Act Now to Save Rapid Ride!

The future of King County Metro’s Rapid Ride is at risk due to proposed funding cuts in Congress.  You have a narrow window of opportunity to contact your U.S. Senators and Congressmen and tell them to save the proposed cuts to Rapid Ride!

What is Rapid Ride ?

Rapid Ride was approved by voters during the 2006 Transit Now campaign.  It is a comprehensive plan to bring faster, easier to use, and more efficient bus service across King County.  The Rapid Ride A Line, between Federal Way and Tukwila on Highway 99, began in October 2010.  Since then ridership in the corridor has increased by more than 25% and 84% of riders in a recent survey said they were satisfied or extremely satisfied by the new service.  I had a chance to ride the new service and it as noticeably more convenient and faster than traditional local bus service.

If the federal government maintains their commitment to Rapid Ride the B line (Bellevue to Redmond) will open this year, the C and D lines (West Seattle, Downtown, Ballard) will open in 2012, and the E and F lines (Aurora North and Renton/Tukwilla) will open in 2013.  For more information on King County Metro’s comprehensive Rapid Ride plan to bring you better bus service, stretching from Shoreline to Federal Way, visit Metro’s website.

 

Why Does the Federal Budget Matter? 

A large portion of the capitol improvements needed to implement Rapid Ride, such as bus only lanes and bus stops with off board payment, are dependent on federal new starts funding.  The House Republican budget slashes new starts funding to the point where Rapid Ride will not be able to be implemented on time.

What Can I Do?

Click here to take action today to save rapid ride service.  Give us a minute of your time and contact your federal Senate and House delegation and tell them to save new starts funding and Rapid Ride service.

Thanks for all you do!

Don’t forget to CLICK HERE to save Rapid Ride service.

Obama on Livable Communities

Last week President Obama gave a long speech to the US council of mayors where he talked about his plan for livable communities and urban revitalization. The speech, printed here with analysis, is well worth the read.

A quick highlight:

Second, we’ll focus on creating more livable and environmentally sustainable communities. Because when it comes to development, it’s time to throw out old policies that encouraged sprawl and congestion, pollution, and ended up isolating our communities in the process. We need strategies that encourage smart development linked to quality public transportation, that bring our communities together.

A Breakdown of the 2010 transportation appropriations bill earmarks

Scott over at the SeattlePI.com has picked up the transportation earmark bill that is currently moving forward at the federal level.

A full list of the appropriations is linked on the WSDOT Blog here .

Reading through the list I'll pull out a few projects that are great, not so great, and others that raise some questions.

The good news:
Patty Murray and the rest of our delegation delivered on federal commitment to transit and multi-modal access in the Puget Sound Region.

- $9.3 for Metro's RapidRide between Belleuve and Redmond
- $110 for University Link expansion
- $1.8 Million for new C-Tran buses
- $1.7 Million for new Intercity Transit buses
- $2.4 Million for Link Transit buses
- $1.2 Million for Pierce Transit diesel hybrid buses
- $1.2 Million for Spokane Transit hybrid buses
- $600,000 for hybrid buses for the West Seattle RapidRide
- $974,00 for Whatcom Transportation buses
- $1.7 Million for alternatives analysis for High Capacity Transit in the Columbia River Crossing Corridor.
- $1.4 Puyallup BRT Alternatives Analysis
- $360,000 for SE King County Commuter Rail Study; more on seattle transit blog
- $730,00 for Whatcom Smart Trips, their Commute Trip Reduction program
- $800,000 for pedestrian oriented streetscape improvements in Downtown Tacoma
- $1.9 Million for Fishlake trail in Spokane, I have never been there but is sounds good.

Not as exciting projects:
- US 395 North Spokane Corridor-this new freeway has long been a priority of Eastern Washington Legislatures so no surprise here but still it is a huge general purpose lane expansion project.
- US 12 Phase 7 Burbank to Walla Walla is widening a state highway from 2 general purpose lanes to 4, which is always fun.

Needs more investigation:
-There is $974,000 dollars for a "Tacoma Intermodal Transit Center", which sounds good in theory, but I think that may be code speak for money for more city owned large parking garages on the edge of the downtown.