Celebrate SWIFT Tomorrow

Tomorrow Community Transit will be opening the State's first Bus Rapid Transit Route.

Join Transportation Choices as we celebrate SWIFT's opening with our friends at Community Transit. We will be handing out stickers, chatting about transit, and signing people up as members during Community Transit's celebration from 2-4 Crossroads Swift Station at Highway 99 and 196th Street in Lynnwood.

For more information see Community Transit's SWIFT project page.

Stop by tomorrow, take a ride on BRT, grab a sticker, and say hello to Jenn, Rob, and Andrew from TCC.

Shake-up on Community Transit Board of Directors

Community Transit recently announced their newly appointed board members. Here is their press release:

Election fills vacancies until January 2010

Snohomish County, Wash. – Four new board members were elected to join the Community Transit Board of Directors Thursday. They were chosen in a special election by representatives of the Public Transportation Benefit Area member cities to fill out terms of board members who had resigned this past year.

Lynnwood City Councilmember Lisa Utter, Mill Creek City Councilmember Mike Todd, Mountlake Terrace Mayor Jerry Smith and Sultan City Councilmember Steve Slawson were chosen by their peers to serve through January 2010.

Other current board members are Chair and Brier City Councilmember Carlton Gipson, Vice Chair and Snohomish County Councilmember Dave Gossett, Marysville Mayor Dennis Kendall, Mukilteo Mayor Joe Marine and Snohomish County Councilmember Mike Cooper.

Slawson and Smith are new to the board; Todd and Utter were board alternates prior to being elected regular board members.

The new members will serve until a new Community Transit Board is chosen by the member cities in January 2010. Regular board elections take place in January of even-numbered years, following municipal elections.

Board members represent jurisdictions within the Community Transit service district. There are two representatives from large cities, with a population of more than 30,000; three from medium cities (population 10,000 to 30,000) and two from small cities (population less than 10,000). In addition, two members of the Snohomish County Council serve on the board.

In addition to electing new board members, two new alternates were chosen. Edmonds City Councilmember Steve Bernheim is a large cities alternate and Monroe City Councilmember John Stima is a medium cities alternate. Other board alternates are: for large cities, Lynnwood City Councilmember Ted Hikel; for medium cities, Lake Stevens City Councilmember Heather Coleman; and for small cities, Snohomish City Councilmember Doug Thorndike.

Seattle Times Sends Praise to Community Transit's BRT Line

The Seattle Times has a in-depth Op-Ed today on Community Transit's soon to be opened SWIFT Bus Rapid Transit line.

For those of you who attended our visioning Town Hall in June you heard from SWIFT project manager, June DeVol, about the project.

I had the chance to tour the vehicles and the corridor with CT's director of government affairs, Todd Morrow, in the spring. I've posted the pictures from that tour on facebook here, check them out to get a sense of how SWIFT will feel and look.

As an organization Transportation Choices Coalition is excited for the opening of the SWIFT BRT project. I think more than anything this is a great example of how transit agencies can leverage local investments (the cities paid for the BAT lanes that will be for bus and right turn access only) and state and federal grants, to produce a high quality transit service.

As I was reading the opinion article I was worried that the light rail skeptic Seattle Times might turn a pro-BRT story into an anti-light rail story.

"Projected savings for BRT over light rail can be dramatic, and they were appealing in the middle 1990s as Puget Sound debated a regional transit solution. They came up again in 2005 as the community pondered phase two of Sound Transit. How to get across the I-90 bridge: light rail or BRT?

Early on, U.S. cities that embraced BRT went for separated guideways. Those plans — and eventual expansion — came with their own expensive right-of-way issues, same as light rail.

Thankfully, the piece alludes to the that long-term operating costs are on rail often justify the high upfront price tag and make more sense in many high density corridors (such as connecting Seattle to Bellevue over the Lake).

High-capacity rail is expensive to build but spreads those capital costs over a long timeline. Moving lots and lots of passengers along dense corridors makes the most sense. I do not see transit agencies hiring armies of bus and van drivers with medical and pension plans to cover.

Community Transit's Swift is truly a model of bus rapid transit, not simply shaving time off express bus runs. I want this effort to thrive and be instructive.

Dickie got it right. Washington State residents need more transportation choices across the board, that is why at TCC we wake up every day to deliver just that. We need fast, efficient, and easy to use BRT and light rail corridors across the state. Local BRT stretching down 99 from Tacoma to Everett would compliment a regional commuter rail and light rail system. People need more high frequency convenient transit, whether its to travel 2 miles down the street to the grocery store or 30 miles to visit family or commute to work. This fall I look forward to taking our first ride on SWIFT, Washington's first bus line with dedicated branding and right of way, hopefully other transit agencies can secure local and state funding in order to replicate Community Transit's Bus Rapid Transit Model.