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by Oran Viriyincy on (#22AWR)
Mesmerizing visualization of 24 hours of bus service across King County circa 2014. You can see the huge influx of buses into downtown Seattle in the morning, the thinning of service later in the evening, and the pulses of buses departing transit centers among many activities. The buses move in straight line between stops, so […]
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Seattle Transit Blog
| Link | https://seattletransitblog.com/ |
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| Updated | 2025-12-06 23:32 |
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by Bruce Englehardt on (#227KC)
Sound Transit has unveiled the first designs for its stations on the Lynnwood Link Extension, a 8.5-mile light rail project that will continue the current line north past Northgate to Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood. While there were several open houses this week where comments were taken, the public can also use an online open house to […]
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by Frank Chiachiere on (#223T0)
On Wednesday, the Seattle City Council passed a budget that includes a small pilot project for a parking benefit district (PBD). The PBD pilot is the result of several years’ work by the Capitol Hill Eco District and the City Council, and were a key recommendation of the HALA report. The pilot project is notable because […]
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by Zach Shaner on (#220ND)
Two groups appeal the Waterfront EIS, joining the bike and pedestrian community in decrying the “8-lane highwayâ€. But it’s mixed messaging at its best: the Alliance for Pioneer Square wants fewer buses, the Historic Seattle Waterfront Association wants more surface parking, the transit community wants bus lanes, and the bike/ped community wants a more human […]
by Guest Contributor on (#21ZPB)
BY SEATTLE SUBWAY Unless you have been living under an automobile for the last nine days you are probably aware that last Tuesday, ST3 passed. It’s been a long, winding road to get here, and we have yet to summit the mountaintop, but at the moment the view is great. ST3 is a huge win, […]
by Zach Shaner on (#21W7C)
The only public hearing on the big UDistrict rezone is tonight at 5:30pm at the Hotel Deca (4507 Brooklyn Ave NE). If you believe abundant housing near transit is an unequivocal social good, please attend tonight and make your voice heard. Since we last covered the rezone in September, the scope has been whittled away somewhat, including elimination […]
by Zach Shaner on (#21V72)
Any of you who saw the Seattle Times ST3 precinct map saw a very similar map to 2008, with North/Central Seattle and Downtown Tacoma doing the heavy lifting for passage. Seattle carried King County, and King County carried the region. More people voted Yes on ST3 in King County than voted at all in Snohomish and […]
by Zach Shaner on (#21QNW)
A bit lost in the tornado of Trump and ST3, King County unanimously passed its $11B 2017-2018 budget yesterday. As we wrote about in September, the budget restores Metro’s capital program, provides 300,000 new bus service hours, hires 213 new bus drivers, and prepares Metro to implement the Metro Connects Long Range Plan. The Metro portion of the […]
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by Frank Chiachiere on (#21PM0)
Zach sits in for Martin this week to ST3 passes while Trump prevails Votes by precinct Passenger Rail in Eastern WA Kitsap foot ferries http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_029.mp3
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by Martin H. Duke on (#21JC8)
Reader Greg Briggs wonders “if there is a way to just get the full low level schedule†for 3-car Link trains, because they’re much more comfortable to ride than the 2-car trains during rushhour. There is, although it’s important to remember that Sound Transit will change the schedules on days of big events. Furthermore, if […]
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by Brent White on (#21ET8)
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by Andres Salomon on (#21BNK)
How many times a day does this happen at Sound Transit’s new UW Station? Someone arrives at the station from street level, hops on the elevator, and gets to the platform. As they’re about to board the waiting train, they realize that they forgot to pay. There’s no ORCA card reader on the platform, so […]
by Zach Shaner on (#2198F)
Tuesday’s election was an existential whiplash in a number of ways, but it was a particular disaster for our cities. As Erica Barnett wrote in The C is for Crank this morning, Trump has promised to withhold all federal funds from Sanctuary Cities, of which Seattle is one. If enacted, human services, parks, housing, and transportation projects could take the […]
by Bruce Englehardt on (#217ZP)
While we celebrate a huge victory for transit here in Seattle and lament the result of the presidential race, one must not forget about the plethora of other transportation ballot measures put on by other cities across the country Tuesday night. Out of a total of 48 local and state transit measures, 33 were approved as […]
by Bruce Englehardt on (#2159Q)
Beginning at 4 p.m. today, Sound Transit will hold a press conference in the wake of ST3 passing and what next steps the agency will take to expand mass transit in the region. ST will have a Facebook Live stream to watch, and we will be live blogging and live tweeting comments made by Sound Transit […]
by Brent White on (#214JE)
Friday, November 11 is Veterans Day, a day most rural transit agencies treat as just another day, while agencies like King County Metro have traditional painfully reduced service. Thanks to SDOT funding, the only Seattle-only routes cut back on Veterans Day are those cut back due to the University of Washington not being in session […]
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by Martin H. Duke on (#213TB)
