Higher Frequency

BBC covers Portland's lowered car use: LRT as effective transit

2006-08-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

BBC's Newsnight program tonight is covering Portland's trend away from car transportation and toward strong public transit. With Red, Blue and Yellow lines in operation, and with the South Corridor Project under way, Portland is very much changing their urban layout to be more accessible - and often more pleasant.

Last Saturday, I visited to look at the latest developments in the Pearl District and to introduce a couple of friends to riding Amtrak Cascades. Pedestrian density north of Burnside (where Powell's Books and much of the new mixed-use development has taken place) is quite high, extending north along the packed streetcar line. The Portland Saturday Market was, as usual, filled with people, as was Pioneer Courthouse Square. Between these two centers, we saw heavy circulation on MAX and on foot.

Newsnight will be discussing Portland's reduced emissions - they're in line with what Kyoto would have required of them. They've seen a 65% increase in the use of public transit in the last ten years, supported by strong transit oriented development and communities where many trips can take place entirely on foot or by bicycle.

Those of us in Seattle will be watching the same thing happen here as Link's initial segment opens, and we'll see the same public support that drove the South Corridor project drive University and East Link as people start realizing the power of having good alternatives to driving.

Dick Kelley was just on my street!

2006-07-22T14:24:00.000-07:00

I was on my way home from the bus stop just now, and who did I see but Dick Kelley, running for state Representative in the 43rd district. Since Ed Murray announced his candidacy for state Senate, I've been paying attention to the platforms of the people running, and Kelley is by far my favorite.

He's progressive on every issue - he points out in his brochure that low income people pay a much higher percentage of their income than wealthier people in taxes, for instance.

It's his position on transportation that I like. He doesn't even say it's a position on "transportation" - it's "transportation and the environment". From his campaign brochure:

We should focus transportation investments on transit, carpools, and bikes, so we can all get to work faster without more cars on the road.

That's an excellent position to take. Light rail, cleaner buses, bike lanes - these are choices that people want to be able to make, and when we supply them, they reduce congestion and improve air quality.

Kelley won't accept more than $100 from anyone. I suggest anyone reading this check out his web site - hopefully he'll be a representative from Seattle next session.

Amtrak was very late last night:

2006-07-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

I wasn't on the 3pm train from Portland to Bellingham, but I heard horror stories last night. Apparently, somewhere just north of Portland, there was an equipment failure of some kind that resulted in the train returning. Passengers had to wait for at least three hours for another train to take them northbound - I'm not sure, but they may even have been later getting into Seattle than the evening service!

We don't have any spare equipment on Amtrak Cascades - any time there's a difficulty, there's nothing available to take its place without waiting for another train that was in service earlier that day. We need to improve this service by buying a spare train.

Eyman may not have enough signatures to get on the ballot:

2006-07-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

Today's Seattle P-I is reporting that Tim Eyman may not have enough signatures to get I-917 on the ballot.

This is good news. I-917 (PDF) would gut our transit systems, kill freight mobility projects that are necessary to our state's economic health, and probably result in putting more of the cost of roads on citizens like me who don't drive on them. Granted, I'm not against paying for our infrastructure - I certainly benefit from it - but we don't have a level playing field when we're so heavily subsidizing highways, so we don't see the alternatives that are so readily available in other cities and countries.

Our northern neighbors are driving less.

2006-07-20T15:57:00.000-07:00

A new report by Statistics Canada, reported on by the Vancouver Sun, shows residents of British Columbia drove less last year than in 2004. Not per capita, either - despite population growth of about 1.27% between the ends of 2004 and 2005, total miles driven dropped by nearly ten percent!

It's likely this is due to higher gas prices - in the article, a representative of the BC Automobile Association agrees. I think that what we're seeing in BC is what happens in something closer to a market system - where there are alternatives to driving. I think this is also evidence that buses aren't a viable alternative, whereas mass transit like SkyTrain probably is.

Hey, I'm a guest columnist today!

2006-07-12T22:47:00.000-07:00

I submitted a piece to the P-I on why light rail is the right choice for serving the Eastside - it was put on the site tonight, and should be in the print edition tomorrow. It's pretty cool to see "guest columnist" under your name.

Now that Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland and Issaquah are on board with light rail endorsements, I can only hope that the Sound Transit board will vote the same way when they make their decision about what system to put in next year's ST2 ballot measure.

In other news, Sound Transit has announced increased Sounder service for next year - a fifth round trip in the direction we're accustomed to, as well as a reverse trip serving commuters going from Seattle and intermediate cities to Tacoma in the morning. Because they're getting a train "back" in Seattle from the reverse trip, presumably this means they won't have to buy new equipment for these round trips.

New Amtrak Cascades round trip

2006-07-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

Starting on Saturday, Amtrak Cascades began offering a new option between Seattle and Portland, and better connecting service from this corridor to Bellingham and Everett.

I rode the inaugural train - passengers were treated to little cupcakes, Amtrak Cascades pens, and an early arrival into Portland, despite chasing the slower, hour-late Coast Starlight all the way to Centralia. With passengers coming all the way from Bellingham, the train was sold out, including many seats in the dining car.

I browsed the urban design and transport sections at Powell's Technical Books while we were in town, and we returned to Seattle in the evening on the usual late service.

While on board, I learned that about 4/5 of the funding necessary to extend the second northern round trip to Vancouver, BC is now available - $4.5m of $5.5m. That would be fantastic - an evening trip into Vancouver would be possible, doubling the available seats and allowing for trips starting Friday night instead of Saturday morning.

Relevant books I've been reading:

2006-05-24T07:38:00.000-07:00

So, I'm working, going to school, and spending my time in between on transit. I just thought I'd mention a few of the books I've got going, and how they've related to Higher Frequency and my interest in urban planning and transportation infrastructure in general.

The first is "The Clock of the Long Now", by Stewart Brand. The original concept is simple: Build a clock and library to last at least through the next ice age, and contain knowledge in a format that will continue to be readable for tens of thousands of years. The clock would tick once a day, and go through full bells something like every millennium. Together, these would help humans consider thinking in longer terms - where we currently plan for weeks or years, we might realize it's more appropriate to plan in hundreds of years.
This gets really important for big projects, because if you take into account the ecological impact of your planning over decades or hundreds of years, you lean toward sustainable solutions. That's where using electric rail to connect communities becomes much more viable than cars or buses - when viewed in 100 year terms, for instance, a subway system can easily become the best bang for your buck.

