Hundreds of people volunteered their time last night to sign in or testify to the King County Council in Seattle, most of them in support of the Congestion Reduction Charge (CRC). The CRC is a two-year, $20 annual fee on car tab renewal and would prevent a 17% reduction in bus service that would fully cut many routes.

The Transportation, Economy and Environment Committee hearing may have had the attention of Seattle residents, but two committee members, Pete von Reichbauer and Jane Hague, were notably absent from last night’s meeting.

The line to testify took over a full block of downtown and looped around the King County Courthouse. County officials said that this was probably the biggest public comment in King County history. Nearly everyone spoke in favor of approving keeping current bus service, but a non-trivial contingent argued that instead of charging car owners a flat fee with the CRC, we should tax the rich and businesses. Ultimately, King County has no revenue authority from the state beyond the car tab fee to fund bus service, despite incorrect claims made by some who gave testimony.

I gave my own testimony around 9:45 pm after joining the line of people near 6 pm. I argued that a CRC measure sent to voters would enter a crowded ballot, cost progressive groups hundreds of thousands of dollars to campaign for, and needlessly put Metro’s future at risk. I urged the council to adopt the CRC by a 6-vote supermajority.

If you weren’t able to make it last night, please consider attending the next meeting in Burien or writing to the council. On July 25th, the council plans to ultimately decide whether to adopt the CRC by a supermajority, send the CRC to voters with 5 council votes, or cut bus service.

I wanted to put up one more reminder about tonight’s Metro funding meeting. I would encourage everyone that can make it to show up and voice your support of the CRC. Showing up early is probably a good idea as well. The Council needs to know this is a top priority and adoption of the CRC by the council is critical. Passing this vote onto the people is poor leadership, will hurt any future transportation package (Metro or other), and is just bad policy. Press release below from Streets for All Seattle.

Tonight, the King County Council will be hearing testimony from people like you who want to save King County Metro from having to cut service by 17 percent.

Please attend tonight’s public hearing and tell the King County Council how cutting or reducing your bus routes will affect you.

What: Public hearing to save King County Metro

When: TONIGHT, July 12, 6 – 8pm

Where: King County Courthouse, 10th floor (516 3rd Ave, Seattle)

Losing 600,000 service hours – significantly affecting four in five riders – will devastate our economy, environment and communities with more congestion, pollution and inequity.

That’s why it’s so important for the King County Council to adopt the $20 congestion reduction charge – a measure that will provide temporary relief until a long-term state solution is found.

This is the most critical week in our effort to save King County Metro. The King County Council must vote to adopt the congestion relief charge on July 25th. Tonight’s public hearing in Seattle will be the pivotal juncture. We need to turnout en masse to show strong support for the measure.

If you can’t attend tonight’s hearing, please write a letter to the Council and attend the next hearing on July 21. Together, we can save our buses!

Thank you for everything that you do.

Sincerely,

Craig M. Benjamin

Co-Founder, Streets For All Seattle

As we have reported before, ridership on the SLU Streetcar has continued to grow since opening in December 2007 as new housing and employment continues to grow in the area.  The average weekday ridership figure for July 2011 is based on 1 week of data, so the June data is better to focus on. Average weekday ridership for June 2011 grew by over 900 additional boardings over 2010, with a year over year increase of 200 weekday boardings the year before. From June 2009 to June 2011 average daily ridership grew by 64%. Average weekday ridership  and year-over-year growth data below the jump. Continue reading “SLU Streetcar Ridership Growing Fast”

In what was basically a foregone conclusion, the King County Council formally adopted new Metro Service Guidelines today. The vote was unanimous. Discussion about the legislation is here.

Unlike some people here, I didn’t think 40/40/20 was an unmitigated disaster, but it’s good when leaders are able to look past parochial concerns to serve the interests of the county as a whole. Metro is better off with the new policy guidelines.

It’s reasonable to expect we’ll start seeing changes with the February 2012 service change.

Last week Sound Transit released the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for East Link. Press release here. After a group effort to look over the thing, there’s not a whole lot that’s particularly new, although over the next couple of weeks we might post on a few interesting details.

ST’s preferred alignment consists of alternatives A1, B2M, C9T or C11A, and D2A. The final decision on Segment C should come later this summer. The total cost is $2.3-2.7 billion (2007 dollars) for a surface alignment through downtown (C11A), or $2.6-3.1 billion for the tunnel option (C9T). C9T buys you an extra 1,000 daily riders (for a total of 50,000) in 2030.

The Executive Summary has one-pagers on each of the endless segment alternatives that ST considered.

I think Roger Valdez’s piece in Crosscut about the importance of schools to a density agenda makes some good observations but ultimately misses some important points.

One issue is the demographic trend towards more childless households in the future, so there’s plenty of room for growth in dense, multifamily housing without any more families with kids moving into the city. Indeed, as a family gets larger the economics of hauling them around in a car instead of transit shift in favor of the car. So I’m not sure, from a strict carbon-accounting perspective, that luring families into the city needs to be a high policy priority.

Everyone is for “good schools.” The problem is, no one can agree how to get there. More funding would probably help, but then spending per student in itself has never been a particularly good indicator of academic success, and skeptics could be forgiven for believing that additional funding wouldn’t lead towards concrete improvements in performance.

