Seattle Transit Blog

Author and journalist Matthew Yglesias joins us to discuss his book, One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger.

Kirkland considers 300′ towers around BRT stations while Seattle tinkers with 4-story buildlings around Link; maybe suburbs deserve HCT investment more than Seattle Point Defiance Bypass testing resumes Learn about last century’s streetcars Redmond hiring a transportation manager [UPDATE: this position closed in September] C-Tran will turn off diesel engines where pollution matters most Senate … Continue reading "News roundup: resuming"

SDOT blog: Beginning today, January 11, 2021, the automated photo enforcement system on the Spokane St Swing Bridge (low bridge) will turn on, and unauthorized low bridge users will be subject to a $75 citation for every trip across the low bridge. To keep the low bridge clear for emergency vehicles – as well as transit … Continue reading "West Seattle camera enforcement coming this week"

Sound Transit has revealed sharply higher capital cost estimates for several ST3 projects that are in development but not yet baselined (i.e. the Board has not yet selected the alternative to be built or finalized the cost and schedule estimates). The worst news is in Seattle. The West Seattle to Ballard Link extension (WSBLE) is … Continue reading "West Seattle-Ballard Link costs revised more than $4 billion higher"

Free vanpools for West Seattle Uber prices rising due to new regulations on labor costs An excellent preview of the coming Transportation agenda ($) in the legislature Washington’s draft “Active Transportation Plan“ It’s likely it’ll turn out fine, but the fact that the I-90 bridge is so innovative is a cause for concern as well … Continue reading "News roundup: about right"

RapidRide R Concept via Metro Ashley Archibald reports some locals aren’t so sad Metro is shelving RapidRide R (Rainier): Much of the Rainier Valley community “doesn’t really want the RapidRide R,” Kidde [of Rainier Valley Greenways] said, adding that they don’t like the reduction in the number of stops, the removal of the Prentice loop … Continue reading "What’s the point of RapidRide?"

2020 was not… great, but 2021 will be a major year for transit openings and restructuring: Northgate Link will revolutionize transit in North Seattle beginning in September ST Express will have a ton of service changes at the same time as will Metro and Community Transit CT route 111 improves in March We should also … Continue reading "What to watch for: 2021"

As this tumultuous year comes to a close, it’s time to look back on what the year has brought us. It all started with Connect/2020, which now feels like a distant memory. From there, we saw COVID-19 spread throughout the world and into our communities, with major repercussions on all aspects of life in 2020 … Continue reading "Most read & commented STB posts of 2020"

Is the Bike Master Plan obsolete? A “diverging diamond” interchange ($) seems like it might help some I-5 chokepoints in Seattle; kudos to Lindblom for acknowledging bikes, pedestrians, transit, and climate in an article about Lacey roads (!) A transit-aware list of hiking possibilities Essential workers get free scooter rides ($) Submit public comment on … Continue reading "News roundup: diverging diamond"

Interesting Q&A with Metro GM Terry White ($) Point Defiance Bypass testing begins January 16th Covid-19 is causing all those Metro trip cancellations UW foot ferries are the best of a not-great bunch Improving access to U District Station New stimulus not great news for ST Almost half of helmet citations go to the homeless … Continue reading "News roundup: testing"

TransitCenter: This makes new bill more responsive to the specific budget problems each agency is facing due to COVID. Many regions underfunded in the CARES Act (like New York and Seattle) are now in line to receive proportionally more from this package. Others received aid greater than 75% of their operating costs in the CARES Act, so … Continue reading "Feds sending relief to local transit agencies"

In addition to formally approving lower concession fares for Sounder, last week the Sound Transit board approved a fare enforcement pilot which would replace fare enforcement security contractors with Sound Transit staff “fare ambassadors” with different uniforms and an emphasis on rider education and de-escalation. As part of the pilot, there will be no citations … Continue reading "ST suspends fare enforcement another year"

Using a city builder game to tell a story about the impact urban freeways have on the communities they run through (more on this at Strong Towns)

Each Link light rail station has a pictogram as a secondary identifier intended for people with limited English language proficiency. However well intentioned, the pictograms are poorly implemented and lack a logical system underlying their construction. The last time we wrote about pictograms was five years ago when Sound Transit unveiled the pictograms for U-Link … Continue reading "An alternative to Link station pictograms"

Article on signal timing ($) is rather incredulous about the pollution savings, as though making driving easier doesn’t encourage more driving (and therefore more emissions)Cascadia HSR vision process grinds onWelcome to Seamless SeattleRapidRide H (Delridge) slips to 2022Crossroads Connect expands its service area Big zoning reforms in EverettSomeday, only ads for tofu will be allowed … Continue reading "News roundup: seamless"