I've been working on two books by Jane Jacobs, one started before and one after she passed away a few weeks ago. The first is her famous "The Death and Life of Great American Cities", describing how planning choices can make or break neighborhoods, and how to develop them to meet their own needs rather than to be subservient to, say, a large business. Renton is an example of a community reliant on a large employer (Boeing). Because the community relies on Boeing for much of their political power, if that employer were to leave, she argues that they would have to build much of that power again from scratch. My point here is that if Boeing left Renton, but Renton were well connected to other communities with permanent transit, the city would redevelop much more quickly. This would be due not only to accessibility of employment in neighboring communities, but also to newly available real estate near an existing transit hub.
The second, which I've just started, is "The Economy of Cities". So far, this has been about agriculture's development. The book was written in 1969, and suggests what I was taught in school - that cities developed before agriculture, and that most new technology is developed in dense areas and distributed to rural and suburban zones. I'm still quite early on in the book.

The newest addition to my reading list is Robert Cervero's "The Transit Metropolis", case studies of transit systems in several different types of city layouts and on several continents. I'm not sure I like his approach - he seems to address city development as linear, specifically avoiding discussing how a transit system can change that course, but only how a transit system can address the existing city layout. I'm not sure if that's just his starting point, or if it's going to be prevalent throughout.

I've got Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere" and a couple of other books on sprawl by Peter Calthorpe waiting in the wings for when I get through all of this. Hopefully I'm internalizing what I learn well enough to have better opinions of local developments.

Complaint submitted to Metro tonight:

2006-04-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

Returning home late on my commute today, I saw someone running toward a stop, across the field just north of 51st street in Redmond. I stood, walked to the front of the bus and politely pointed the runner out to the driver - with plenty of time to stop. He declined to stop at the stop the runner was going for (that closest to SR-520 in the eastbound direction on 51st), and continued driving, even watching the person approaching the stop wave frantically for his attention. He was also extremely rude in his response, although I don't remember his wording here.

At this point, I checked my cell phone for the time, and noted that it was 7:22. Had the driver not been early, this person would have caught the bus. The driver went on to the next stop (after turning onto 148th), out of sight of the runner (and assuredly out of running distance given the half-mile sprint the man had already completed), and stopped for a few minutes to get back on time - 7:25.

Upon reaching my destination in Seattle, I asked the operator (again politely) for his operator number before exiting. Rather than provide me with this information, he told me to (and I quote) "get off the damn bus". Now, I commonly call in commendations for my regular operators, and it takes quite a bit for me to file a complaint, but this was completely out of line. I have never, in 19 years of using this system, had an operator swear at me, and I hope Metro sees fit to either strongly reprimand this operator or remove him from the route. I'm glad that isn't my usual run.

In regards to the Seattle Times' editorial, and RTID:

2006-03-07T06:51:00.000-08:00

This morning, I read the editorial in the Times regarding transportation funding. For the most part - I agree. Lawmakers should allow an RTID vote this year. Voters need to see the monorail tax disappear as a show of good faith before asking for it for another agency.

This year will bring us I-917, and further claims of government waste from Tim Eyman and his vocal minority. To counter this, I believe that the RTID bill should be bulletproof - fund extremely high priority projects and those WSDOT partially funded with the 2005 Partnership. Be careful to pay attention to the Potato Hill projects - things easily attacked by detractors through misinformation. Potato Hill was a great example last year of how good existing information from WSDOT, a solid response from legislators and bloggers and a response from the Times to their own editorial page made a surprisingly ill-informed attack fizzle.

When defending against I-912 last year, the biggest issue I ran into was a failure of WSDOT to keep their project web pages up to date until it was nearly election time. WSDOT had a page with links to various lists of projects, and very late in the game added project lists by county - missing links to most of the project pages. Many of the smaller projects still do not have web pages (like this one for Point Defiance Bypass) describing their importance and funding sources. If the RTID bill is to pass this year, WSDOT will have to be very clear on their site which projects are to be funded, and they will have to provide a self-contained list, with all proper links to project pages, accessible from a large, friendly button on the main page (as they've done before).

Here's where I'm really concerned: I think that if the monorail tax has not already been retired, any Sound Transit plan on the ballot will fail. It was extremely ill-advised to even discuss not allowing the tax to sunset. Taxpayers need closure! Look at this letter in yesterday's News Tribune - the author seems to be confusing Sounder commuter rail with the light rail project. Monorail and light rail are one and the same to many - our agencies are too complex to be distinct; I know people in Snohomish and East King who believed that they were paying for the monorail mess. Dropping that tax must occur to restore faith before we can ask for more money, and it must stay dead for long enough that people understand what they are paying for.

This brings me to my conclusion: Barring polling suggesting a solid win when offered with RTID, Sound Transit should wait to go on the ballot until 2007. The monorail tax should be retired as soon as the agency repays its debts, and the RTID should be limited to already partially funded projects and safety issues - no new ideas unless they enjoy popular support. As the monorail tax expires and Central Link construction takes shape, Sound Transit could offer demonstrations of their project as trains are delivered and enjoy increased popular support.

Yes, it's a year delay. I suspect that the alternative will be a lot worse.

Can a delay for Sound Transit mean better agency collaboration?

2006-03-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

This morning I noticed something I had previously skipped over - WSDOT has a quarterly report up from December of 2005 for the Point Defiance Bypass project. Some of the comments made in this report are fairly harsh:

The lack of coordinated investments will cause Sound Transit to design and build only for its needs. When WSDOT funding becomes available, major components of the Sound Transit work will need to be redone to provide for both Sounder commuter service and Amtrak Cascades intercity service.

The new project, which I've discussed on my other blog, would move Amtrak Cascades service to new track, cutting six minutes off of the Seattle-Portland trip, and allow for further upgrades to reduce that time by at least another five minutes. It starts at Freighthouse Square in Tacoma, currently the terminus for Sounder service, and continues up the Tacoma Rail Lakeview line to Nisqually. A few weeks ago, we learned in the Seattle Times that the F59PHI locomotives in service for Sounder (and presumably those in service for Amtrak Cascades) can't climb the 3.1% grade to that line from a dead stop in wet weather.

This is a problem. The first proposed solution is one that's been discussed in the past: To build a bridge over Pacific Avenue to fully grade-separate the line. This would solve an existing issue - trains crossing South Tacoma Way and Pacific Avenue would pose a significant safety risk very regularly during busy commute times - and an overpass would allow the grade to be only 2.8%, which the locomotives should be able to start on even in bad conditions.

This solution would also reduce the likelihood of the neighborhood and commuters becoming opposed to the system - I can see 18 crossings for Sounder and the proposed 26 eventual crossings for Cascades (from their 20 year plan) being less than pleasant for traffic. A diagonal crossing such as the one originally proposed would be quite dangerous in heavy traffic - last November, a METRA train in Chicago destroyed and damaged cars who failed to heed warning signs and lights. Despite clear markings, gates, signs and lights, drivers still stop on tracks.

