The Urbanist » Examining urban policy to improve cities and quality of life.

Council Contemplates Seattle Transportation Benefit District Reforms

by Stephen Fesler @safesler on June 20, 2018

The voter-approved Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) is getting its first big policy reform since the passage of Proposition 1 in 2014. The tax measure was devised as a response to imminent countywide cuts to transit, saving the city from apocalyptic service reductions and eventually allowing for overall transit service expansion.

Though the scope of programs and policy objectives have changed over the past few years, the formal policy changes and district authority that could soon be passed (as soon as next week) Seattle City Council would the pave the way for wider availability of free ORCA transit passes for students, tangible speed and reliability improvements on bus corridors, and service boosts on bus routes that wouldn’t qualify for additional city-funded investments under current law.

Overview of STBD Reform Proposal

To recap, the ordinance authorizes the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to do the following:

Regional partnerships. The legislation would expand the opportunity for regional partnerships to cost-share service improvements on routes that only have 65% of stops within Seattle. This would reduce the minimum requirement from 80% of stops within Seattle, allowing many other routes to become eligible for additional service hour investments, including Routes 106, 120, 124, 345, 372, and 373 and the RapidRide E Line–routes that tend to operate in underserved areas of the city.
RapidRide service. All existing and future RapidRide services would be eligible for additional service hour investments regardless of geographic operation (i.e., wholly or partially operating in Seattle) or performance metrics.
Capital investments. Through December 2020, SDOT would be able to spend additional revenues on capital improvements for transit. These investments could include transit-only lanes, queue jumps, transit signal priority, and other strategies to improve speed and reliability. Capital investments could also be made to enhance the passenger experience, such as off-board fare payment and stop improvements.
ORCA transit passes. All Seattle Public Schools high school students (10,200) would received free ORCA transit passes in addition to another 500 middle school students and 300 Seattle Promise community college students. This would be a massive expansion of free transit passes for students in the city. Right now, the city helps fund 3,000 free transit passes for qualifying high school (2,600) and middle school (400) students. Seattle Public Schools provides an additional 8,000 free transit passes to high school (6,200) and middle school (1,800) students. The school district would continue their contributions to funding student passes.
Contracted pilot transit services. A new pilot program for contracted transit services would be created. Several transit van routes would be set up to provide first-mile/last-mile connections for underserved areas and between other corridors of interest by third-party transit providers–that is, not by King County Metro Transit. Transit vans would be required to provide seating capacity for at least eight passengers. While contractors may not be unionized like most Metro operators, companies would need to provide labor harmony agreements to be eligible as a city contractor.

Move Seattle/One Center City/Streetcar/Transit

Let’s Add New Bus Lanes to Overcome ‘Period of Maximum Constraint’

by Doug Trumm @dmtrumm on June 20, 2018

The news on One Center City has not been very uplifting. The effort to keep Seattle moving during coming transit logjams got a re-brand to “Imagine Seattle,” but it appears to still be lacking for bold imagination and timeliness.

The problem, dubbed the “Period of Maximum Constraint,” stems from convergence of several major construction projects, a shortage of bus base capacity, and buses coming out of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (which will decrease their efficiency and further crowd surface streets). This will leave a gap in transit capacity for a few years before more light rail extensions come online–starting with Northgate Link in 2021 and followed by East Link in 2023 and Lynnwood Link and Federal Way Link in 2024–which should free up bus platform hours. It might take opening all those light rail extensions to truly release the pressure valve on our transit network, meaning the constrained period could drag on until 2024.

Though billed as a bold visioning process, One Center City has yet to lead to anything revolutionary being adopted thus far. The major addition to the transit network will be a new downtown transit pathway using Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue and providing transit lanes in some stretches but not in others. This should provide a workable alternative for buses kicked out of the transit tunnel next year. But Seattle’s transit ridership is growing steadily every year bucking national trends. Plenty of doubt remains if we’ve done enough to meet demand and prevent rampant overcrowding and delays.

We should not let this crisis go to waste. This is an opportunity to improve our transit network rather than do the bare minimum to scrape by. That’s why I propose that Seattle should roll out as many dedicated transit lanes as possible across the city within one year’s time. There’s no reason to settle for mediocrity. Our bus bases being at capacity means King Count Metro Transit doesn’t currently have room to add new buses even if it wanted to, which is pushing the Seattle City Council to look at using private operators to add bus service. This creates an imperative to use our platform hours more efficiently rather than letting buses languish in traffic.

