By Frank on March 12, 2008
Daijimin writes on the state of things. It’s mildly encouraging to me that, by 2020, we could have a new 520 bridge, a surface-transit viaduct replacement, light rail to Northgate, Sea-Tac and Bellevue, RapidRide BRT and a network of streetcars throughout Seattle. Not my dream scenario, by any means, but it’s something.
Posted in Uncategorized
By Frank on March 12, 2008
From an opinion article in The Olympian, advocating allowing bikes on buses if the racks are full:
[Intercity Transit] general manager Mike Harbour, himself a regular bicycle commuter, said he’s heard that an increasing number of prospective bus riders with bicycles are being turned away because racks are full. Each rack holds two bicycles.
Harbour said full racks are prevalent on routes with long, steep hills, including Fourth and Harrison avenues.
He said options being explored are allowing bikes inside, installing three-bike racks on buses and enabling some bus stops to temporarily secure bikes so they don’t have to be brought inside the bus.
The article suggests a test run of allowing people to bring their bikes on the bus. It cites Santa Clara, CA as an example, where the bus drivers have discretion to allow up to two bikes on the bus if there’s room and the racks are full.
Purely based on anecdotal evidence, it seems to me that when the racks are full, the bus is likely to be pretty full as well, so I’m not sure if this is the solution to our problems. I think more sheltered bike racks would help, though.
Posted in infrastructure projects
By Frank on March 11, 2008
Ben says congestion pricing is a political loser in the short run, and it’s a fight that transit advocates “don’t need.” I basically agree, but I think we need to take a step back to define our terms and parse out some of the separate arguments.
Tolling and congestion pricing (and even “pay as you drive” insurance) are mechanisms being debated right now to either (a) provide a source of transportation revenue, (b) de-incentivize SOV driving, or (c) both. Here are a few ideas that have been mooted in this area:
- Toll new bridges (e.g. the Tacoma Narrows) at a fixed rate to pay for the cost of building and maintaining the bridge
- Install HOT lanes (e.g. SR 167) to manage demand and collect revenue
- Toll new bridges/roads (e.g. SR 520) at a variable rate to pay for the cost and manage demand
- Toll existing bridges/roads (e.g. SR 520) at a variable rate to manage demand and collect revenue for an eventual replacement
- Install a transponder in every car and toll people for every mile they drive on all major highways in the region, to manage demand and collect revenue
- Do any of #2 – #5 above, but also siphon off some of the money to pay for transit projects.
I’ve ordered these in the order of how politically controversial they seem. #1 and #2 are so uncontroversial, they’re already happening! #3 is pretty likely and #4 is less likely, but gained at least tacit support in the legislature this year. It’s #5 and #6 that really get people’s goats. neither of those are particularly close at hand. #5 basically exists in just two places: London and Ron Sims’ brain.
#6 gets to the heart of Ben’s argument. This is where the controversy would arise. But this option is a long way off, especially some version of 5+6, which, Ben’s right, would create a firestorm of protest. In Olympia this session, Democrats beat back GOP efforts to explicitly ban #6, but that just leaves it open as an option, it doesn’t commit us to it. And judging by Mary Haugen’s email inbox, it’s quite a radioactive subject.
Finally, as the gas tax money dries up, there will be increasing pressure to use toll money to pay for roads. As a result, there will almost certainly be little left over to pay for transit (except maybe HOV lanes, bike lanes, and other road improvements that also benefit transit).
So, long story short, I think we’ve got a ways to go, and a lot of noncontroversial and semi-controversial options to consider in the meantime.
Posted in intercity rail, passenger rail
By Frank on March 11, 2008
ST also posted big gains. What’s interesting is that, even though Sounder and ST Express Buses have seen phenomenal growth, those numbers are going to be absolutely dwarfed by light rail:
Today, Sound Transit’s system of regional express buses, commuter rail and light rail carries about 50,000 riders each day, a number that will more than double following the 2009 opening of light rail service between downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac International Airport. Construction of that light rail line is moving forward on schedule and is now 85 percent complete.
Expansion of Link light rail between downtown and the University of Washington is slated to begin this year and be completed in 2016. University Link is projected to nearly triple the regional light rail system’s ridership to more than 114,000 a day by 2030.
Even with all the increases in bus and commuter rail service, light rail will still constitute almost 90% of daily boardings in 2030, or at least it would have if ST2 had passed. I bring this up only to reinforce what should be obvious: nothing scales like light rail. The price tag looks high, but the benefits are at least as big.
Update: It seems I was more right than even I knew! The invaluable Daily Sightline says that Light Rail is setting ridership numbers before it even opens:! How’s that for performance?!
