News roundup

Weekend News Roundup

October 12, 2009October 12, 2009 by Martin H. Duke

Guide rail and wheels on the monorail, by Mike Bjork — "Guide rail and wheels on the monorail", by Mike Bjork

Metro considers raising fee it charges to school districts for special routes and student passes; Bellevue threatens to contract out instead.
Elevated fan sues to block the deep-bore tunnel.
Hugeasscity asks ex-monorail supremo Joel Horn about getting rail to West Seattle.
Jessie Israel positive about streetcars, Nick Licata waffles.
Mallahan not so hot to finish the Burke-Gilman trail.
The best commuter bike ever?
Video of the County transit town hall is now online.
The berm/post-and-beam controversy rumbles on.
Dan Savage trying to find an obscene nickname for the First Hill Streetcar (mildly NSFW). CHS wades into the routing question.
Hugeasscity (who was there, and provided the space) writes up our STB/NorthwestHub meetup.
Sumner woman killed by Amtrak train. (H/T: mickymse)
Should you take the bus or just walk there? It really depends on whether you have a pass and you need the exercise (H/T: Mark Kerrigan)

News Roundup: Sharrows

October 6, 2009October 6, 2009 by Martin H. Duke

Beautiful Lobby, by Mike Bjork — "Beautiful Lobby", by Mike Bjork

A whole bunch of stories we didn’t get to over the past week:

Sharrows are supposed to make the road safer for cyclists, but if SDOT has to explain what they mean perhaps they’re not doing the job.
Bellevue plans 80 miles of bike lanes. No money is attached.
Everybody except Richard Conlin thinks the SLUT was a mistake. Go Richard!
Incongruously, Seattle City Council approves First Hill Streetcar agreement.
The TNT has an excellent primer on the Tacoma berm controversy. Ben offered his opinion here.
Sherwin Lee has the definitive rebuttal of Kemper Freeman’s anti-rail arguments.
U-Pass alledgedly no longer a good deal for most UW students, but that’s if you don’t take the bus very much. At $33/month it’s still considerably cheaper than even a $1.75 bus pass ($63).
Four new Community Transit board members.
Post-mortems on the Southeast Seattle transit forum. I previewed this meeting here.
Intercity Transit opened the Martin Way Park and Ride on September 30.
Burien Transit Center to get 503-stall parking garage by end of next year to replace the 334 currently there.
Lance Dickie is excited about Swift. I agree, but it is not a “train on rubber tires.”
Man hit by bus in Everett, sues Sound Transit. More proof that buses should only be allowed to operate in grade-separated roadways.
Ferry fares going up to $6.90/$11.85.
Vancouver, BC looking at at-grade light rail for the Evergreen Line.
Des Moines and Seatac fighting over their preferred Link alignments.

Weekend News Roundup

September 28, 2009September 28, 2009 by Martin H. Duke

CT DE60LFA 29700, by wings777 — "CT DE60LFA 29700", by wings777

Dan Bertolet at HugeAssCity offers an articulate defense of embattled Seattle DOT head Grace Crunican.
The SunBreak interviews Metro GM Kevin Desmond about ORCA, Twitter, and unions.
A bunch of local newspapers worked together to create a very extensive “Navigate King County” transportation special report. We’ll try to digest it and discuss further later.
SOV market share down in DT Bellevue and Factoria, slightly up at Crossroads and Bel-Red.
Kemper Freeman-backed Bellevue City Council Candidate Kevin Wallace has commissioned the engineering study to get Link pushed out to I-405 through Bellevue.
Two more Central Link vs. car collisions, the usual illegal left turn.
Not to be outdone, Tacoma Link takes out a BMW. The TNT has a great photo.
Link noise declared a public health emergency, apparently a technical move to allow expedited procurement to solve the problem. Stupidest quote in the Times article: “We can’t have the light rail be more of a pollutant — with the noise, you’ve canceled out the carbon reduction.”
Dave Ross loves his Orca (skip to 31:30).
Jesse! helps out a homeowner waiting for Sound Transit to fix his yard.
City of Snohomish looks at a tourist train.

September 23, 2009September 24, 2009 by Martin H. Duke

The ORCA “limited rollout” period is over; full speed ahead. ECB is not so sure it’s ready.
Seattle City Council approves SLUT loan. Meanwhile, Joe Mallahan supported the SLUT before he was against it.
City Council also approves pedestrian improvements, but not yet the money ($15m/year) to pay for it.
Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma loses it over rail berm opponents. His election challenger Mayoral candidate not giving up on post-and-beam, now “the linchpin issue” of the campaign.
Washington Transit agencies get part of $100m in green stimulus grants. Not KC Metro, though.
U.S. Senate mulls restoration of the Amtrak Pioneer route, from Seattle to Salt Lake City or Denver.
Light rail ridership projections almost always low.
Discounts for vanpoolers.
Danny Westneat profiles one of our more interesting bus drivers.
King County auctioning off old vehicles. Sadly, no buses but I see that some Access vans are available.
Tour the Vashon Foot Ferry Saturday afternoon.
A history of the Interurban.