Even without RapidRide improvements, a handful of Metro buses carry in the ballpark of 10,000 daily riders–Routes 5, 7, 8, 36, 40, 41, 44–and they should be our first priority when adding new transit lanes. We should also look at the next tier of high ridership routes as we look to make the transit network run more smoothly as we face the prospect of transit gridlock and overcrowding.

Vision Zero/Walking

109 Dead on Washington Roads as Pedestrian Deaths Reach Record High in 2017

by Ryan Packer @typewriteralley on June 18, 2018

Joshua Karl Reynolds was walking on the shoulder of Birch Bay Lynden road near Blaine, Washington on a Saturday evening last May when he was struck and killed by the passenger-side mirror of a passing truck. The driver of the truck left the scene and turned himself in to police three days later. Joshua’s mother told the Bellingham Herald that he had been walking everywhere he went after being ticketed for driving without a valid license. He was thirty-three years old.

Angela Brumley was crossing Pacific Avenue S in Tacoma last November when she was struck and killed by a Jeep. Pacific Avenue in that area has two marked crosswalks for pedestrians within a half-mile of each other, at 108th St S and at 99th St E. She was crossing the street at 106th on a dark and rainy day. No charges were filed against the driver of the vehicle. She was thirty years old.

Jennifer Young was crossing 12th Avenue in Anacortes last June when she was struck by a commercial semi making a left turn from Commercial Avenue. She was walking across an intersection with a marked crosswalk. The Skagit County medical examiner’s webpage states that “the cause of death is multiple blunt force trauma and the manner is accident.” She was forty-four years old.

Nellie Yelli was walking in a marked crosswalk across Wallingford Avenue N in Seattle just north of Green Lake last January, on New Year’s Day. The woman who struck Yelli with her car left the scene before returning an hour later and later pled guilty to vehicular homicide while driving under the influence. Treza Hafzalla is currently serving an eight-and-a-half year prison sentence. Nellie Yelli was sixty-two years old.

Preliminary numbers recently released by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) show in 2017, 109 people walking were killed by traffic on Washington’s streets. This is an increase of 21 people from 2016 and a 118% increase in five years, compared to 2013 when 50 people on foot were killed. Over the same time period, the number of people who were killed on our state’s streets went from 436 to 565, a 29% increase. The number of people on bikes who were killed in traffic has stayed relatively constant, with fewer fatalities in 2017 (13) than in the previous two years.

Link light rail/Transit/Transportation

Sunday Video: Federal Way Link Light Rail Route Flyover

by Stephen Fesler @safesler on June 17, 2018

Take an aerial view of how the Federal Way Link extension will function and look like. The extension will add 7.8 miles of rail and three new stops in 2024.

What We're Reading

What We’re Reading: Second Avenue, Mosquito Fleet Return, and Capitol Hill Station TOD Starts

by Stephen Fesler @safesler on June 16, 2018

Net Neutrality WA: Despite Net Neutrality being cast away in the United States, it’s still law in Washington.

Megaregions: What should we do about the rise of megaregions to make them more equitable and inclusive?

Build it and they will come: Biking on Second Avenue in Downtown Seattle is up 37%.

YVR expansion: Vancouver, British Columbia is looking to expand the region’s main passenger airport (YVR) to the tune of more than $9 billion (in Canadian dollars).

Not the rent, really: Richard Florida says that high housing prices shouldn’t be the blame for falling fertility rates amongst younger Americans.

Salt in an open wound: The head tax drama appears likely to continue with opponents filing their signatures and others filing a legal motion against the repeal process ($).

Bezos thuggery: Depending upon where Amazon’s second headquarters ends up, their employees could wind up unknowingly paying taxes to their employer.

Cowardly engineers: To reject lower street speeds in Portland, Oregon’s highway department cited high speeds as a reason not to.

It’s the rent, stupid: The high cost of housing is the significant driver for homelessness growth, a study concludes.

Fighting for salmon: In Oregon, environmentalists are suing the state over how to save dwindling Coho salmon populations.

Vancity Missing Middle Housing: Vancouver, British Columbia could soon expand the use of duplexes, townhouses, small apartments, and taller backyard cottages.

A mural it is: Capitol Hill’s East Design Review Board has settled on a facade dispute by requiring that the developer use a mural on the buidling.

Mosquito Fleet return: Policymakers are looking at more Puget Sound fast ferries.