But, here's the problem. This track is in two parts - Sound Transit is to build a single track halfway along the alignment, to Lakewood. WSDOT is to build a track from 66th St in South Tacoma all the way to Nisqually, but plans to build a second track along the entire alignment for Phase 2. Sound Transit originally planned to have their section done by the end of 2007, and WSDOT didn't get their first large chunk of funding until 2009. This was a major issue - it meant that Sound Transit would have to build their project completely without engineering work or preliminary construction work for WSDOT's extension, and WSDOT would have to significantly change work ST had done, wasting money.

But! The State Legislature has just pushed up WSDOT's funding for the project so that they will receive nearly all of it in 2007, rather than most of it in 2009 and 2011. If Sound Transit chooses grade separation and can wait until this money becomes available, the cost savings of a shared project could free up funds to help pay for the overpass alternative. If Sound Transit and WSDOT money is pooled, the embankments leading up to the overpass can also simply be built wider for a later second bridge.

We need this project. It benefits both intercity and commuter rail, and not only expands commuter rail service to Lakewood and South Tacoma, but opens a path to Dupont. It allows for the addition of expanded Amtrak Cascades service - I was on a 250-seat train with 260 people on it last weekend, both the bistro and dining cars had people sitting in them. More service is necessary for the growth of our urban areas and to keep traffic congestion from increasing on I-5.

I propose that Sound Transit work with WSDOT to estimate what the cost savings would be to build both projects concurrently. With that savings as ammunition, a double-pronged approach could work. Talk to the communities in Tacoma and Lakewood to gather support for grade separation through education about the danger of a diagonal crossing, and perhaps secure some funding through the City of Tacoma to that end. Ask for help from the Legislature and the Transportation Committee to prioritize this project above others or to secure additional funding given the cost savings of doing both projects at once.

I-776: Tyranny of the Majority.

2006-02-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

Two days ago, the Seattle Times published an editorial regarding Tim Eyman's 2002 car tab initiative. The Seattle Times argues that since I-776 passed statewide, Sound Transit should be forced to stop collecting taxes in their three-county district.

I believe that this is misguided.

Sound Transit was formed as a district in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties by a vote in those three counties alone. The voters in that district supported taxing themselves - no one else - to fund light rail, commuter rail, bus and HOV projects in their own counties.

The I-776 vote passed the entire state - but failed in the Sound Transit district. The same voters who voted originally for Sound Transit voted to keep taxing themselves. I see no reason to allow the rest of the state of Washington to prevent the Sound Transit district from, with two consenting votes, continuing to exercise their right to self-govern.

I do recognize that Pierce County, of the three counties, did vote to approve I-776. I propose a solution: Continue collecting the MVET tax in King and Snohomish. Propose a different tax to Pierce County voters to make up the difference if they wish to continue funding Sound Transit. If they do not approve it, limit Pierce County projects to those which can be funded with other sources of income.

Any thoughts on this? I think that most of the arguments we've heard publicly so far come from individual interest in keeping or eliminating Sound Transit, not voter intent.

Digging Beacon Hill

2006-01-19T12:09:00.000-08:00

Link Light Rail has two tunneled sections: One is the existing Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, currently being retrofitted, and the other are double tunnels under Beacon Hill. Beacon Hill Station will be over 165 feet below ground, between Mount Baker and SODO stations. Expected to have nearly a million boardings a year in 2020, it will provide commercial and residential growth for Beacon Hill, and will result in better air quality and better traffic as more people choose it over private vehicles.

While the Rainier Valley segment of the light rail could have been bypassed on the way to the airport, this area of Seattle has been lacking development dollars for decades, and fixed guideway transit brings developers to station locations. For this alignment, in order to both access the operations and maintenance base nearby the Port and to serve the stadia, and to avoid putting surface level tracks on Rainier Boulevard, a tunnel under Beacon Hill was necessary.

The station will begin at ground level at Beacon and McClellan, and extend downward about 180 feet. To begin, the walls of the shaft were cut out and built in place in 12 foot wide sections. As each section is sunk, the hole made is filled with a high density liquid called "slurry" that supports the surrounding earth, preventing a collapse in the 180 foot deep holes. The slurry is then displaced by concrete from the bottom up, and this is allowed to harden before moving on to the next section. The walls of the station shaft were completed before any dirt was removed from inside of them!

This dirt is mined out from the surface, with workers lowered by crane into the main shaft as the depth increases. The crane also removes earth from the excavated station with what's called a muck bucket, filled by earthmovers at the bottom of the excavation. A second shaft with emergency stairs and ventilation will also be sunk between the platforms just to the east of the main station. Air will largely be circulated by the movement of the trains themselves, but I've been told that this system helps maintain more constant air pressure for passengers at the station.

Tunneling was originally to begin in October of last year, but was delayed due to sandy soil near the station site. Apparently, this has little impact on the tunneling itself, but excavation of the station platforms had to wait for what's called "jet grouting" to take place. Jet grouting involves drilling a hole straight down from the surface, then filling it with a concrete-like substance in order to stabilize the soil for excavation. This was included as a provision in the contract with Obayashi, and it saved Sound Transit and the taxpayers a considerable amount of money to have it available.

The tunnel boring machine (TBM), now known as the "Emerald Mole", will start at the west portal under I-5, near the new Operations and Maintenance facility, and bore the two tunnels one at a time. After the first tunnel, it will be brought back around to the west portal to begin again, in order to keep all the earth coming from one source and traveling on one route. As it moves, the TBM actually builds the tunnel inside its skin from these large precast concrete sections, then pushes forward off of them to drill out the next section of earth. A concrete grout fills the slim section between the tunnel liner segments and the outside of the bored tunnel.

Yesterday morning marked the official launch of the Emerald Mole, with elected officials such as Senator Patty Murray, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, and King County Council Chair Larry Phillips, with representatives from the offices of several others. Much of the Sound Transit staff also came out, as well as contractor personnel such as Paul Zick from Obayashi. They had cakes from Obayashi featuring Sound Transit colors and logos, as well as coffee provided by Tully's, who are headquartered next door.

Murray and Nickels each gave short speeches, and gave recognition to a number of individuals who came out for the ceremony. The VIPs went up to break bottles of champagne and sake against the TBM, and everyone got a chance to sign the side and ask questions about the machine and the process - I learned a lot about the equipment and the process.

Congratulations to Sound Transit for a crucial milestone on the path to completing Link!

Monorail Derailed

2005-12-15T09:39:00.000-08:00

Rosebud last night was home to an unlikely collection of transit activists. They had come together to celebrate the end of a long battle - for some, only two years, for some as much as eight - against a transit agency which ignored the realities of the system they proposed and tried to move ahead without adequate funding or disclosure.

