 98104
Getting There:
The main entrance is on Jackson Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues. The location is transit accessible. On- and off-street parking is available nearby.
Wednesday, March 7
4:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Silver Cloud Hotel
The Broadway Room
1100 Broadway
Seattle, WA 98122
Getting There:
The main entrance is on Broadway between E Madison Street and E Union Street. The location is transit accessible. On- and off-street parking is available nearby. Limited free parking at Silver Cloud Hotel.
Questions?
Seattle.streetcar@seattle.gov or (206) 257-2121
Potential station improvements that could be funded include more parking, enhanced connections for pedestrians and bicycle users, and new bus facilities…
For the convenience of Mukilteo residents, the event is being held in conjunction with Washington State Ferries and the Federal Transit Administration’s public hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Mukilteo Multimodal project.
Red Line was Central Link, Blue Line was East Link (mockup by author)
We could soon be riding the Red Line instead of Central Link and talk about the Lynnwood Extension instead of the North Corridor HCT Project beginning in 2014. An update to the policy for naming Sound Transit facilities and Link lines is up for consideration at the Sound Transit Board’s February 23rd meeting.
Link lines would be named by color and destination at the end of the line. For example, the north-south Central Link line would be called the Link Red Line (Westlake or SeaTac/Airport). Supposedly, Tacoma Link would also get a color. Staff recommendation and rider feedback would help establish a color scheme. The naming structure would apply to projects in the early planning phase. Examples of US cities that name their rail lines after colors include Boston, Washington, Chicago, Portland, and Los Angeles.
The criteria for naming stations and other facilities would be updated to add “Avoid similar names or words in existing facility names”. I’m thinking that we may not see Brooklyn Station renamed to University District Station as there is already a University Street Station. We might not see a Husky Stadium Station either, since there’s already a Stadium Station.
There will be a three-phase process for determining the permanent name of a station. First, staff will develop potential names based on the criteria. Then the public will be asked for input around the 30% design process. Finally, at Phase Gate 5 or around 60% design, the Board will have final authority in naming stations.