Mike Lindblom reports on how light rail will change Downtown Lynnwood ($). But is its 196th St going to be too wide? New Alaskan Way FEIS up to nine lanes wide in places. Car ownership is expensive ($). More on Spokane Transit’s win. Utility work begins for Center City Connector; full funding not entirely lined […]
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by Zach Shaner on (#20ZZQ)
These are the preliminary results for races in which STB endorsed a candidate. STB endorsees were 16-6 in first results last night, and are bolded below. Despite the national results, it was a good night for progressive and urbanist local government, and especially good for transit and streets measures. Local/State Measures We endorsed all 8 of […]
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by Zach Shaner on (#20Y27)
On what can only be described as a destabilizing, contradictory night, Puget Sound said Yes to ST3 just as the country elected Donald Trump. At the subdued victory party at The Crocodile, Dow Constantine did his best to sieze the moment, successfully rallying the crowd and thanking them for a vote of visionary generational impact. […]
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by Martin H. Duke on (#20XH6)
Tweets by @SeaTransitBlog Local results won’t come in for another hour, but this is your open thread to discuss local results as they arrive. If you still haven’t voted, you have until 8 pm to deposit your completed ballot at a ballot drop box, or to get in line at a walk-in voting site, such as […]
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by Brent White on (#20W2W)
So you lost your ballot or left it at home and don’t have time to grab it. You can still vote in person at Union Station, or several other sites, as long as you are registered and in line by 8 pm. If you still have questions about how you can cast a ballot, the […]
by Zach Shaner and Bruce Nourish on (#20V7T)
For all the technical merits of transportation projects, there’s nothing like a personal stake in the outcome to elevate your interest level. Recently, STB veterans like us have been pulled towards Central or Southeast Washington for various personal reasons. For Zach, it is the possibility that his partner may be taking a job in Yakima three days a week. For […]
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by Martin H. Duke on (#20QXH)
We’ve written about almost every big angle in the ST3 debate, but a smaller one hasn’t really come up outside comment threads. The property tax component raises howls from “fixed-income†retirees who state that the property tax bill will overwhelm their incomes, presumably forcing them to move. The ensuing comment war is not a credit […]
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by Brent White on (#20Q14)
High-capacity grade-separated transit doesn’t make traffic jams go away. It just adds capacity and gets transit riders out of them. Photo by SounderBruce / flickr On the eve of what is likely the most important election of this decade, expect one last really, really busy evening rush hour on the newly-expanded Link Light Rail system, […]
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by Brent White on (#20KM5)
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by Zach Shaner on (#20GAP)
2017 will be a relatively quiet year for Sound Transit in terms of service delivery. The agency released its annual Service Implementation Plan (SIP) (Executive Summary, Complete) last Wednesday, combining 5-year service planning with in-depth route and corridor performance data. Here are some highlights: Sounder and Amtrak The biggest service addition in 2017 will be […]
by Zach Shaner on (#20DTF)
Sound Transit released its September ridership numbers yesterday, and it was another impressive month for Link and Sounder. Average weekday Link boardings held steady at 68,358 (+76% YOY), average Saturday boardings were 51,799 (+100%, thanks Huskies!), and average Sunday boardings were 39,919 (+116%, thanks Seahawks!). As usual, weekday Link ridership dropped slightly from August to September, […]
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by Brent White on (#20CGS)
Union Station, where thousands of voters will queue up starting today to vote privately at accessible voting devices, instead of filling out their ballots at home and dropping them off at one of the many conveniently-located drop boxes, including the drop box on the east side of Uwajumaya, just east of Union Station. Photo by […]
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by Zach Shaner on (#209WX)
Sound Transit 3 isn’t the only “Proposition 1†on the ballot next Tuesday. Kitsap Transit has an ambitious proposal for year-round passenger ferries from Bremerton (July 2017), Kingston (July 2018), and Southworth (July 2020). From May-September, the ferries would operate with all-day, bidirectional service from all 3 terminals, with an impressive span of service from 5am-9pm Monday-Thursday, 5am-11pm on Fridays, and […]
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by Martin H. Duke on (#2092F)
Tacoma Link may do things a little differently. Mercer Island won’t take a position on ST3. The Everett Herald, like the Tacoma News-Tribune and The Stranger but unlike the Seattle Times, endorses ST3. Teething troubles with the new trolleybuses. WSB visits a HALA meeting. CHS focuses on the CD. PSRC hiring a planner. Public unhappy about Portland […]
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by Bruce Englehardt on (#20617)
On a quiet Tuesday night last month, Sound Transit held its final design open house for Judkins Park Station, located at the site of the Rainier Freeway Station on Interstate 90. The open house, hosted at the Northwest African American Museum in the Central District, was attended by a few dozen members of the community […]
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by Guest Contributor on (#2059F)
BY SEATTLE SUBWAY “Double down on cars and buses.†That has essentially been the “No†campaign’s position in opposition to Sound Transit 3’s mix of light rail, commuter rail and BRT. Despite the likelihood of 800,000 more residents here by 2040, the opposition assumes, without showing their math, that self-driving cars can make rail obsolete within […]