News Roundup

September 18, 2009September 18, 2009 by Martin H. Duke

KCM RapidRide, CT Swift DE60LFA, by wings777 — "KCM RapidRide, CT Swift DE60LFA", by wings777

Things that fell through the cracks while we obsessed over the McGinn light rail speech:

Metro GM Kevin Desmond on OneBusAway.
SDOT speeding up Route 44.
A fatal shooting at the Federal Way Transit Center.
Joe Mallahan drives 6 blocks to work, not a big transit user.
Results of the PSRC 2040 comment period.
Comment on PSRC’s “Transportation Improvement Program” project list. There are lots of small-bore road and bike projects relevant to transit.
Metro’s vanpool program wins a national award. UW and Bellevue Downtown Association also winners.
State not ready to toll 520 yet.
John McCain hates most major transit projects, including U-Link and the RapidRide B line.
Why you don’t see trolleybuses on weekends.
Kids enjoy Link. I’ve often joked Link is my $2 billion babysitter.
The Oregonian tours Link.
ST CEO Joni Earl defends the Sounder berm design in Tacoma. But part of the segment will be a bridge.
Whining about (lack of) parks on the NYC Subway map (H/T: Mike Fisher)

This is an open thread.

News Roundup

September 9, 2009September 9, 2009 by Martin H. Duke

The Seatac Station pedestrian bridge is now in place (see above).
The SLUT is having money trouble, but Mayor Nickels is seeking a loan to keep it afloat.
Mountlake Terrace Park and Ride is not yet packed, but it did just open.
John Stanton, of anti-light-rail fame, gives $700 to Joe Mallahan. That’s the maximum.
Seattle Business Monthly notices TOD. Luckily, some projects are still afloat in this economy. (via HAC)
Portland’s temporary “cycle track” installation.
A very wonky primer proposed changes to on the Growth Management Act (GMA): Part I and Part II.
The MAX Green Line opens Saturday, which should bring daily boardings from 100,000 to about 125,000 by the end of the year.
SOV drivers annoyed our minimal attempts at BRT aren’t open to SOV drivers.

News Roundup

September 5, 2009September 5, 2009 by Martin H. Duke

Transportation for America’s new report, “Stranded at the Station“, won’t break any new ground for readers of this blog, but provides a nice capsule argument for why transit is important, and does a roundup of the cuts facing agencies everywhere. Happily, Washington agencies are not among the top 10 in projected deficits.
Jordan Talge, a law student and writer for NorthwestHub.org, breaks down the legal hurdles for Kemper Freeman’s anti-East Link lawsuit.
Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy withdraws a mayoral endorsement, alledgedly over the candidate’s criticism of the Sounder extension through the Dome District.
KUOW reviews Light Rail station art.
More woes at Kitsap Transit.
The first documented graffiti on Link (H/T: Gordon).
Honolulu City Council targets riding while smelly. This is based, shockingly, on King County Metro policy! (See #17 here).
Link fare enforcement in full effect.

News Roundup: Stale News Edition

September 3, 2009September 4, 2009 by Martin H. Duke

Clearing out my inbox of interesting tidbits:

This is two months old, but a (short) Sightline Institute report breaks down how Northwest residents drove fewer miles, used less gas, and took more transit in 2008.
A text message-based trip planner: dadnab.com. (H/T: Lucas Smith)
One month old: Patty Murray cuts some HSR funds from House bill, funds highways more. But she’s also inserting some pro-transit provisions.
Issaquah leaders excited about light rail, slam Kemper Freeman’s Eastside Transportation Association.
Crowdsourced guides to transit in the World’s Great Cities.
PBS reports on highway projects that go on and on thanks to Federal dollars.

News Roundup: Oyster Sleeves

August 25, 2009August 25, 2009 by John Jensen

Due to the economy, ridership on Metro and Sound Transit buses is down. Less riders means less farebox revenue, compounding the terrible financial situation that local agencies find themselves in mostly due to plummeting sales tax revenue.
Capitol Hill Seattle Blog lets us know that governments are listening: SDOT wants places to put bike racks and Sound Transit wants ideas on how to use the asphalt desert they’ve temporarily built on Broadway.
King County Metro will help Seattle plow 3rd ave, a major bus corridor in the city, during severe snow storms.
The excellent Transport Politic blog does some research and concludes that turnstiles at rail stations are usually not cost effective. That’s why Link, for example, uses fare inspectors instead of gates.
If you want to keep yourself fashionable and store your ORCA card in a nice holder, you’ll be happy to hear that London’s Oyster card has the exact dimensions of our card — so any Oyster sleeve work great for ORCA. (Thanks litlnemo!)
Even voters in rural areas are for transit: Island Transit gets a 0.3% sales tax boost to 0.9%. The Tri-City’s local transit provider, though, is facing up to 25% in service cuts.
Pretty pictures of our light rail.

This is an open thread.

News Roundup: Unit Faulty

August 14, 2009November 14, 2009 by John Jensen

KOMO news has a story about troubles reloading an ORCA card. Sound Transit says you should wait 24 hours between loading your card up with cash online and expecting those funds to appear. You can also reload your card at the ticket machines at every light rail stop — that cash will appear instantly.
But what about ORCA readers not working? Publicola digs in, but the agencies don’t know of any problems. Just the next day, Publicola has ORCA troubles again.
Northwest Hub has coverage of the TCC town hall, including a zinger of a quote from State Senator Haugen: “People who drive cars do pay their fair share.”
Metro orders greener buses. And mulls service cuts (Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, Publicola).
Capitol Hill welcomes Sound Transit’s asphalt.
The Stranger gets drunk on/around light rail.
Northwest Hub adds credence to the idea of turning portions of the Viaduct into a park.
The B-town Blog (Burien) writes about their first light rail adventure.