After I-83 failed (possibly because people thought a "No" vote was "No" on the monorail), the system finally was brought down by an almost 2:1 vote. This couldn't have happened without these people's dedication to informing the public about the shortcomings of the system, the people running it, and the financing plan. Richard Borkowski of People for Modern Transit handed out awards to volunteers and activists who had put hundreds of hours of their lives into phone banking, research, time before the SMP board and on committees to keep SMP honest.

Before and after the awards, discussion was largely about the future of local transit - now that the monorail is dead, we can get back to what we'd all prefer to do: Find solutions to move people and implement them. With Link under construction and Sounder ramping up service, it sounds like people in the area are starting to stop asking about profitability and start realizing that a transit system is within the highway paradigm - an investment to generate economic growth. It was nice to see.

Link in Tukwila: An impressive way to build elevated trackway

2005-12-03T07:47:00.000-08:00

Last post, I mentioned seeing a huge steel framework perched atop the support columns for what will be Tukwila Station and the associated track headed north. Owned by PCL Construction Services, it hoists about ten trackway segments at a time between sets of support columns so they can be put into place. PCL's web site has images of what the trackway they're contracted to build will eventually look like, but what I'm more impressed by is what it looks like now - with the first trackway section erected this week.

Tukwila will be the southernmost stop in the initial plan, with Airport Link (and its excessively amusing "Kiss and Ride") to follow six months later. As far as I'm concerned, though, this is the most impressive segment - sharing right-of-way with I-5 and SR-518, it's highly visible to many of the people who will use it.

This brings me to some new speculation: What's quite effective as a local service on MLK for South Seattle is not particularly desirable as part of an express service to the airport and further south. Let's look back at that initial plan. Headed south from downtown, Link turns east through Beacon Hill, and meanders along with an eventual return to the Duwamish River valley. I can understand that for a first segment, serving as much local population as possible is key, but as a regional system, eventually we'll want to offer service that doesn't stop everywhere (and isn't limited to streetcar speeds) for people going between major destinations.

So, perhaps, there's an option opened up by the valley. An express link could bypass the Rainier Valley, continuing straight where the trackway turns to go under Beacon Hill, and reconnecting before the Duwamish River crossing - perhaps using 4th Ave and Marginal Way. Local service could extend from Ballard (note that rail link on the long-range plan map) through downtown to MLK, then rejoin the main line in Tukwila. Express service would come in from north of Seattle, bypass MLK (perhaps with one or two stops near Boeing Field) and continue south.

You wouldn't have to call these local and express. They could be "Blue" and "Green", or they could have local unique names like "Duwamish" or "Walla Walla". I do see some problems with this, of course: the expected multimodal station at Boeing Field would only be accessible by one line, confusing some passengers - but someone starting in Seattle wouldn't need to transfer there, and someone at Sea-Tac would simply take the local (MLK) train. By the time this happened, we'd probably have 3 minute headways all day, so it wouldn't be a significant addition to travel time.

But those are the rantings of a mad transit advocate. Japan does this between Narita Airport and Tokyo - there are several train types: some continue beyond Tokyo Station, some serve communities between the airport and downtown. Interestingly, as soon as Airport Link is completed, we will have more frequent service and lower travel time between our international airport and downtown than Tokyo does to Narita - at significantly lower cost.

Driving tour of Link Light Rail construction

2005-11-21T08:33:00.000-08:00

After buying biodiesel with Andy on Sunday, we decided to take an impromptu driving tour of some Link Light Rail construction sites, starting in SODO.

To begin with, rail is laid along the E-3 Busway. The last time I was down there, a tamping machine was settling the rock trackbed, and rails were being straightened and clamped to the ties. Most of that rail is now completely laid, and sections of rail are waiting in large stacks to be installed in the bus tunnel to the north. You can already see where the old rail has been removed.

The elevated section that leads to the Beacon Hill tunnel is almost finished - parts are now painted, and segments leading down to the maintenance facility are in place. The O&M facility itself has insulation going up - it really looks like a building now, rather than just a steel frame. We slowed down for these parts, but they're nothing new, and we kept going south toward the Duwamish crossing.

There was little visible change at Duwamish, but lots of foundation work - re-bar for the support column on the north side of the bridge is already sticking well out of the ground. There's cleared land along part of the alignment toward the I-5 crossing northbound, but we didn't venture over there just yet. We kept going south near the alignment.

Here's where it started to get really interesting. I hadn't been along I-5 in quite some time, and there's now been area cleared just to the west of the freeway for support columns to go up. This is exciting - commuters are for the first time getting a glimpse of construction on a project that will eventually benefit them!

We turned off onto SR-518 to see if there were any new support columns up. Immediately to the right we noticed that a lot more land has been cleared as a staging area - re-bar frames for several columns sat waiting just to the north of the highway. I spent too much time looking at them - by the time I looked up, there were already columns next to us! Twice as many are up now as were the last time I was at the airport.

At this point, we could see a yellow metal framework just above the treeline. I thought at first it was the station under construction, but as we got closer, it became apparent what it was: A huge crane, sitting atop the columns, pulling segments of guideway up and putting them into place. It looks as if it crawls along the guideway as it builds. I can't wait to see how that looks in another month.

On the way back, we saw where embankments are being built on either side of I-5 for the bridge overhead. This is the first time I've seen construction there - I hope people start to get the idea soon that we are, indeed, building a rapid transit system.

A busy few weeks: Transportation happenings

2005-11-11T10:24:00.000-08:00

Howdy! I've been busy changing jobs and doing some moving over the last few weeks, but I wanted to cover some of the big things that have happened to impact the future of transit and roads in the area:

University Link, the extension of Link Light rail north of downtown to Husky Stadium and the hospital received the highest possible rating from the Federal Transit Administration. This means Sound Transit will likely be in line for federal money to help construction. This also means that the First Hill station is unlikely to be constructed - since it was removed from the plan as presented to the FTA, a station addition would require the plan be resubmitted.
I-912 was shot down by about 53%-47%. I can't even list all the projects it will fund - 274 projects, about 240 of which are fully funded by the transportation package. New lanes for I-5 to upgrade the remaining 4-lane sections to 6-lane; Lanes for I-405 southbound from I-90 to SR-167 and northbound from I-5 to SR-167 - with a new interchange; Planning work for the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass rebuild; Viaduct funding; 520 bridge replacement funding; many others.
One of the challenges to the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax has been shot down by the Supreme Court. Tim Eyman argued that I-776 would have made such a tax illegal, but voters approved Sound Move originally. The state Supreme Court disagreed with challengers in a 7-2 decision.
The monorail was finally laid to rest. While Seattle car owners will still pay the 1.4% excise tax to cover the SMP's $110 million debt, we can now look to other agencies and other technologies to serve the West Seattle and Ballard corridors. The Sierra Club has a meeting scheduled at REI to discuss future options.

