By Frank on November 19, 2008
Looks like someone made off with the credit card parking stations under the Viaduct. Obviously the public policy lesson to be drawn here is that elevated urban roadways are a threat to parking meter safety and thus should be torn down immediately.
Posted in Eastside
By Frank on November 19, 2008
hugeasscity says that Option C is “the horse to beat.” Good to know. Option C is pretty fantastic from where I sit. Instead of trying to get 6 N/S lanes on Alaskan Way, they’ve routed Northbound traffic onto Western Avenue. I like taking Western Avenue when I’m leaving Pioneer Square and heading North. The challenge is that intersection right in front of Steinbrueck Park, where pedestrians are streaming back and forth between the park and the Market:
The solution? Tunnel under it! This has the advantage of opening up that whole area between the Park and the Market to pedestrians. Similarly, it would potentially make driving on Pike Place much less useful (Drivers would enter at 1st and Pike, and drive two blocks and have to loop back out at 1st and Virginia). This might make it possible to close Pike Place to vehicular traffic altogether (except maybe deliveries), which is an added bonus.
Posted in Eastside
By Frank on November 19, 2008
While there’s certainly some good public art here in Seattle around and inspired by LINK, I think Phoenix has to take the cake. The Phoenix Symphony has commissioned a new piece of music, “March of the Metro,” in honor of the coming light-rail line there.
Hmm… when’s the last time someone commissioned music celebrating a new bus route? Advantage: Light Rail!!
Posted in O&M
By bgtothen on November 18, 2008
This quarter I’m taking a travel demand forecasting class. It has been very theory heavy but luckily our final project is hands on. The goal of the project is to reduce emissions, total delays and VMT with a hypothetical city. The catch is that we have to do this with as little money as possible and oh by the way population and employment will increase by 50%.
Well today I slaved away in the dungeon, ie the CEE computer lab for a few hours and I got a good way through the project already. We have the authority to control where growth is located. My strategy was to increase the percent of intra-zonal (ie local trips, which are not loaded onto the regional transportation network) by focusing all growth in three TAZ’s one of which was the CBD. I also tried to balance housing and employment so all of the TAZ’s have a good balance. This included the smaller TAZs as well. These strategies are essentially what smart growth is all about. Put people closer together and close to everything they want.
I haven not made changes to the roadway or transit network yet but as you can see below smart growth principles have cut delay in half (even below current levels) and substantially reduced VMT. Emissions did not go down much because cold starts are the major cause of emissions and I didn’t cut down much on this yet.
Base / New / Change / Change%
Benefit:
VMT= 355242 / 249295/ -105948 / -29.82
Delay= 19010 / 778 / -18232 / -95.91
Emission= 0.85 / 0.81 / -0.04 / -4.58
Also look at the difference of intra-zonal trips and average travel times. This approach reduced the average trip travel time from 12 minutes to 5 minutes. Not to shabby! We’ll see what happens when I get the transit network working. I’ll post again when I complete this project.
Base
Total / Intra / Avg Time
HBW = 122673 / 39.81% / 13.08
HBO = 136416 / 64.48% / 8.04
NHB = 170281 / 66.29% / 14.69
TOT = 429370 / 58.15% / 12.12
New
Total / Intra / Avg Time
HBW = 122673 / 56.73% / 6.96
HBO = 136416 / 70.26% / 4.45
NHB = 170281 / 75.62% / 3.77
TOT = 429370 / 68.52% / 4.90
I show this just as an example. This is a hypothetical example and there were a lot of simplifications that went into the model.
Posted in Boo Ya!, circulaters, economy, railroads, snow, Surface Transit Alternative, systems
By Matt the Engineer on November 18, 2008
In a recent STB post, John asked why we don’t just raise fares in Seattle, since that’s where the money is. I’d argue that Seattle is already subsidizing the rest of King County’s bus service to a large extent.
A few notes from 2007 ridership data:
West area revenue: $55.6M
East area revenue: $10M
South area revenue: $19.8M
West area fare/expense: 25.7%
East area fare/expense: 14.4%
South area fare/expense: 19.6%
Ordering routes by fare recovery looks almost like the original bus route list back when streetcars were removed, with four Seattle routes actually making over 50% farebox recovery. The average farebox recovery for the West side off peak is 24% – that’s almost as high as the system-wide peak recovery (25%).