Yesterday, Metro announced “The Dash“, a new data visualization tool (also available in Spanish with other languages coming soon). Metro continues to lap other agencies in putting data about its service quality out in a timely and attractive format. If you’re just trying to catch a bus that won’t pass you by due to capacity … Continue reading "Metro’s new “The Dash”"

Metro’s Service Guidelines, enacted in 2011 and updated in 2016, were intended to depoliticize the allocation of bus service, replacing Council and Executive micromanagement with a set of objective standards distributing Metro resources across the County against consistent metrics. Since last year, Metro and the County have been working on revisions to the guidelines that … Continue reading "Updating Metro’s service guidelines"

Amidst discussions about the design and compromises of the Link Light Rail system, one aspect that gets relatively little attention is how exactly fares are calculated based on the distance traveled. While important, it is also never an urgent priority and can always be changed down the road (unlike things like the route and station … Continue reading "Reforming Link fares for a larger network"

SDOT updates us on RapidRide J (Eastlake) Highlights of the King County and Seattle transportation budgets GIG Carshare expanding its operating area Even electric vehicles kill salmon West Seattle gets an update on ST3 People love to propose fast ferries ($) but I just don’t know Durkan floats allowing peds and bikes on the Duwamish … Continue reading "News roundup: more chatter"

Jenny Durkan: New vaccines put hope on the horizon, but we are in for tough months ahead and an even tougher recovery. As mayor approaching the last year of my term, that meant a choice. I can spend the next year campaigning to keep this job or I can focus all my energy on doing … Continue reading "Mayor Durkan will step down after one term"

Last month Mayor Durkan decided to repair the West Seattle Bridge instead of replacing it. This is faster and cheaper, but means the next big bridge project in this corridor (except Link construction) will be decades sooner. I don’t know if the war-on-cars people ever converged to a position on this subject, but this is … Continue reading "Repair is the right choice"

In what is becoming a remarkable year of operational failures, beginning Monday Link peak frequency will drop to 12 minute intervals (from 8 minutes) because they’re running out of operators due to Covid-19. Things will remain the same at off-peak times. Link operators are provided by Metro. While Link is obviously more critical than most … Continue reading "Link frequency dropping again"

Meeting today at 10am on Sounder concession fares. Congrats to Terry White, now the permanent Metro General Manager. ST has a new tool to see when Link is crowded. Snohomish thinking about housing around Link. Amtrak now thinks they’ll reopen the Point Defiance Bypass next summer. A snapshot of Link construction. West Seattle Bridge camera … Continue reading "News roundup: snapshot"

Yesterday Metro announced that they are waiving the $5 ORCA fee through February 28th, 2021. The stated reason is to encourage contactless payment during the pandemic. To avoid hoarding, adults are limited to three cards and youth to one. However, adults can get the cards at ticket vending machines, so I’m not sure how this … Continue reading "Free ORCA through February"

Metro Connects, the long-range plan for King County Metro, is being updated. The revised plan will describe an ‘interim network’ in place of the 2025 map and extends the 2040 horizon of the current plan through 2050. Perhaps the most notable change from the existing plan is the less extensive RapidRide network. Priorities for investment … Continue reading "Updating Metro Connects"

There were many interesting themes in the recent struggle over a legislative “striker” trying to keep North Seattle service hours from moving south. But one of the interesting threads is a shift of emphasis in transit activism from quantitative ridership metrics towards economic and racial equity. In public comment to the King County Council, Disability … Continue reading "Choice riders, and not"

Heidi Groover has an important article today ($) about rising caseloads among transit staff: At King County Metro, employees have reported 20 positive tests from the start of this month to Nov. 21. That’s up from six in October and about five or fewer per month throughout the summer. CT and PT are seeing similar … Continue reading "Agency virus cases spiking"

Kurt Schlosser test drives a Wheels Scooter. Puyallup parking breaks ground. ST schedules for this weekend. Comment on the Sounder concession fares. A Mt Baker-Judkins Park bike connection will be valuable. Lisa Herbold argues that VLF should fund bridges. ST 2021 service changes formally approved. This series on race and mobility is interesting. SDOT traffic … Continue reading "News roundup: Happy Thanksgiving"

Friend-of-STB Jonathan Hopkins of Lime tweeted six weeks of Lime Scooter and E-Bike Data: Note that there are four times as many Jump bikes as scooters at this time. Hopkins remarks that they have about the same number of rides over this period, implying scooters have considerably more rides per vehicle. It’s interesting that Jump … Continue reading "New Lime/Jump trip data"