Several other road projects are now under way, including HOV and transit access work on I-405 and planning work for a new SR-16 interchange in Tacoma. I'll be talking more about HOV lanes and freeway stops in the next few days.

That Pesky Alaskan Way Viaduct

2005-10-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

Good morning! Long time no see. I've been out and about for the last week, but we'll be getting back to regular posting again.

Yesterday morning, I joined with other bloggers from Evergreen Politics and the Northwest Progressive Institute (among others) to point out to drivers on the Viaduct that their time may be short. You can see pictures of some of us standing at the 1st Ave S entrance to the Viaduct at the NPI link.

Before starting, we walked a bit underneath the structure - cracks are visible everywhere. There's really no way to know what kind of damage there is to the steel underneath the cracked concrete, but some of the cracks were visibly wet, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a fair amount of internal damage. KOMO had an interesting article about this recently, in fact.

I-912 would take away $2 billion in funding for the Viaduct. There are a few competing options for replacing it - from a tunnel, which would allow for needed waterfront park space, to an in-kind replacement of a very similar structure. The tunnel is the most expensive, but the park would create demand for more downtown residential - something I think we need both to reduce commuter traffic and to rebalance age and income groups living downtown.

Seattle's Monorail Project: Planning the Route

2005-10-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

Recap:
Initiative 41 in 1997 created the Elevated Transportation Company (ETC) to build a privately funded monorail system of 40 miles. After two years and no progress in identifying alignments or technologies, the City Council dissolved the ETC and developed plans for studying the alignments identified in the Intermediate Capacity Transit (ICT) study released in 2000. Initiative 53, to fund this extension of the ICT study, passed the same year.

Initiative 53:
Initiative 53 funded the Elevated Transportation Company to create the Seattle Popular Transit Plan over the next 12 to 24 months, and provided for the creation of a ballot measure for Seattle voters to enact that plan once completed. It also reinstated Initiative 41 and the original rights and responsibilities of the ETC.

Throughout 2001 and early 2002, everyone weighed in on the monorail. Largely because contractor estimates for Sound Transit's Portage Bay tunnel came in over projections, public support for the monorail was high, and Sound Transit saw significant public backlash. Most published opinions assumed that monorail was cheaper than light rail, faster, quieter, more energy-efficient, and many other qualities. These issues were not publicly discussed at the time, which I believe may have led to unreasonable expectations.

Plans take shape:
In January of 2002, the ETC released preliminary route plans, and allowed public comment. The anti-monorail Seattle Weekly was the first to point out the big difference between original estimates (at most $50 million a mile) and this plan ($69 to $124 million a mile). Because light rail was projected to cost significantly more than this - near $150 million per mile, it had little impact on support for the monorail.

In March, the state legislature approved the monorail board to secure funding using the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (MVET), rental car sales tax, a vehicle licensing fee, and property taxes. This set the stage for the ETC to announce their proposition of a 1.4% MVET in May. The ETC then released their proposed route. Supporters were ecstatic, and Paul Allen shortly proposed a streetcar to link the monorail line with south Lake Union. Critics pointed out that the new line would not go through the Experience Music Project as the current monorail does, and that the new monorail would not serve Westlake Mall businesses.

Around this time, comments began filtering into news agencies regarding whether the monorail board should be elected. Many of the original high profile supporters, including Cleve Stockmeyer, argued that it should - that accountability in a public agency was key to its success. The monorail board disagreed. Also in mid 2002, King County Metro started working with the ETC on farebox recovery, and disagreed that it could produce as much revenue as the ETC projected. The ETC countered by saying that its ridership numbers were probably too low, anyway. A judge also had to order the ETC to provide documents to their opposition after they were ruled to have attempted to withhold public information.

Citizen Petition No. 1
The ETC put the Seattle Monorail Authority on the ballot in November 2002, with Seattle Citizen Petition No. 1. It passed, with 189,000 ballots cast and a margin of just under 900 votes. After a long certification, the Elevated Transportation Company was dissolved and the Seattle Popular Monorail Authority was created and funded to build the 14 mile Green Line. Interestingly, section 6 also defined use of a motor vehicle in Seattle as a privilege, not a right.

This is where things got complicated. The monorail, at this point, was expected to cost about $1.75 billion - but their debt cap was at $1.5 billion. This isn't as bad as it sounds, because the Authority calculated the $1.5 billion in 2002 dollars and allowed it to increase for inflation, and calculated the $1.75 billion in year-of-expenditure dollars, making it less money in 2002 terms. But this did put the monorail very close to the line in terms of cost overruns - they would already have to spread out their bond issues over a few years in order to keep their maximum debt level below that spelled out in the law. As closely as Petition No. 1 passed, the Authority was not in a good position to ask for more money.

Over the next several months, the EMP was returned to the line and it was better aligned to serve several major destinations. Questions arose about noise levels - the public had seen no studies regarding the purportedly quiet system, and the existing monorail is very loud. The public also wanted to see a real design - at this point, conceptual drawings were available, but nothing vetted by an engineering group. Media coverage of the monorail subsided, up until the project financing estimate was completed.

A quick note about monorail:

2005-10-11T14:10:00.000-07:00

I'm working on my next installment of the history of the Seattle Monorail Project, but I just wanted to point out a particularly egregious comment in a recent Seattle Times article on the part of Cindi Laws, boardmember:

"It's now or never," warned SMP board member Cindi Laws. "Vote yes, or don't have transit at all in your lifetime."

The fear tactics really get to me. From articles as early as mid-2002, I've seen comments from boardmembers and supporters simply pretending that monorail was the only transit system in existence. My problems with the system have less to do with the technology or the application and more to do simply with the dogmatic adherence to a number of talking points (many of them demonstrably incorrect) by boardmembers and supporters.

We need real bicycle lanes.

2005-10-11T11:38:00.000-07:00

Gail Alef, a cyclist hit by the driver of a Nissan 300ZX on Willows Road (my old commute), has died at Harborview today. Willows has a narrow bicycle lane that isn't often kept clear of pebbles and dirt (making it hazardous for riding), and can't accommodate a group.

This is a fairly serious problem. Bicycles, even lit, flashing, whatever, aren't very visible. I was hit last year because a driver turning left across traffic simply didn't see me coming. I've had a few close calls where drivers stuck the nose of their car out into the street when waiting to turn, right across a bike lane.

Is bicycle safety not taught when drivers get their license? Is there a problem with enforcement? This driver faces at least a vehicular assault charge, but the driver who hit me did not (although he was ticketed). Is this just cultural? We're very worried about paving I-5 at the moment, but there are roots up through the Burke-Gilman trail in many places. The windshear across I-90 makes the bike path there incredibly dangerous, but it gets no attention - nor does anyone seem to keep track of the users of these systems.