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by Frank Chiachiere on (#20216)
Endorsements (2:25) Vox on I-732 (25:30) Seattle Times’ ST3 endorsement (29:45) Predictions (39:40) https://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_028.mp3
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by Brent White on (#201D0)
We are used to a debate about regressive taxation every time a transit proposition is on the ballot. Sound Move (ST1) in 1996 was funded by a 0.0.5% 0.4% sales tax increase, a vehicle license fee of $30 per $10,000 value, and a 0.8% car rental sales tax. Sound Transit 2 in 2008 was funded […]
by Zach Shaner on (#1ZXJS)
The last time we had a civic discussion about a new basketball/hockey arena, let’s just say it didn’t go well. There was politically convenient fear mongering about our Working Waterfront and industrial jobs. There was the hypocritical HIGHF (Hey! I Got Here First!) form of corporate NIMBYism from the Seattle Mariners. There was charmingly predictable concern trolling […]
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by Bruce Englehardt on (#1ZQTG)
The Lynnwood Link Extension, which will bring light rail service to Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood, is seven years away from opening and is preparing to break ground on construction in 2018. Sound Transit is holding a series of open houses in November on the final station designs, including renderings and concepts for new stations, […]
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by Zach Shaner on (#1ZMA0)
Last week I spent a few days in the largest city in the Western Hemisphere, Mexico City. While walking its colonial streets and riding its expansive Metro, I was reminded of something I wrote shortly after ULink opened: Done well, transit is is a public utility that improves life for the many but excites the passions of […]
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by Martin H. Duke on (#1ZH7R)
I was going to write a final piece about I-732 is a very important ballot measure, arguably more important than ST3, but Ramez Naam’s essay is perfect. Capitol Hill and First Hill upzone proposals. Tacoma Transit goes deep on the potential PT restructure. New zoning “bargain†will make it harder for new construction in poor […]
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by Bruce Englehardt on (#1ZGC2)
Community Transit has released their proposed 2017 budget, which estimates $19 million in additional sales tax revenue thanks to the passage of the 2015 ballot measure, for a total of $172 million in operating revenue and $134 million in operating expenses. CT plans to use the additional funding to increase bus service by 6 percent, […]
by Zach Shaner on (#1ZDJB)
With the (60′) trolley replacement project now complete, the last of the Breda trolleys will take its final in-service ride tomorrow afternoon with a ceremonial trip from Beacon/Spokane to Atlantic Base. The lovably awful buses – dubbed ‘Frankenbuses’ by many – have a complicated and storied history in Seattle. Originally a “DuoBus†of electric trolley and diesel […]
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by Martin H. Duke on (#1ZCPQ)
One of the most practical objections to agency-built parking is that it is a very expensive way to lure a rider to the system. The tens of thousands of dollars spent to build a space could fund other capital improvements that would also build ridership, while using the land more intensively would cost nothing and […]
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by Brent White on (#1Z9JT)
If you haven’t ever registered to vote before, you still have time. If you turn 18 on or before November 8, you are eligible to register and vote. If you are registered in another state, and want to vote in Washington State instead, you still have time to register here. But you have to go […]
by Zach Shaner on (#1Z8GV)
Eight months after Kevin Desmond’s abrupt departure for Vancouver, BC, Metro again has a General Manager. Later this morning, County Executive Dow Constantine will name Interim GM Rob Gannon as the permanent General Manager. By deciding against a wider candidate search and going with an internal hire, Gannon represents a choice for continuity. Metro appears content […]
by Kevin Duffy-Greaves on (#1Z5W6)
On October 5th, the University of Washington released its draft Seattle Campus Master Plan (CMP) along with an accompanying Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The Plan governs the University’s future development on campus between 2018 and 2028. The document is particularly important because pursuant to the City-University Agreement signed between UW and the City of Seattle […]
by STB Editorial Board on (#1Z57G)
These are STB’s endorsements for this November’s General Election. As always, candidate endorsements are meant to only reflect their positions on transit and land use. Ballot Measures YES on Sound Transit Proposition 1. Our full endorsement is here, and much more material is here. This measure, informally known as Sound Transit 3, would build 62 miles […]
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by Oran Viriyincy on (#1Z262)
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by Frank Chiachiere on (#1YZ0R)
Whether you think of park and ride lots as a necessary service for suburban transit or a sprawl-inducing evil, we can hopefully agree that maximizing utilization of existing parking capacity near transit is a good thing. With that idea in mind, WSDOT conducted an interesting evaluation of park and rides (via KIRO). They visited 17 lots in […]
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by Dan Ryan on (#1YVY0)
Bellevue has a progressive transportation levy on the ballot next month that will step up investments in neighborhood safety and connections. The levy augments baseline spending in Bellevue’s Capital Improvement Plan, accelerating local projects that would otherwise wait many years for funding. Bellevue is growing quickly, and the growth has been accompanied by increasing public demands […]