Posted in sr509
By serial catowner on March 11, 2008
Another survey! This time about ferry riders!
You might wonder what it is we don’t know about ferry riders. We record the payment of fares, they buy coffee and croissants, they have representatives at the city, county, and state level who, uh, represent them, and newspapers who thunder.
At least, I’m wondering, and a look at the link provided didn’t make it any clearer. So far, countless person hours have been expended funding the survey, specifying what it will survey (well, duh, ferry patrons), finding the survey company, and specifying that everybody already involved in offering opinions will be involved in the future. All provided in unhelpful not-so-easy to read PDF format.
Washington State government loves to tell you that you are a stakeholder. Meanwhile, one year we don’t need any new ferries, and the next year, we need four or five.
Wonder if they did a survey to discover that? I’m guessing no, and that the new survey is, same as the old survey, just a smokescreen to conceal the real politics involved.
Posted in streetcars, System Map
By Frank on March 10, 2008
The Public Interest Research Group and its state subsidiaries (WashPIRG here in WA) have released a fantastic report on the benefits of mass transit:
-In 2006, transit saved an estimated 3.4 billion gallons of gasoline in the United States—enough to fuel 5.8 million cars for a year. In monetary terms, transit saved more than $9 billion that would otherwise have been spent on gasoline.
-In 2005, transit prevented 540.8 million hours of traffic delay, according to the Texas Transportation Institute, equivalent to more than 61,700 people sitting in traffic for an entire year. The monetary value of those savings was $10.2 billion.
-Transit reduced global warming emissions by nearly 26 million metric tons in 2006. In New York state alone, transit avoided 11.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution—more than was produced by the entire economies of Rhode Island, Vermont or the District of Columbia.
And now we’ve got Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) using the study to call for in increase in mass transit funding. Locally, WashPIRG has put out a sister report focusing on Washington State.
Via TOW, who’s pulled a nice graph showing that the LA Metro, of all places, has actually saved more gasoline than any other transit system. It makes perfect sense, when you think about it.
Posted in sierraclub
By Frank on March 10, 2008
WSDOT is considering moving the 520 HOV lanes from the right-hand side to the left, where HOV lanes typically run. They might even do this before the new bridge is in.
The main impediment to moving them thusfar, in my understanding, is the fact that the right-hand lanes are former shoulders not safe enough for general purpose traffic. But maybe they’re getting an upgrade, or WSDOT has decided that they’re safe enough.
Posted in real time bus information
By Frank on March 10, 2008
Couple of interesting tidbits from Greg Nickels’ appearance on KUOW this morning:
- He’s all but ready to bring ST 2.1 back to to the ballot in ’08. That’s good news indeed.
- He got very coy when Marcie Sillman pressed him for details on the 2-way Mercer Street, indicating that it was all tied up with the viaduct issue and that there would be a major announcement “in the next few weeks.” The Spokane Street Viaduct rebuild also factors in, apparently.
Posted in Eastside
By serial catowner on March 9, 2008
Michael O’Hare has an interesting article about us and the cars, and one of his tags is “drug policy”. The difference between how we treat the drug “addict” and the automobile is indeed instructive.
The “drug user” (and we are all assumed to be drug users until we prove otherwise) must prove their innocence. Thirty years of error-free performance on the job can be cancelled by a hair-analysis that proves you were in a room where someone was smoking marijuana sometime in the past 30 days.
However, if you proposed putting traffic-cams on a road where children were routinely killed by speeders, the public would revolt. Laws are for the other guy. This is the strength of the automobile addiction.
And don’t think traffic jams will break this habit. In Psych 105 at the U of W, they spent a week or two on reinforcers, leading up to the overwhelming conclusion- the strongest reinforcer of behavior is a reward of a variable size provided on an irregular schedule. If you don’t like high-toned schoolin’, check out your local casino.
Believe it, there will be a meltdown of the public psyche when some event, probably not too far off, reveals the eminent demise of the car. When that happens, will you be part of the solution……or part of the problem?
Posted in fare-box recovery, Seattle Metro, Toronto
By Frank on March 7, 2008
Big numbers:
Amtrak Cascades ridership in 2007 increased to 676,670–a 7.4 percent increase over 2006 and the highest annual ridership total since the inception of Amtrak Cascades service.
More convenient schedules and better connections, along with rising fuel prices for motorists influenced ridership growth. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) expects ridership to continue to increase with the extension of the current Portland-Seattle-Bellingham service to Vancouver, B.C in mid-2008.
Posted in kingcounty, tacoma
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