Posted in PPP
By Frank on November 17, 2008
Amtrak CEO Alex Kummant has resigned:
Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black declined to comment on the specific reasons for Kummant’s departure, but said the executive and Amtrak’s board ”had differences in strategic direction and management philosophy.”
Our past Kummant coverage here. It’s hard to see why the CEO would want to go out after Amtrak had two of its best years ever, and is about to see the inauguration of one of the most transit-friendly administrations since… well, ever. These are heady times for Amtrak.
If I had to make a totally uneducated guess, I would say that Kummant was more of an incrementalist, focused on small-bore, yet vital upgrades. He’s pooh-poohed the idea of building HSR in the Northeast Corridor in the past, saying it would be more cost-effective to beef up medium-speed rail corridors nationwide instead. It may be that the Amtrak board wants to use this opportunity to think big, and Kummant wasn’t down with that.
(Via the NY Observer)
Posted in tacoma
By Frank on November 16, 2008
Oran’s strip maps of the current and future light rail lines are great.
What I really want to hang on my wail is one of Campell Scott’s SUPERTRAIN posters from the movie “Singles.” If anyone knows where to find one, drop me a line.
Posted in Uncategorized
By Frank on November 15, 2008
There is much rejoicing in the transit blogosphere about the $813M federal grant to fund University Link. Just to put that in context, it’s worth noting that we’ve known about the grant for years. The first $100M installment came in July.
It was originally $700M, then became $750M, and I guess they’ve managed to wrangle an additional $63M on top of that, perhaps due to increased project costs, inflation, or simply increased need. It also received the FTA’s highest rating, and of course there’s the whole Patty Murray thing.
Anyway, U-link is a solid project, and it’s great that the numbers have been finalized, but the basic financial contours of the project remain about the same: $1.9B in total costs, about half of which will come from the Feds.
Posted in sr509, walkable
By bgtothen on November 13, 2008
WSDOT just uploaded images that show how each of the 8 alternatives will look in real life. First off I want to say how amazing these images are. WSDOT is trying very hard to make sure that the public understands how these alternatives will look.
Second look at alternatives A through C. Just imagine it! These alternatives will completely change downtown seattle. This street will be lined by cafes and restaurants that spill out into the sidewalk. It will be filled with Seattlites strolling and just enjoying themselves. We will wonder why we even contemplated keeping the viaduct. And look at this disaster. I would not want to be one of those people. They make alternative E look okay but I think the ends of the “integrated” structure will look awkward not to mention cutting off the rest of the city from the water. Lets not forget this is a freeway.
From a vehicle movement perspective alternative C is probably the best acceptable solution. I could do a calculation using the HCM to figure out the difference in vehicle throughput but I can’t find my copy of the HCM right now.
From an urban planning perspective A and B are the best alternatives. A is a low capital option of B which is good to consider, but alternative B is a knock out! Read the description.
“Scenario B is similar to Scenario A, but it has more capital investments and more aggressive transit improvements.
Alaskan Way would be two-lanes in each direction north of Yesler Way, with bike lanes and parking. There would be signalized intersections along the waterfront. The east/west streets north of the Battery Street Tunnel would be reconnected with new signalized intersections on Aurora Avenue.
In this scenario the streetcar system would be extended, with lines to Fremont/Ballard, University District, central downtown, and Capitol Hill/First Hill. The bus rapid transit system would be extended with lines for Delridge and Lake City Way and from Ballard to the University District. This service would be in addition to planned new lines serving Ballard, West Seattle and Aurora Avenue.
There would also be more extensive I-5 improvements than with Scenario A. An additional northbound lane on I-5 would start near Cherry Street and go north to SR 520.
This scenario would offer open space of 76-86 feet along the waterfront.”
The one down side of this alternative is that the pedestrian promenade along the water will be narrower and in alternative C. Maybe a hybrid of B and C could be used to increase the size of the promenade while maintaing the same vehicle throughput.
UPDATE
Daily transit trips to, from and within the city center will dramatically increase, from 196,000 to as many as 305,000 by 2015 if one surface option replaces the viaduct.
WOW!
Posted in Data, Eastside, kingcounty, newyork, tunnel, You
By Frank on November 13, 2008
I don’t really know what to do with Austin Contrarian’s graph showing gasoline consumption per metropolitan area, but it’s worth sharing.
Posted in Uncategorized
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