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.

Tacoma Passes final Complete Streets Guidelines: Gets Props from National Complete Streets Coalition

On Tuesday night the outgoing Tacoma City Council passed finalized guidelines for complete streets in the city. A few years ago they passed a resolution supporting complete streets but this vote was a bold step forward in implementing complete streets throughout Tacoma.

Here is the blurb in the e-mail I got from the national complete streets coalition:

Tacoma, WA: Final drafts of the city's Complete Streets Design Guidelines went before the City Council Study Session on November 10. The Design Guidelines are a comprehensive, citywide approach that will safely accommodate all users and contain cost-effective tools and implementation steps. The City Council adopted a resolution endorsing the Guidelines on November 17.

Congratulations to our friends at the City of Tacoma for this bold step forward and the national recognition.

I leave you with the coalitions quote from LaHood for some inspiration:

"We need safer roadways. We need roadways designed to account for the needs of everyone who uses them, whether driving, walking, or riding in a wheelchair or on a bicycle..... The great thing about this Complete Streets approach to road planning is that it's actually cheaper to plan for multiple road uses ahead of time than to retrofit roadways after they are built and someone gets injured or killed."
- Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, commenting on his meeting with Transportation for America, National Complete Streets Coalition, AARP, America Bikes, the American Public Health Association, Safe Routes to School National Partnership, and Smart Growth America

Sound Transit to Seattle: Your Streetcar is Coming Sooner

Sound Transit officially announced today that the Seattle 1st Hill Streetcar will be up and running by 2013 instead of 2016 as originally planned. This is great news for first hill residents, commuters, and visitors alike!

From Sound Transit's Press Desk:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Nov. 16, 2009

Seattle, Sound Transit execute agreement for expedited streetcar construction
Partnership scheduled to deliver Sound Transit 2’s First Hill Streetcar project by 2013

The City of Seattle and Sound Transit are moving forward with plans to build a new streetcar line linking the city’s First Hill neighborhood with Capitol Hill and the International District.

The city and Sound Transit have executed an agreement that includes an expedited construction timeline — the line is anticipated to open in 2013 instead of the 2016 completion that was earlier planned. The City of Seattle will build and operate the new line, which voters approved as part of the 2008 Sound Transit 2 ballot measure.

“This line will be the first two of 36 new miles of rail coming to our region,” said Sound Transit Board Chair and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, who today added his signature to the agreement following recent approvals by the Sound Transit Board and Seattle City Council.

The First Hill Streetcar will serve major Seattle work centers, including Swedish Hospital, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle University and Seattle Central Community College. The line will provide easy access to the Link light rail system that opened this summer and the Capitol Hill light rail station when University Link opens in 2016.

“First Hill is home to more than 22,000 jobs and the streetcar will be a great new option for the people who live and work here,” said First Hill Improvement Association Vice President Jim Erickson. “We look forward to working with the City and Sound Transit to meet the transportation needs of First Hill.”

Sound Transit will cover the project’s costs up to $132 million, and the city will take the lead on design, property acquisition and construction of the two-mile line connecting downtown Seattle, First Hill and the Capitol Hill light rail station. Sound Transit will cover operating costs when the line begins service.

The First Hill line will be the second modern streetcar line in Seattle following the Sound Lake Union Streetcar line which opened in December, 2008.

The City plans to begin construction in 2012. The final route will be determined as part of the environmental review process over the next two years. The Sound Transit Board included the streetcar line in the ST 2 expansion package after determining that a previously-planned light rail station at Madison Street and Summit Avenue on First Hill would be too costly.

Don't Forget! Friday Forums in Bellevue and Tacoma Tomorrow!

FRIDAY FORUMS: Join Us on Friday in Bellevue or Tacoma

This Friday we're hosting a Friday Forum double header! Pick your city and join us for an excellent discussion on all things transportation. In Bellevue, the planned extension of light rail to Overlake sets up plenty of opportunites to create communities that are affordable, pedestrian and bike friendly with great connections to transit. We'll be discussing these opportunities and more. In Tacoma, Pierce Transit is looking to reshape its bus system while Sound Transit is extending commuter rail. What will this mean for the city and how does the city's Mixed Use Centers Plan update complement these transit plans? Join our expert panel to find out.

Bellevue: Transit Oriented Communities in Bellevue and Beyond - Challenges and Opportunities
With the adoption of its Bel-Red plan, the City of Bellevue has launched one of the nation's most far reaching Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) efforts. Other Eastside cities, such as Redmond and Mercer Island have substantially changed the way they plan for development and how they see their residents moving around in coming decades. But there are major impediments to how these cities and others in the region will be able to meet their TOD objectives and absorb rapidly expanding populations and workforces. Join us for a discussion of both the challenges and new opportunities of TOD on the Eastside, with the findings of new reports from Futurewise and their partners (including TCC), as well as the Quality Growth Alliance, serving as the basis for this discussion.

As always, feel free to bring your lunch.