People can’t even agree what “good schools” are. The obvious thing to use is standardized test scores, but then there are people who dispute the value of these tests. Is a “good school” one that does really well given the socioeconomic inputs it has, or one that performs well in absolute terms? If you’re administrator trying to figure out which principals are doing a good job, it’s a different answer than if you’re a parent trying to make sure your kid is in a good academic environment.

Installing catenary on the Paris-Strasbourg high speed rail line. Interesting how a new rail line basically starts off as a bare road followed the rails along with the catenary. The other half of the video is the same without the music.

Sound Transit recently released an addendum to their design and environmental analysis for S. 200th St. station. It updates a 2005 document. The map above nicely summarizes the changes. In ST agency-speak this segment is “South Link” while the other two (potential) stops beyond this — Highline Community College and Redondo/Star Lake — are the  “South Corridor.” Key changes to the plan:

• Increasing the number of parking spaces from 630 to 1,100. This change is driven by a parking study that SeaTac law requires. There are three different configurations (1 garage, 2 garages, or garage plus lot) that might reach this total. The garage would have ground-floor retail/commercial in accordance with SeaTac law.
• Add a pocket track just south of the station, which would allow ST to park an additional train at the terminus.
• Shift the guideway to keep speeds at 55mph and improve safety at some intersections.
• Changes to the planned road revisions, including better bike/ped/bus facilities on S. 200th st.
• Move the station 40 feet to the west to avoid power and gas lines.

I’ve emailed Sound Transit to ask what the cost impact is.

Every Independence Day, regional transit agencies run Sunday schedules to accommodate diminished ridership demand while still maintaining modest levels of service for people going out and about.  While operating a full weekday schedule wouldn’t have made any sense on the Fourth, there were still multiple large events wrapping up Monday evening, generating peak demand that even weekday schedules would struggle to accommodate.  Many revelers were left to wait lengthy periods of time for the next bus to show up.

Similarly, MTA in Los Angeles runs Sunday schedules on the Fourth, and one disgruntled rider there accurately summed things up as such:

I understand why there is less frequent service on Holidays, but what is never pointed out is that a good number of bus routes end earlier on Sundays. Holidays should have extended running hours. Some routes end at 7 on Sunday. The Sun will just be setting! Metro needs to re-look at how they handle holidays so people are encouraged to go out into the city (which will have fireworks) rather than stay home because the nearby bus ends before the sun even retires for the evening.

Because most of the ‘peak’ activity on the Fourth occurs in the late evening, the reduction in demand isn’t proportionally uniform across the span of the day, like it might be for a normal Sunday.  While absolute ridership totals on the Fourth of July may rival that of a typical Sunday, the distribution of demand is strongly skewed, with much heavier loads in the late evening.  What we’re usually left with is the peak demand occurring just as service levels are tailing off.

A great example of well-crafted Independence Day service plan is what Boston does.  Not unlike how things are done here and in LA, MBTA operates a Sunday schedule for the most of the day.  The difference, however, is in the evening when MBTA not only runs later and enhanced service on all modes when demand is greatest, but offers free rides after 10:30p.  Eliminating fare payment greatly speeds up crowds getting on buses and trains.

I’m not suggesting that transit agencies here go fare-free on Independence Day, but I would like to see more in the way of a special service plan, especially for routes that serve high-trafficked areas in the evening.  With high concentrations of people in certain places at once, transit holds a competitive advantage in this arena– a compelling reason to make riding more convenient on the Fourth, and not the time-wasting burden that it often is.

A quick reminder that numerous closures this weekend will snarl regional travel.  From Friday at 11pm to Monday at 5am, both SR 520 (Montlake to I-405) and the I-5/Mercer interchange will close completely.  SR520 buses will be rerouted to I-90, and expect backups in and around downtown Seattle all weekend.

Saturday is also the 32^nd annual Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP).  10,000 cyclists (including yours truly) will make the 204-mile trek to Portland.  For our mutual sanity and safety, you would do well early Saturday morning to avoid Montlake, the University Bridge, Lake Washington from Madrona to Renton, West Valley Highway, Puyallup, Pacific Avenue/SR7, and SR 507.

In addition, I-5 northbound around Joint Base Lewis McChord will be restricted to a single lane (9pm Friday to 5am Monday), and WSDOT is predicting an 11-mile backup just as STPers drive and bus back from Portland.  If planning on traveling to Portland, Amtrak Cascades is your ticket out of congestion (ok, Horizon too).

Though these closures will frustrate motorists and transit riders alike, I would suggest making the best of a bad situation either by kayaking/canoeing in Union Bay or by visiting the Arboretum (walk, or take the #11 or #8).  The sunny and mild weather, combined with the tranquility afforded by a closed SR 520, should provide a lovely glimpse into the sights and sounds of pre-highway Union Bay.  (Each time I visit the Arboretum I’m grateful anew that the R.H. Thompson was never built.)   During the last viaduct closure I discovered that it’s really quite stunning to be near a major highway without the attendant white noise; one doesn’t internalize the scale of roadway noise until graced with its absence.  So take advantage of it!