West Seattle / Downtown via SODO busway

Posted on by Martin Pagel

Sound Transit still plans on building a new Link line to West Seattle. As Sound Transit struggles to find ways to fulfill the ST3 promises, there is a better option for West Seattle transit riders. With a relatively small investment in bus-based infrastructure, we could give riders in West Seattle the best of both worlds: a fast connection to Link and a fast, direct trip to downtown.

Connect the SODO Busway with the Spokane Street Viaduct

In 2012 SDOT evaluated various ways to connect West Seattle with downtown Seattle by bus. Since then they’ve added an eastbound ramp from the Spokane Street Viaduct to 4th Avenue South. This ramp could be leveraged to quickly connect to the SODO Busway. If this approach has significant delays, it would be relatively easy to build a second ramp just to the east of that one, directly connecting to the SODO Busway. The Spokane Street Viaduct already has a dedicated bus lane extending partially east of Highway 99. It would be trivial to extend the bus lane to the ramp at 4th or the new one. Buses would then travel in their own lane from West Seattle to downtown. Going the other direction, a new ramp could be built from the southbound busway to westbound viaduct. This would be similar to the one at First Avenue and relatively inexpensive. This work could be done much faster than a Link extension and the savings could be put immediately into running buses a lot more frequently to and within West Seattle.

Only Holgate and Lander Street cross the SODO Busway. ST3 proposed building overpasses to improve Link. The same would apply to the busway. The Holgate to Beacon Hill viaduct could be extended to cross the Link tracks and the busway. A similar link could be built for Lander between 4th and 6th Ave. This would also improve the reliability of Link and the other buses that use the busway. The toughest section for buses is probably between Stadium Station and CID. The report also considered various ways to improve that.

One advantage of this proposal is that the improvements could be iterative. The buses could run more often almost immediately. Southbound buses could use Lander Street and the First Ave ramp until the southbound busway-to-viaduct ramp is complete. Northbound buses could use the ramp to 4th Avenue South. Each improvement could happen bit by bit.

Continue reading “West Seattle / Downtown via SODO busway”

The Space Fallacy of Aisle-Facing Seating

Posted on by Bjorn Swenson

On urban bus routes, interior capacity is often cited as a pressing issue. A frequently proposed solution is to reconfigure the interior of transit vehicles to use more aisle-facing seats instead of forward-facing benches. In theory, aisle-facing seats use up less space, which provides more interior standing room and space to maneuver the carts, strollers, and various objects customers bring on board.

In theory. In practice. . .

View post on imgur.com

This picture was taken aboard an evening-peak NABI 60-BRT vehicle on the MAX route, operated by Transfort (Fort Collins, Colorado). In front of the rear wheel-well is a forward-facing pair of seats, with three aisle-facing seats occupying the wheelchair securement location. According to the website of the seat manufacturer, transverse (forward-facing) rows are manufactured to be between 35-37 inches in width, resulting in an individual seat width of 17 to 19 inches.

Notice how the feet of passengers sitting in aisle-facing seats protrude more into the aisle than the passenger in the transverse row.  The aisle-facing seats above the wheel-well have a gap behind them, as the wheel-well is wider than the length of a seat; but the seats in front of the transverse row are up against the interior sidewall. The customer in the transverse seat protrudes slightly into the aisle, perhaps an inch or two, and also has their foot rotated slightly outward into the aisle. In comparison, the foot of the customer in the aisle-facing seat protrudes further into the aisle.

Continue reading “The Space Fallacy of Aisle-Facing Seating”