WHAT: Transit Oriented Communities in Bellevue and Beyond with Sara Nikolic, Futurewise, presenting Transit Oriented Communities: A Blueprint for Washington State
A representative from the Quality Growth Alliance, presenting their new report, TOD and Urban Centers, From Barriers to Solutions and Best Practices
WHEN: Friday, November 13, 12 - 1:30 pm
WHERE: Room 1e-108 Bellevue City Hall 450 110th Ave. NE, Bellevue

Take the bus to Bellevue! Sound Transit Express 550 offers frequent bus service from downtown Seattle to the Bellevue Transit Center, less than a block away from City Hall. Plan your trip here.

Tacoma: Transportation in Tacoma for the 21st Century
Tacoma and the South Sound face many tough decisions as we plan for the future of our transportation system. How do we extend the Tacoma Streetcar system? How do we reshape Pierce Transit's bus system? How do parking policies affect the city's to make streets more walkable? Please join us for an engaging conversation with Tacoma's transportation experts.

As always, feel free to bring your lunch.

PANEL: Lynn Griffith, Pierce Transit CEO
Eric Anderson, City Manager of Tacoma
David Hiller, Advocacy Director of the Cascade Bicycle Club
Ric Ilgenfritz, Planning Director Sound Transit
WHEN: Friday, November 13, 12 - 1:30 pm
WHERE: Simpson Room, Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber , 950 Pacific Ave, Tacoma

Take the bus to Tacoma! Sound Transit Express 594 offers frequent bus service from downtown Seattle to downtown Tacoma. Plan your trip here.

This event is co-sponsored by Transportation Choices Coalition, The City of Tacoma, The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber

Thank you to our sponsors of the Friday Forum Series
PLATINUM
Vulcan Inc.

GOLD
CH2M Hill
The Boeing Company
HDR Inc.

SILVER
Jacobs and Associates | IBI Group | HNTB Corporation | Parsons Brinckerhoff
Wilbur Smith Associates | Bricklin Newman Dold

WSDOT Survey

A quick message from WSDOT:

The Washington State Department of Transportation's mission is to keep people and business moving by operating and improving the transportation systems vital to our taxpayers and communities. We take this mission seriously. We would like to know your opinion about how we are doing. Please take a few minutes to complete this brief survey. Your feedback will help us learn more about how we can improve our performance.

Three Friday Forums on the Horizon: See you There!

FRIDAY FORUM: Update on the SR-520 Bridge Project

All eyes have been on the Viaduct but we've got another highway structure that needs replacing. Work continues to proceed on the replacing the SR 520 bridge with a new more transit friendly, tolled facility. Tolling is scheduled to return to the existing structure within the next year and construction has already begun on replacement pontoons. A special legislative workgroup is currently meeting to resolves issues that remain such as design of the West side ramps, while King County Metro is working with both the legislature and federal government on transit service and funding options.

Join us for a discussion, followed by Q&A with our panelists. As always, feel free to bring your lunch.

WHAT: SR 520 Replacement update with Daniel Babuca, Engineering Manager SR 520 Bridge Replacement and HOV Program, WSDOT and Barbara Gilliland, SR 520 Legislative Workgroup Administrator, WSDOT
WHEN: Friday, November 6, 12 - 1:30 pm
WHERE: Downtown YMCA, 909 4th Avenue, Seattle WA


SAVE THE DATE for our DOUBLE HEADER NEXT WEEK!

November 13: Transportation in Tacoma for the 21st Century
Tacoma and the South Sound face many tough decisions as we plan for the future of our transportation system. How do we extend the Tacoma Streetcar system? How do we reshape Pierce Transit's bus system? How do parking policies affect the city's to make streets more walkable? Please join us for an engaging conversation with Tacoma's transportation experts.

As always, feel free to bring your lunch.

PANEL: Lynn Griffith, Pierce Transit CEO
Eric Anderson, City Manager of Tacoma
David Hiller, Advocacy Director of the Cascade Bicycle Club
Ric Ilgenfritz, Planning Director Sound Transit
WHEN: Friday, November 13, 12 - 1:30 pm
WHERE: Simpson Room, Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber , 950 Pacific Ave, Tacoma

Take the bus to Tacoma! Sound Transit Express 594 offers frequent bus service from downtown Seattle to downtown Tacoma. Plan your trip here.

This event is co-sponsored by Transportation Choices Coalition, The City of Tacoma, The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Tacoma Bicycle Club, Cascade Bicycle Club, Cascade Land Conservancy, and Futurewise

November 13: Transit Oriented Communities in Bellevue and Beyond - Challenges and Opportunities
With the adoption of its Bel-Red plan, the City of Bellevue has launched one of the nation's most far reaching Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) efforts. Other Eastside cities, such as Redmond and Mercer Island have substantially changed the way they plan for development and how they see their residents moving around in coming decades. But there are major impediments to how these cities and others in the region will be able to meet their TOD objectives and absorb rapidly expanding populations and workforces. Join us for a discussion of both the challenges and new opportunities of TOD on the Eastside, with the findings of new reports from Futurewise and their partners (including TCC), as well as the Quality Growth Alliance, serving as the basis for this discussion.