As oil becomes more expensive, perhaps we'll see a paradigm shift. We're already seeing people have real trouble paying for $3/gallon gas, and we're not even up to what Europeans pay. What happens when it's $6?

Airlines at Boeing Field, part deux:

2005-10-11T11:35:00.000-07:00

Today Ron Sims rejected plans to move passenger air travel to Boeing Field. This means that Airport Link light rail plans have no significant remaining obstacles - assuming that the Port of Seattle continues work as planned on the return-to-terminal loop and the North Airport Expressway, Link Light Rail will run from Downtown to the Airport by the end of 2009.

I find one bit of this article most curious. It says: "Even with the expansion, the airport expects to reach its capacity in 2021." So, right now, it's 2005 - and airlines are cutting service left and right because of rising fuel prices. Many airlines continue to benefit from fuel agreements signed many months ago, but those agreements will not protect them for much longer from current fuel prices.

Why do we believe that the people who currently fly will be able to afford to with fares increasing so drastically in price? There's no indication that fuel prices will ever fall much below their current levels again, and a strong indication that prices will continue to rise. At what point do the Port and the airlines start taking this into account?

Amtrak Cascades to Portland

2005-10-10T11:51:00.000-07:00

My friend Andy and I had to get up very early on Saturday to make the 7:30 train. We arrived at King Street Station around 6:45 and wandered around gawking at the newly rebuilt doors and retouched plaster moulding - the restoration project is well under way, with some of the columns already marble clad once again, and harsh temporary lights where chandeliers will soon be replaced. I peeked around the edge of the false ceiling in the main lobby - the second story will probably be uncovered soon.

We avoided the ticketing line and picked up our tickets from the QuikTrak machines - $45 round trip for each of us (paid earlier), even booked only a couple of weeks in advance. $90 for two is a bit more than fuel for the truck, but certainly worth it when considering maintenance. We were first in line for seat assignments, and ended up in car 8 - nearly at the head of the train.

From the look of the crowd lined up to board, the train was fairly full. We overheard a conductor discussing this - every seat was sold. This is normal for a Saturday morning, people headed down for the weekend take this train to get the maximum amount of time in Portland. Unlike a trip to Vancouver, this run sells the dining car seats as well - and still fills up.

The train left exactly on time, and we sat back. Short stops in Tukwila and Tacoma, and no slowdowns until a couple of holds for freight traffic close to Kelso/Longview, and one more near Vancouver, WA. This happens less every year - and work is planned to eliminate both of these bottlenecks. We pulled into Portland about twenty minutes late.

We hopped on a bus for the few short blocks on the transit mall to downtown, and got on a Red Line MAX light rail train to go see the airport extension. It's pretty nice to go at highway speed along I-205 - apparently the light rail originally went faster, but there were complaints because people were speeding to keep up with it. Whatever. It was a nice ride, overall - I had never been past Gateway Station east of town, and the tight loop to get on the freeway alignment was probably the tightest rail turn I've ever been on.

Back in town, we hopped off in the Rose Quarter and walked down the floating pedestrian path along the Willamette. It's amazing to me how well Portland has connected their path network - we even saw an intersection where a bike path has its own lights, based on a special bicycle sensor in the trail. I need to take my bike on the train next time and ride around town.

We walked back across the Steel Bridge and were heading toward the pedestrian crossing at Union Station when we saw a train that looked like it was heading for the bridge - so we hurried back toward the bridge to see if it was. I'm glad we did, too! The Coast Starlight crossed the bridge from the other direction while we watched.

The rest of the afternoon was spent getting food and going to Powell's over in the Pearl District. The redevelopment of that area is beautiful - condos over shops make for an extremely pedestrian-friendly area. Powell's and Whole Foods are only a block apart, and the streetcar takes people right downtown.

We took the 6:15 Cascades train back to Seattle and got in a bit before 10. The entire trip from the U-district to Portland was done with public transportation. Assuming we didn't have bus passes for King County Metro (which we did), the trip would have cost $45 for Amtrak tickets , $2.50 for the two Metro runs, and $3.75 for a TriMet all day pass - a total of $51.25. The Amtrak tickets at the time we purchased them were normally $60, but we used the Portland Big Deal 25% discount. My employer-provided FlexPass and Andy's UPass both provide a 15% discount, but the Portland Big Deal was better.

Comparing $51.25*2 people to the standard 40.5c/mile IRS vehicle reimbursement rate - we saved about $40 (not counting travel in Portland), while retaining over 7 hours of nap/reading time.

Seattle's Monorail Project: The Beginning

2005-10-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

The Original Monorail:
Starting in April of 1961, the Alweg Seattle Center Monorail was built in only ten months. The Monorail opened in March of 1962, and with a system cost of $3.5 million, paid for itself with the fares of eight million passengers during the Seattle World's Fair. To this day, because it connects two major pedestrian centers in Seattle's urban core, it is the only transit system in the country to fund its own operation from fare recovery. It operates at a maximum of 50 miles per hour, and carries 2.5 million passengers per year - filling up during Seattle Center events like Bumbershoot, Folklife, and the Bite of Seattle, as well as sporting events and concerts at Key Arena.

Initiative 41:
As a result of the original monorail, Seattle has had a love affair with the technology for decades. Several proposals have been made since the World's Fair to expand the existing monorail, but none made it to the ballot until Dick Falkenbury, a taxi driver with a dream of better public transit, brought us Initiative 41 in 1997. The initiative incorporated a public agency called the Elevated Transportation Company (ETC) and called for the construction of a 40 mile system, referred to often as a "Big X." The system was to connect West Seattle to Lake City with one 20 mile line, and the Rainier valley to Broadview with the other. This plan was brought forward with the assurance of the grassroots campaign behind it that it would pay for itself - in fact, that private developers would build the line without taxpayer dollars because, like the Seattle Center Monorail, it would pay for its own construction costs within only a few years.

The plans in Initiative 41 were specific: The system would run on rubber tires and electricity, would have set station locations (including one at the Kingdome), and would not be publicly funded - although the twist of phrase that may have later saved the ETC allowed them, nonetheless, to appropriate public funds from the City Council. The proposed 12 ETC Councilmembers were to be appointed by an even split of the Mayor, the Governor, and the President of the City Council. The City Council was also given the authority to approve or deny expenses and salaries to be drawn by the ETC Council.

Funding dries up:
In 1998 following the passage of I-41, the City Council created the ETC and gave it $200,000 to explore the idea of the monorail system. While that money was only intended for the first year of operation, it lasted until 2000, when the ETC went to Sound Transit to ask for $50,000 (to be matched by the City Council) to study ridership of a 7 mile system to connect the new stadia and the Seattle Center. Sound Transit's three member finance committee, including Greg Nickels, approved the plan. The Sound Transit executive committee denied the grant by a vote of 6 to 3, despite a 1999 resolution by the ETC that they would not attempt to compete with Sound Transit along their planned light rail alignment.