Sound Transit’s latest financial plan is much more optimistic about a recovery in tax revenues than forecasts of a few months ago. But predictions of project delays have not improved so much. The more favorable revenue outlook is offset by operating cost pressures. Ahead of the ST3 realignment decisions next summer, staff are still talking … Continue reading "Sound Transit expects better revenue recovery, but still lengthy project delays"

Sound Transit is preparing a multi-year effort to replace aged escalators in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel. Poor conditions in the DSTT and escalator reliability problems at UW station have prompted an extensive evaluation of Sound Transit’s planning for vertical conveyances. The latest financial plan adds $555 million to State of Good Repair, anticipating more … Continue reading "Elevators & escalators add $500 million to Sound Transit’s 20 year plan"

Before (lightly) criticizing Microsoft’s specific choices, it is important to say that their investment in local affordable housing is generous, one that their investors would probably not prefer, and that we are fortunate that that a global company is directing a disproportionate amount of its surplus to its home county. With a total $750m commitment … Continue reading "To solve the housing crisis, build more housing"

Partitions on Buses from Kitsap Transit on Vimeo.

Sound Transit has another online open house up, now with more details on station locations and elevation. We’ve covered the alignment alternatives in previous posts, so let’s focus on the stations. Two notes to start with: first, if you like mezzanines, you are in for a treat! Second, opening dates are pushed out past 2035 due … Continue reading "New details on Ballard-West Seattle link stations"

SDOT blog: Today, Mayor Jenny A. Durkan announced that she has instructed the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to restore travel across the Duwamish by repairing the West Seattle High-Rise Bridge. SDOT has nearly completed Phase I of this two-part repair process, as the stabilization work concludes in December. She also directed SDOT to continue … Continue reading "SDOT will repair the West Seattle Bridge"

Pedersen, Herbold, Lewis float $20 vehicle license fee to fund bridge work. Online open house for Puyallup parking and access. Mountlake Terrace freeway station reopening. The building above Capitol Hill Station is now leasing. An introduction to “Wheels” e-scooters. Taking stock of Seattle’s closed streets. Why Portland’s transit measure failed. But they’re hoping for a … Continue reading "News roundup: reopening"

{Sound Transit contacted us to clarify that they will be able to support 8 minute peak headways with 30+ qualified vehicles in Fall 2021 if the recovery schedule proceeds as planned. Clarifications in text below with new commentary in bold.} Sound Transit has contracted to acquire 152 new light rail vehicles to support network expansions … Continue reading "Link service levels at risk when Northgate opens as LRVs delayed"

The future Brickyard Stride BRT station in the median of I-405 could provide access to more than just its namesake park & ride lot. Instead of crossing only halfway from the parking lot, WSDOT’s latest concept now has a footbridge extending across the entire freeway, creating a new non-motorized crossing as a shorter alternative to … Continue reading "Brickyard BRT station could bridge both sides of 405"

Rail Ties from James Stuart on Vimeo.

I was going to spend my evening watching the meeting which I previewed on Thursday, but ECB went and wrote an excellent summary. So go over there and read her report.

Let’s give a big activist welcome to Complete Streets Bellevue. North Seattle park and ride closing for a year for pedestrian bridge construction. Council restores some of Durkan’s transportation cuts. More 522 trips starting Monday. Lake Forest Park town center finally getting going. Feds send money to Kitsap Transit. CT 800-series buses will terminate at … Continue reading "News roundup: getting going"

As Metro applies its new, equity-focused framework, some North King representatives have questions Beginning last year, Metro developed a “mobility framework” that expressed the values that would guide service allocation. Alongside technocratic measures like ridership potential, the new framework considers notions of economic and racial equity to correct longtime disparities in investment. An “equity cabinet” … Continue reading "KC Council quarrels over Metro service guidelines"

Tom Fucoloro, Seattle Bike Blog: Many walking, biking and transit investments promised by the 2015 Move Seattle Levy vote face delays and cuts while major high-dollar car-centric projects got priority. Perhaps we need to rethink how we fund these projects in our city. And we also need to go a lot bigger. The Move Seattle … Continue reading "The next transit measure"

At its October 22 meeting, the Sound Transit Board heard proposals to reduce concession fares for Sounder and reduce the law enforcement footprint in fare enforcement. In community discussions about fare enforcement, ST has heard four main things: fares are confusing; the law enforcement character of enforcement causes “discomfort;” fares are a hardship for some; … Continue reading "ST considering more changes to fares, fare enforcement"