Category Archives: seattle stuff

Carfree Sundays, part III

The third and final carfree Sunday took place in my original neighborhood of West Seattle, so I didn’t mind the two-bus ride (4 + 56) to the festivities. (Then again, what’s two short rides compared to an unobstructed view of the Sound and the Olympics? I digress.)

West Seattle’s event was fun, but not as fun as Columbia City’s. (Thanks to the weather, Capitol Hill wasn’t even in the running.) Some reasons why:

• It wasn’t really car free. The far east lane of the street, which was separated from the activity with cones, remained open to all traffic. It wasn’t nearly as freeing or novel to play in the street with a line of vehicles inching by a few feet away.
• There wasn’t a concentrated point of activity. The street was closed (well, sort of–see above) from Seacrest Park on Harbor Ave all the way to the mini Statue of Liberty near the end of Alki Ave. Most of the activity was happening near the south end, so folks who jumped in farther north were likely disappointed.
• There was no music. This made a huge difference in the atmosphere and (my) general enjoyment.
• The majority of attendees were riding bikes. Don’t get me wrong: I have nothing but love for my bike nerd brothers and sisters, and I certainly don’t begrudge them the chance to take advantage of a chance to ride–free of worry–in the street. As a pedestrian, though, I was somewhat ill at ease. It felt more like I was walking in the bike lane than attending a street festival.

Of course, all those issues are minor and can be worked out on future carfree days. On to the photos:

“If Seattleites drive every vehicle 2,000 miles less a year (about 20 miles a week), we can meet our current climate pollution reduction goals.”

I didn’t see the Undriving folks from Sustainable Ballard this time. (Maybe they decided one trip to West Seattle was enough for this year.) The “Yes on Prop 1” folks were out in force, though.

Despite the concerns of its manager, business at Duke’s didn’t appear to suffer:

The best thing about the West Seattle carfree Sunday was, of course, the view. There’s something about the combination of water, mountains, and sunshine that inspires romance.

Waiting for the Water Taxi shuttle: bus (stop) luh

Me? I’m having a romance with my city. I’m proud of our first attempts at carfree days and looking forward to more next summer (or sooner!).

I’ve been meaning to tell you about…

• State funding for more buses during viaduct construction
• Record Metro ridership this summer (not such a big surprise, but worth noting)
• No more Seahawks shuttle service

Sorry for not keeping you guys up to date on this stuff. I’d like to say I’ve been too busy to post, but the truth is, I’ve been completely obsessed with the upcoming election–both Prop 1 and the presidential stuff (OK, mostly the presidential stuff). I can’t stop thinking and reading about it; it’s even interfering with my sleep.

May I have my ballot now, please?

Saving service

For the past several weeks, since hearing news of Metro’s dismal budget outlook (higher than projected fuel costs, lower than projected sales tax revenues), we transit types have been wondering whether we’d be faced with service cuts, fare hikes higher than the original 25-cent proposal, or both. Folks, hold on to your bus passes: We might not have to deal with either.

Today, Ron Sims is proposing a “plan C” that this bus chick can get behind. From the KCCK himself:

I fundamentally believe that a robust transportation network that moves people between their homes and their jobs is critical to our long term economic prosperity. An accessible, reliable and affordable public transportation system is vital to our community. Moreover, reducing the number of cars on the road is essential to reducing carbon emissions and protecting our environment. Thus, we must do all we can to keep our buses running and maintain our existing transit service. We must also remain steadfast with the implementation of the service expansion we promised voters when we asked them to approve the Transit Now initiative.

Therefore, I am proposing a measure that will not reduce bus service and will limit our [fall] fare increase to 25 cents … with another 25 cent increase in 2010.

[…]

These fare increases, however, by themselves will not be enough to make up the financial shortfall over the next two years. Rather than reducing services, I further propose that the shortfall be covered by the sale of some Metro capital assets such as the Bellevue Metro site worth approximately $18 million and by cutting capital projects totaling approximately $65 million. In addition, I propose to spend operating and capital reserves of approximately $45 – $60 million. This is an appropriate time to use these rainy day funds given the unprecedented financial storm pounding Metro today.

I admit I don’t fully understand the implications of the asset sales (the Bellevue property, at least, is not currently being used), and Lord knows I’m not a fan of fare increases, but given Metro’s funding constraints and service obligations, this seems like a reasonable (and reasonably creative) response to the crisis. Now is the time for more transit and more incentives to ride, not cuts. Sims’ proposal keeps us from losing ground–at least until we can identify more progressive (and predictable!) sources of transit funding.

July Golden Transfer

This month’s Golden Transfer goes (for the second time) to the city I’m proud to call home, the S-E-A double-T L-E (don’t trip; you know you have that CD lurking somewhere in the depths of your music collection), Seattle, Washington, USA. On three consecutive Sundays this summer, Seattle will close some streets to cars.

• On Aug. 24, 14th Avenue East will be closed from East Republican Street to Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill from noon to 6 p.m. The park’s Western Loop will also be car-free.
• Rainier Avenue South will be closed between Orcas and Alaska streets on Aug. 31 from 3-6 p.m.
• Alki Avenue in West Seattle will be closed to motor vehicles from noon to 6 p.m on Sept. 7

Pinch me…I must be dreaming! The only way this could be better is if one of those streets was the one in front of my house. (OK, there are many ways it could be better–more streets, more hours, more Sundays–but I can definitely work with this.)

Some business owners are feeling salty (not to mention caught off guard) and are afraid they’ll lose business if their customers cannot drive to them.

“We might as well close for the day,” said Joe Fraser, general manager of Duke’s Chowder House on Alki. West Seattle is one of the neighborhoods affected.