Mayor Paul Schell and City Councilmember Richard McIver were part of that 6, and backed up their position (and the City Council's) with two major arguments: First, the ETC had raised only $5500 in private funds since their incorporation. It was not clear that private funding for the project would occur, and that was part of the company's charter. Second, the study was for ridership along the route only, not an evaluation of technology, and the City of Seattle Intermediate Capacity Transit Project (ICT) was already to complete the same goals by that fall. The ETC responded to this setback with a request to the Mayor and City Council for $2 million, $1.7 million of which was earmarked to fund the study. Because of the elimination of the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (MVET) due to Initiative 695, Metro Transit already needed a $120 million sales tax increase to continue operations, and the Mayor's office declined the request.

The City Council gets involved:
In May, while ETC had less than $20,000 left, City Councilmembers Nick Licata and Judy Nicastro proposed a $4 million study along the lines of ETC's resolution - to explore service on alignments Sound Transit did not plan to serve with intermediate or high capacity transit. Citing an estimated cost of the monorail line at up to $50 million a mile, McIver and three other councilmembers argued successfully in a 4-4 vote that with a $200 million parks levy and Metro funding already on the ballot, it was unreasonable to ask for more money from voters. A superior court ruling, however, woke up the City Council to the reality of that twist of phrase in Article IV of Initiative 41. The ruling gave the Council two options: Move forward with the monorail using public funds, or repeal the initiative.

In July, the Seattle City Council amended the initiative to effectively repeal it, creating an advisory committee named the Elevated Transportation Committee to enhance the ICT study to see how monorail would fit into overall transportation plans. The Council discussed putting a vote on the primary ballot for that year to let voters choose to pay for the line with a property tax increase of $570 to $1141 a year, but eventually chose not to in another 4-4 vote.

Initiative 53:
While the City Council remained indecisive, Peter Sherwin was at work gathering signatures and public support for an initiative. It would fund a $6 million feasibility study to determine the effectiveness of monorail for the five ICT corridors, and guarantee $200 million in debt for the Committee to use to construct the system. I-53 qualified for the November ballot and passed, and the ETC met again at the end of 2000.

It's a two bridge day.

2005-10-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

I-90 isn't the only bridge looking at having work done, as I'm sure you have heard. SR-520, the other bridge over Lake Washington, is close to the end of its operating life, and desperately needs to be replaced. There are two options: one to replace the structure as it stands, a four lane bridge, and one to replace it with a six lane bridge, "lidding" the Montlake and Capitol Hill communities it splits up with concrete tops to allow for park or road space overhead. An eight lane alternative was considered, but it would seriously overload I-5's ability to handle more traffic.

The outer lanes of the six lane alternative would be HOV only - making existing bus service across the bridge much more reliable, and eliminating dangerous merge situations that currently occur at the ends of the bridge. This would also reduce congestion by reducing not only the number of passenger vehicles in the regular lanes, but many of the slowdowns caused by vehicle merges as well. Sound Transit has made it clear that they want better bus access for the high ridership 545 route from downtown to Redmond (read: Microsoft), and have that service listed as "Bus Rapid Transit" in their long-range plans. It's also going to be possible to put light rail or monorail on the new bridge - the pontoons floating the roadway will be designed to accomodate rail service in the future.

There have already been a few open houses on the project, and more are expected next year. The Montlake Community Club has taken an active role in demanding strong environmental mitigation, good HOV service and effective use of lid space for commuter services. A bicycle path attached to the alignment is assured - the number of bicycle commuters is very high from Seattle to Bellevue, and racks on buses are often full already - this has even led to Sound Transit installing three-bicycle racks on their coaches.

Funding for this project will likely come from three sources: The Washington State Legislature, King County voters, and tolls collected after the new bridge is constructed. For regular users, an electronic system of tags and overhead readers will be used to keep drivers from having to slow down at all - eliminating tollbooth stops for commuter travel.
Currently, $700 million is expected to come from tolls, and $500 million is set aside from the 2005 Transportation Package. Guess what little initiative will derail the replacement for at least another year? You guessed it - I-912.

What I-912 will do to Seattle-Bellevue travel

2005-10-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

Interstate 90 from Seattle to Bellevue was built with high capacity transit in mind. The express lanes through the center are reversible, efficiently serving the direction they are pointing, but worsening traffic in the direction they are not. As population grows (and SR-520 doesn't), traffic density is increasing on I-90, and WSDOT and Sound Transit are working together on a solution.

Sound Transit's High Capacity Transit Analysis Summary (PDF) shows that the best cost per rider solution for I-90 is HOV bus rapid transit, followed by light rail integrated with the Central Link system as rider demand increases. Do note that Sound Transit's <$10m cost estimate for HOV bus transit is misleading, because WSDOT is paying for the HOV lanes. In order to run light rail on the central express lanes, however, dedicated HOV lanes will have to be built for the existing traffic.

In four phases, WSDOT will widen the roadway and add outer HOV lanes with dedicated entrances and exits to both travel directions. This will remove bus transit from regular travel lanes and create more highway capacity, as well as make bus service more reliable over the bridge - increasing ridership, and lowering the number of cars in the regular travel lanes. The first phase, including direct HOV access ramps from I-405 South to I-90 West, is funded by - you guessed it - the 2005 Transportation Tax Package.

Initiative 912 will eliminate funding for better bus service and reduced traffic in the non-express direction, and it will delay or cancel plans for high capacity transit to Bellevue. This is bad not just for the tens of thousands who commute on I-90, but for everyone who depends on goods delivered via I-90. Local food and raw materials as well as many of the goods we ship overseas depend on truck transport through this corridor. Adding thousands of unnecessary cars per day will cost shippers more and waste billions of dollars worth of work time.

Will Sound Transit's Link system be safe?

2005-10-05T12:31:00.000-07:00

With the ongoing debate of monorail versus light rail in Seattle, I think it's a good idea to discuss the safety of the Link Light Rail system Sound Transit is building. Monorail advocates often point out that monorail is by nature separated from pedestrian and street crossings (also called grade-separated), but I have also heard incorrect assertions that light rail is by nature at street level (or at-grade).

Light rail can be elevated, at-grade or underground - and Link uses all three. Downtown, it will use the existing transit tunnel - currently closed to have work done on the rails and overhead lines to support Link. On the way south to Beacon Hill, it crosses a few streets in south downtown Seattle and rises to elevated track. Beacon Hill is tunneled, after which Link is elevated for a station stop. Link then drops to street level through the Rainier Valley, before rising to elevated track again all the way to the airport.