As always, feel free to bring your lunch.

WHAT: Transit Oriented Communities in Bellevue and Beyond with Sara Nikolic, Futurewise, presenting Transit Oriented Communities: A Blueprint for Washington State
A representative from the Quality Growth Alliance, presenting their new report, TOD and Urban Centers, From Barriers to Solutions and Best Practices
WHEN: Friday, November 13, 12 - 1:30 pm
WHERE: Room 1e-108 Bellevue City Hall 450 110th Ave. NE, Bellevue

Take the bus to Bellevue! Sound Transit Express 550 offers frequent bus service from downtown Seattle to the Bellevue Transit Center, less than a block away from City Hall. Plan your trip here.

Thank you to our sponsors of the Friday Forum Series
PLATINUM
Vulcan Inc.

GOLD
CH2M Hill
The Boeing Company
HDR Inc.

SILVER
Jacobs and Associates | IBI Group | HNTB Corporation | Parsons Brinckerhoff
Wilbur Smith Associates | Bricklin Newman Dold

Walkscore and Transit

Sightline reports that the website Walkscore has incorporated transit into their walkability score. Walkscore is a popular website being used by realtors and individuals alike that allows you to put in your home address have find out its walkability based upon its proximity to schools, stores, entertainment, nightlife, and now transit.

Walkscore uses transit data via google transit so it only works for systems that have inputted their data into google transit. Locally Metro and Island Transit have made their data available to google transit but Pierce, Community Transit, and Sound Transit (other than buses run by metro) are not yet. Having tools like Google transit and one bus away that make using transit easier are crucial components to attracting choice riders. Recently when I was visiting family in NYC I was able to use Google transit on my blackberry and cruise the city via subway or bus seamlessly. Walk score has set up a petition that allows you to ask your local agency to release their data to Google transit. I just filled it out, you should too.

http://www.walkscore.com/transit-feed.shtml

A Conversation with the Bellingham Herald

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit down over coffee with Jared Paben, who is the transportation reporter at the Bellingham Herald. He is a bright guy who understands the intigrated aspects of our region's transportation system.

Today he put up a overview of our conversation on his traffic blog. Check it out here.

Transportation Choices Coalition: State needs to step up and help pay for transit service

I sat down a while back with Andrew Austin, who works at the group Transportation Choices Coalition, and learned a little about what the group is planning with regard to its legislative agenda.

First, the group would like to push the legislature to allow a voter-approved local option for funding transit. The problem, he said, is that even if Whatcom Transportation Authority and Pierce Transit, as examples, wanted to take all of the sales tax they legally can (up to nine-tenths of 1 percent of the sales tax) it would simply stave off cuts, not make the agencies economically sustainable.

“In the next few months we need to find a long-term sustainable funding source for … agencies to go to,” he said. “As we’re poising ourselves to recover from this recession, we need to be poising to grow our transit service, not shrink it.”

As many of you have heard, WTA is joining the ranks of other agencies looking at service cuts. Next year, it’s looking at possibly cutting 25 full-time positions, which means service cuts, including the loss of all Sunday service. It’s because sales tax revenues have taken a dive.

He think a motor-vehicle excise tax seems the most workable option. Currently, voters in an area like Whatcom County can’t vote to increase a motor vehicle excise tax to pay for transit service, but the legislature could change that.

Under the state Constitution, gas tax revenues that right now go to pay for highway projects can’t pay for transit service. Austin said they’d like to see a sales tax on gasoline that could pay for transit.

The legislature commissioned a report that will be delivered back to the legislature’s joint transportation committee, and the report will say which taxes might be palatable to the public (and thus our elected officials).

He blasted the legislature for its lack of interest in supporting transit, while the public, meanwhile, clamors for options other than driving alone, he said. The state doesn’t support transit like it should, he said.

“There’s not very many transit champions in the legislature,” he said.

I asked him about the bus service between Bellingham and Mount Vernon that I remembered was paid with state funds. That’s the only place where the state gives direct funding to transit service (not counting capital purchases), he said, adding that it’s $300,000 a year.

“That should be a model for the rest of the state,” he said.

The state does have four programs, called flexible account, with some funding that do the following: 1. Helps pay for Amtrak service. 2. Pay for Safe Routes to Schools projects 3. Commute trip reduction programs for large businesses, 4. Grant programs for transit capital spending.

The legislature “sucked” money from those program and put it into the roads account, he said.

In the short run, we need to work to fill those accounts again, Austin said, but in the next two to five years we need to find new revenues for highways and transit.

Anyway, this is just a summary of some notes I jotted while sitting down with Austin at The Bagelry a couple of Fridays ago.

What do you think about his ideas? What are you ideas for state transit (and highways, for that matter) spending?

Also, click here to see more on the state’s funding for transportation.