“Closing the street for construction, I can understand. But closing the street just for the sake of closure, that does not seem well thought out,” he said.

Fraser said summer Sundays are among the restaurant’s best days, when customers come from throughout the region for dining on the deck or sidewalk.

(Source: Seattle PI)

I’m guessing they’ll be surprised by the number of people (people who actually live in the neighborhood, for example) who come out to enjoy our streets on foot, bikes, skateboards, and et cetera. I, for, one, will be hitting up all three of these events, and, as we learned earlier today, car-free types have plenty of cash to spare.

So thanks to my city, for stepping out there just a little bit, and for giving me hope that it will be a place little Chicklet will grow up to love as much as I do.

The 2-0-sickness, as experienced from the EBWT

How you like us now, Portland? (Sorry–that just came out. It’s all love.)

More of these, please!

It appears that the new sign designs have gone live. I spotted this, sans disclaimer, at a stop near the airport:

Somewhere on International Blvd…

I guess they didn’t need to use the airport icon on this one, since the airport is across the street. I’m wondering, though: Is there an icon for trife (or at least some sort of warning icon) to put next to the 174?

Speaking of the future…

Last week, Sound Transit released its new 15-year plan. The ST board is expected to decide whether to put it on the November ballot by July 24th.

Yes, please.

As you might have noticed, I’d much rather write about what’s happening on buses and (Lord willing!) trains than the nuts and bolts of transit planning. Fortunately, the folks at Seattle Transit Blog are doing an excellent job of covering this. They have all the detail, discussion, and analysis a transit geek (or concerned citizen) could ask for.

Trickle down

High fuel prices + lots more riders = a major budget shortfall, and hence, Ron Sims is proposing another 25-cent fare increase.

With Metro Transit ridership and diesel fuel prices at record levels, King County Executive Ron Sims on July 3, 2008 announced he will preserve current service and continue delivering new service by proposing a 25-cent fare increase. Sims opted for the proposed increase rather than cut service to pay for fuel costs that have skyrocketed over 60 percent this year alone.

“This worldwide fuel crisis comes at a time of historic ridership growth for Metro Transit–and is the reason why residents are turning to transit in record numbers as their own budgets are squeezed,” Sims said. “But the same rising fuel costs contributing to Metro’s popularity are making it more expensive to deliver service and maintain aggressive transit-growth plans.

If the Council approves the proposal, it will take effect on October 1st.

I don’t have much to say about this, except–yet again–that it’s time to get serious about finding creative, progressive ways (other than fares and sales taxes, please) to increase funding for transit. We said we wanted folks to ride, right?

A virtual open house

If you missed out on Sound Transit’s system expansion open houses this spring, you can still provide feedback on the agency’s proposal–which will be on the ballot this fall. (As if you didn’t have enough reasons to look forward to November.) All of the materials, including the questionnaire, are available on this page of Sound Transit’s site.

Update: The deadline for feedback is 5 PM this Thursday, June 19th, which also happens to be Juneteenth and 2008 Dump the Pump day.

Speaking of dumping your car… (Aren’t we always?)

The City of Seattle’s One Less Car Challenge is back! This is an excellent, innovative program that gives people support (and incentives) to try living without a car for a limited amount of time.

There are two levels of participation. Level 1 (a “trial separation”) requires that you live without your car (or, if you’re part of a family, one of your cars) for a month. Level 2 (a “divorce”) requires a year commitment to car-freedom. The incentives are dependent on the level of participation, but some of them include: gift certificates for transit passes, bike gear, and other car-free necessities; a membership in Cascade Bicycle Club; and free advice and support from folks who already know the ropes.

The program is popular (and limited), so if you’re interested in participating, sign up now.

Unfortunately for Char and John, you have to live in Seattle to be eligible. As far as I know, Bellevue does not offer a comparable program, but this site provides information about undriving incentives for Bellevueites (Bellevue-ers? Belluvians?).

New sign designs!

Metro is testing prototypes of a new bus-sign design. They’re on display in front of King Street Center for about another week. (After that they’ll be at Third & Union, at the Benaroya stop.) I went to check them out yesterday.

Here’s the prototype for a sign at a major stop:

And here’s the prototype for the smaller stops:

Note that the numbers are bigger and now read left-to-right instead of top-to-bottom. They are also removable, which makes the signs easier and cheaper to update.

As you can see, the route destination is now listed under the route number. This is a helpful addition, but I wonder how Metro will handle routes that don’t always terminate at the same location. Some examples: 48 Rainier Beach vs. 48 Columbia City; 3 Madrona vs. 3 First Hill. Will the route be listed twice? Will there be two destinations listed under the number? (I’m not even going to touch those routes that change numbers halfway through the ride.) Then again, I suppose that’s not as much an issue with the signs as with the route numbering, and that’s a post for another time.

Another cool (but possibly problematic) addition: The stop numbers are now printed on the signs. This is a good thing for those of us who’ve tried calling Metro’s automated service to find out when a route is scheduled to be at a particular stop, only to be prompted to enter a stop number, which is not available anywhere at the stop. Unfortunately, the stop numbers used by this system are not the same as the stop IDs used by Tracker and MyBus. I predict a whole lot of confused riders. But again, this is a problem that’s bigger than the signs.

I love (without reservations) the rail, airport, and ferry icons and the addition of Metro’s rider information number and Web address. Adding these is a good step toward making the system more usable and predictable, and making it easier for newbies to find their way around.

I must close with the disclaimer sign that was posted next to the prototypes.

This is only a test, folks, so don’t start expecting to see these at your local stop anytime soon.

Of course, the testing phase is a good time for feedback. You like?