In south downtown, the streets the light rail crosses already have other rail tracks crossing them. There has been track along the alignment the light rail is using since the 1880s - in fact, the rail is being laid in the same place that the first tracks into Seattle were! Drivers in the area are already used to train crossings, and there are few accidents. The crossings will also be signaled and gated to prevent drivers and pedestrians from crossing the tracks when there is a train passing.

In the Rainier Valley, Martin Luther King Jr. Way will have light rail directly on the surface. Area residents called for a tunnel through the region rather than a surface or elevated system because they feared that construction on the surface would run local shops out of business, but funding was not available to continue tunneling. It's widely believed that because the Rainier Valley is one of Seattle's poorest neighborhoods, their demands were considered secondary to those of wealthier residents in Capitol Hill and Montlake - areas which will be tunneled through.

With many at-grade pedestrian and vehicle crossings, this section will be prone to accidents - but not as many as people fear. TriMet's MAX light rail system in Portland has been involved in the deaths of only 18 people since it began operation in 1986 - an average of about one per year. This is impressively low, considering the MAX system is at-grade straight through high-traffic downtown Portland as well as Gresham, and as of 2004 the Yellow Line covers an equivalent distance and density to the MLK alignment. The MAX system served 91 million passenger trips between July 2003 and June 2004. With only one fatality during that time, that's almost as safe as flying. The equivalent car traffic would cause significantly more fatalities.

As an idealist, I would like to see rail systems always grade-separated (elevated or tunneled). Unfortunately, that's not always possible, either due to public preference in service areas or due to funding constraints. Considering the success of the at-grade sections of Portland's MAX system, I don't anticipate serious problems with the MLK section of the Link system - in fact, because many local drivers are already used to Tacoma Link, Amtrak Cascades and Sounder service, new crossings may not pose as much of a problem as they did in Portland when MAX service began.

Airlines at Boeing Field:

2005-10-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

I'll admit freely that I was opposed to the idea of Southwest moving from Sea-Tac to Boeing Field from the beginning. We don't have the road infrastructure around Boeing Field, Sea-Tac has just undergone major improvement work, and Airport Link is dependent on two Port of Seattle plans (pdf) at Sea-Tac:

North Expressway Relocation Phase I - the full relocation of the northbound lanes and the partial realignment of the southbound lanes of the Northern Airport Expressway to provide a corridor for the construction of the LRT alignment. The full relocation of the southbound lanes of the Northern Airport Expressway and Air Cargo Road will occur in a later phase to support the planned terminal extension. This project also includes the partial vacation and relocation of South 170th Street.

South 160th Street Loop Ramp - the completion of a new multi-lane return-to-terminal ramp and the demolition of the existing return-to-terminal ramps. The existing return-to-terminal ramps need to be demolished to support the construction of the LRT station.

As things develop, my position has solidified. If Southwest Airlines is allowed to move from Sea-Tac to Boeing Field, it is likely that revenue to the Port of Seattle will drop such that these plans will have to be abandoned. We now know that if Southwest moves, Alaska/Horizon, American, and Northwest Airlines intend to move some or all of their operations as well. While this could provide Seattle residents with better air service, it would severely inhibit other residents of Puget Sound:

I-405 would no longer provide an alternative for drivers coming from north of Seattle. 405 connects to SR-518 directly and provides a means of bypassing Seattle entirely. This would increase traffic on I-5 through Seattle, an already seriously congested corridor.
Drivers coming from the south would have to come farther north, into Seattle, rather than using I-5's Orilla Road exit or Highway 99. This adds five miles to a trip - right into Seattle traffic.
Businesses will suffer. The Sea-Tac mall can't exactly be relocated to Boeing Field, the area around Boeing is primarily industrial. If commercial development takes hold there, property values will go up, driving industry away from the port.

With Southwest planning to start with 60 flights a day and ramp up to 85, and Alaska getting the number up to 130 (King County's stated maximum), that's a lot of noise and a lot of traffic. Fortunately, the Council plans to take public comments in their chambers at the King County Courthouse on the evening of October 12th.

I hope they shoot this down - losing the light rail connection to the airport and noisy takeoffs and landings over Seattle are not my cup of tea.

Link: Beacon Hill construction update meeting

2005-10-03T17:18:00.000-07:00

Within the next few days, the Tunnel Boring Machine sitting next to Tully's headquarters in Seattle will start digging through Beacon Hill. Sound Transit has been holding regular meetings to update interested people on the schedule, technology and design of the system.

The next such meeting will be on October 11th, from 6:30 to 7:30, at the Boy Scouts of America facility in the Rainier Valley:

Boy Scouts of America (Meeting Room)
3120 Rainier Ave S
Seattle, WA 98144

If you're interested in going, comment and we'll meet up there! I'm hoping to get more information about exactly what date tunneling will start, and we can walk up MLK to have a look at the embankment where Link will be going from elevated to at-grade.

Initiative 912

2005-10-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

What it is:
I-912 is an initiative to cancel a 9.5c/gallon increase in gasoline taxes in Washington State.

History:
In May, the Washington State Legislature passed a tax package to fund transportation projects around the state through an increase in gas taxes and vehicle weight fees. Since Initiative 695 passed in 2000 repealing the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax, Washington State's transportation budget was gutted until the Nickel Funding Package passed in 2003, raising the gas tax by 5c/gallon. Many of the Nickel projects were only partially funded by that tax, and to complete them, the 2005 Transportation Tax Package was passed to raise the tax by 9.5c/gallon in increments over four years.
In response, individuals across the state put together a simple repeal - as written, the initiative simply erases the gas tax sections passed in the Legislature's tax package. The initiative gathered enough signatures to be placed on the November 2005 ballot.

Effect:
I-912 does not provide a new funding source for the transportation package, so it will effectively cancel or stall work on up to 270 projects throughout the state. Opponents claim that the transportation package leaves many projects incomplete, but only a few projects are not funded to completion by the package - projects that the state expects municipalities to partially fund.
Some rail and freight projects which the package funds will not be directly affected by I-912, but funding for those projects is expected to be reallocated to road and bridge safety projects.

Link Light Rail construction in Rainier Valley

2005-10-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

Today and tomorrow, east-west traffic at S. Graham St. and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd S. will be blocked during evenings from 7-10 pm. Exploratory excavation is taking place in preparation for water line work before light rail can be installed.

Central Link light rail will run on MLK Jr. Blvd between Mount Baker station and the Interstate 5 crossing at the south end of Boeing Field.

First Post

2005-10-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

Higher Frequency is about our options to effectively and efficiently move people and goods in the Pacific Northwest, and especially Puget Sound (get it? Sound? Frequency? *sigh*). It will explore all our transportation options and their impacts on community development, the environment, businesses and individuals.