DC carbon pricing: Washington, D.C. is looking at a price on carbon, but will it be set right?

Rolling back rent hikes: Caving to federal funding requirements, Trump’s housing department won’t hike rents by 300% for those receiving housing assistance.

Geometry: Jarrett Walker says that you can’t fix transit by destroying it.

Seattle’s promise: Advocates say that Seattle must deliver on promised transit, pedestrian, and bicycle improvements ($).

Rowhouse or townhouse?: How rowhouses are different from townhomes.

City flight, maybe not: Are Americans fleeing back to the suburbs?

It’s happening: Ground breaking on apartments at Capitol Hill Station will start this week.

Approved: Lynnwood’s 18-story tower proposal has gained approval ($).

Tragedy on the rise: Sadly, suicide rates continue to rise in Washington ($).

Broken journey: With the collapse of a tunnel, Amtrak’s Coast Starlight is forcing passengers to take a bus between connecting trains in central Oregon.

Stalled redesign: London’s mayor is disappointed about the cancellation of a pedestrianized Oxford Street.

Free the transit: New York City will join in subsidizing transit for low-income residents.

Map of the Week: What you have to earn to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

Civics & Culture/The View From Nathan's Bus

Where I Belong

by Nathan Vass on June 16, 2018

As you may know, I’ve been taking a break from the 7/49 for art-time-school reasons detailed here, instead driving suburban routes in North King County. This whole North Base adventure (I haven’t picked up there since they deleted the 358) has been nothing if not charming. The operative word is pleasant. Five years ago I might’ve said boring, but there’s no reason to put a pejorative label on transporting low maintenance, gainfully employed north-end residents.

The generally subdued air has its own pleasures. After four straight years of driving the 7/49 exclusively at night, I’ve been downright shocked at the sheer numbers of people up here who are healthily equipped to take care of themselves. They do things like follow rules, pay fare, and even wake up at terminals… in droves!! Such responsibility! I’d look around in confusion, almost disappointed. Where was I? What town was this??

Truthfully, it’s been a thrill to be reminded how well so much of the population is doing. I’m not just referring to affluent white folks, but the steadily growing immigrant presence in North King County, many of whom are faces I once served on the 7, but who have been pushed out due to the gentrification happening in Rainer Valley. (I can recall an even earlier time when those I knew on the 7 were people I once served on the 3/4, back before the Central District bumped everyone further south.) Never mind the completely different type of bus service;* it’s a beautiful place to live.

Cycling/Transit/Transportation/Vision Zero/Walking

Spot Fix: Pacific Street Gets Bike Lane and Safety Improvements, West Seattle Getting Crossbikes

by Stephen Fesler @safesler on June 15, 2018

Last week, an upgraded bike lane rolled out and several other changes overnight on NE Pacific St in the University District. A new right turn lane and turn restrictions to University Way NE were imposed to improve safety as vehicles approach University Way NE from the east. This could enhance some bus movements heading from NE Pacific St to University Way NE since they won’t have to queue a general purpose lane. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) rechannelized the street from University Way NE to just west of the Brooklyn Ave NE intersection, primarily in the westbound direction.

NE Pacific St Improvements

The upgraded bike lane now includes a full buffer with four parking spaces next to it. SDOT restripped the street, added flexible posts to delineate the bike lane from other portions of the street, and provided a crossbike across the Brooklyn Ave NE intersection. Another set of improvements to the street–which included buffered bike lanes and new sidewalks–were installed last year near the University Bridge. The bike lane (and its companion on the south side of the street) is an important way for people biking to circulate between other areas of the University of Washington campus, the upper portion of the University District (bike lanes are on Brooklyn Ave NE and partially on University Way NE), and areas to the west without having to navigate to and from the Burke-Gilman Trail.

Follow @urbanistorg

The Urbanist
@urbanistorg

RT @knothead02: This is supposed to be a crosswalk? Saw a couple get honked at for crossing here this morning, presumably because the paint…
about 47 mins ago
RT @SeattleDJC: Crown Hill site sold; 40 small units planned. Architect Neiman Taber designed the four-story building with 36 units and fou…
about 1 hour ago
RT @VancouverSun: Scrutiny over development after Boffo Properties project halts https://t.co/pQXgySYoIw #affordablehousing #VanRE @joannel…
about 1 hour ago

Overview of STBD Reform Proposal

Bridge Housing and Shelter

NE Pacific St Improvements