Seattle Transit Blog

It’s been a while. If you’d like Frank and I to try to answer your question on the next podcast, submit it in this comment thread by Wednesday evening. As always, try to keep it to one, answerable question.

The Mayoral Primary inspired more discussion between growth advocates and renters’ advocates. Renters’ advocates wonder why market urbanists* didn’t rally to Nikkita Oliver. Market urbanists wonder why Oliver didn’t embrace developers who can address the affordability crisis. There are also some attempts to bridge this gap and form common cause against NIMBYs that oppose both […]

As Metro evaluates fare simplification, one thing is clear: getting more riders to use ORCA would be a win. ORCA speeds up boarding times and makes for more efficient bus service. Unlimited ORCA passes, such as PugetPass and the employer-provided Passport, make people more likely to use transit, by reducing the marginal cost of a […]

SDOT finished its sidewalk survey. There’s a lot of work to do. West Seattle Transportation Coalition provides its ST3 input to Sound Transit. Most readers won’t like the conclusions: park and rides! driverless cars! tunnels everywhere! This 11-lane monster ($) in Bothell is an abomination. Uber discounts for Link riders. The trouble with bike helmet […]

After a long listening process, Metro settled on a flat $2.75 adult fare for all regular bus trips. Riders asked for a simpler system, and they got one. On Saturday Brent lamented the missed opportunity to accelerate ORCA adoption with a slightly more complicated fare system. But that’s only one example of how the fare […]

Opening Day for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit‘s new train was Friday, August 25. This is an open thread.

Lynnwood link costs (1:43) Monorail and Orca (16:55) Simplified bus fares (21:59) Federal Way Link Extension (36:05) http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_045.mp3

Guemes Island getting an all-electric car ferry. Lots of new bikes could improve safety. Bike shares roll out ways for people without smartphones to ride. 17 units where a single house stood — more like this, please. Clallam Transit has a new GM. A profile of Dongho Chang. The cost of Kent’s 500 Sounder parking […]

Sound Transit’s Federal Way Link Extension has moved into the design phase, two years after all but confirming a meandering alignment along Interstate 5 at the request of local jurisdictions. With construction slated to begin in 2019 and an opening date set for 2024, Sound Transit has compressed the entire station design review process into […]

As the rebuilt SR 520 bridge reaches Montlake tomorrow, a look back at the original SR 520 bridge on its opening day, where cars queue to drive across for the first time. A glimpse too at other Seattle freeways then under construction.

Costs are rising for Lynnwood Link, due to both economic conditions and increasing scope. Sound Transit is choosing to delay its delivery by six months in an effort to limit those increases. Until today’s board meeting, the plan for the line between Northgate and Lynnwood Transit Center cost $2.4 billion, including vehicles and part of […]

STB hasn’t written much in-depth about transit in Spokane since the passage of their scaled back STA Moving Forward initiative in November of last year, which followed the failure of the original package in 2015. To catch up on the Spokane Transit Authority’s progress in implementing Moving Forward, I reached out to Director of Planning […]

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Bellevue is nearing approval of a comprehensive update to downtown zoning. It could mean taller buildings up to 600’ in some areas of the downtown core. It’s the culmination of a multiyear process to improve downtown livability, improving the pedestrian realm and fostering a more distinctive skyline. Approval by the City Council is anticipated this Fall. Despite […]

It’s official: Jenny Durkan will face Cary Moon in general election for Mayor. A dive into the precinct maps. United will join Alaska Air ($) in flying from Paine Field. Confusion about legally binding limitations ($) on flights, beyond the number of gates present. Maybe “congestion free network” is the branding we need. Seattle Council […]

Link Light Rail continues to knock down milestones rapidly as ridership grows. January-March was the first quarter in which Link had more boardings than all Washington State Ferries combined. However, WSF outpaced Link for the second quarter (April-June) with 6,470,781 boardings to Link’s 5,997,005 for the same period. May was the first month in which […]

Early numbers for the two private bikeshare companies in Seattle are promising, or at least better than the numbers that Pronto used to get. The stationless aspect certainly adds a new level of convenience for the travel, and the pricing is attractive. SDOT’s policy allows each company’s bike fleet to double in size each month, […]

Sound Transit is using the Sequential Excavation Mining technique instead of a tunnel boring machine for the short underground section of East Link in downtown Bellevue. Here is a timelapse showing how it’s done.

Now that Mercer Island and Sound Transit have reached a settlement, the temperature on this dispute has gone down. Dan reported the key aspects: $4.5m-worth of new park-and-ride spaces (up to 200), plus 100 temporary spaces while South Bellevue is closed; an essentially status-quo level and pattern of bus traffic, aside from city-only buses; About […]

Housing permit held up over unreliable transit, because “environmental” laws are used to ensure there’s lots of parking. There are operational and legislative solutions. More questions about whether jaywalking should be a crime. Edmonds planning an upzone. Both bikeshare companies to quadruple by September. A deep dive on how bikeshare has done so far, including […]

Last week, there were a couple of actions that added to the number of potential housing units in central Seattle. One was more straightforward than the other. First, the Council voted 8-0 to upzone large parts of the International District ($) by up to 30 feet. Utilizing these height bonuses will require construction of, or […]