• Pierce Transit Goes to Voters for First Funding Increase Since 2002 (The Urbanist)
• I-5 Expansion Over Columbia River Stumbles Forward with Federal Greenlight (The Urbanist)
• Rant and Rave: Reader grateful for ‘No turn on red’ signs (The Seattle Times, $; free via SPL)
• SDOT Prepares to Roll Out the Route 8 Red Carpet on Denny Way (The Urbanist)
• Pioneer Square homelessness effort exceeds original goal (The Seattle Times, $; free via SPL)
• What ST heard in comments about the Tacoma Dome Link Extension (Sound Transit)
• RapidRide I Line construction update (Metro Matters)
• Swift Green Line Extension: Project Update (CT News)
• With Major Reforms Years Away, City Could Make Temporary Changes to Housing Fees Next Year (PubliCola)
• Renton’s World Cup legacy, future hopes seen in Legacy Square (The Seattle Times, $; free via SPL)
• Park (or ride) the bus: Visitors enjoy transit options during summer soccer extravaganza (WSDOT Blog)
• Getting to games in Seattle: Skip traffic, parking with these transit tips (SDOT Blog)
• Free transit rides for active military and veterans during Fleet Week (Metro Matters)

This is an Open Thread.

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After nearly two months of various council deliberations and public commentary, the Seattle Transit Measure is officially heading to voters in this year’s November General Election. This measure proposes to renew funding for boosted transit service in Seattle, first enacted in 2014 (and reduced in 2020) for 10 years.

Mayor Wilson’s proposal in June faced a litany of amendments and emerged from the legislative process relatively unscathed. The adopted amendments largely require additional reporting by SDOT and Metro regarding the impacts of purchased service and other statistics.

Continue reading “Seattle Transit Measure renewal headed to voters in November” | 9 comments

Why have two downtown lots have remained empty for over a decade? The story of the Seattle Times lot and the Pioneer Square Station lot. (Build Core)

Housing price dynamics in the US, UK, and New Zealand. (Patrick Boyle)

This is an open thread.

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Link will have a few maintenance reductions in late July and early August.

On Sunday July 26 all day, the Crosslake part of the 2 Line will be replaced by shuttle buses between South Bellevue and International District. The shuttle will run approximately every 10-15 minutes. The 1 Line will run every 8 minutes from Lynnwood to Federal Way to mitigate the loss of westside 2 Line service. (It normally runs every 10 minutes on Sundays.) This is for “planned maintenance”.

From Tuesday July 28 to Thursday July 30 in the late evenings only, the Crosslake part of the 2 Line will be replaced by shuttle buses between South Bellevue and International District. The 1 Line will run as normal. This is for “monthly maintenance”.

From Tuesday August 4 to Thursday August 6 in the late evenings only, the 2 Line will be replaced by shuttle buses between BelRed and Downtown Redmond, to replace line surge arrestors. The 2 Line will run as normal between Lynnwood and BelRed. The 1 Line will run as normal.

See ST service alerts for any updates.

This is an open thread.

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A Seattle city committee voted on a slate of amendments to the Seattle Transit Measure (STM) levy renewal Mayor Wilson proposed. The meeting video has the proceedings. It’s three and a half hours long, and parts of it were confusing to me. I watched the debates and votes on 6 of the 22 amendments. This alone took an hour and fifty minutes (from 0:45:36 to 2:36:41 in the video). I got exhausted at that point and didn’t watch the rest, so I’ll leave it to the comment section to report on how the other amendments fared. The entire measure with some amendments passed the committee, and will go to the full city council on Tuesday. Nine councilmembers participated: Rivera, Kettle, Hollingsworth, Juarez, Lin, Strauss, Foster, Rinck, and Saka.

Many readers are most interested in Amendment 13, which would reduce the sales tax rate from Mayor Wilson’s proposal. That amendment failed 2-7. That debate is just before the 2:46:00 mark.

Three amendments (1, 4, 28) were “withdrawn” for refinement, but then they were voted on anyway before the other individual amendments, so I don’t understand that procedure. Amendment 1 (passed) had a long debate; it wasn’t about transit service per se but about committing to certain safety strategies to deter passenger misbehavior. Amendment 4 (passed) requests an annual report from Metro on fare compliance, farebox recovery, reliability, and on-time performance of STM-purchased service, with comparisons to peer agencies and past statistics. Amendment 25 (failed) would have requested a report on expanding the Transit Access Program.

The other amendments I watched were 3 (passed) on how to spend money Metro can’t accept (e.g., if it doesn’t have enough drivers to implement requested runs), and 5 (failed) to extend the levy term three months (the failure means it will expire at the end of 2032).

What else do you see in the results?

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PubliCola interviewed Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson: Part 1 and Part 2. Cascade PBS sat down with Tacoma Mayor Anders Ibsen, also at 6 months into his first term.

Transit & Streets:

• Pierce Transit puts expansion measure on November ballot. (Pierce Transit)
• Did you ride transit during the World Cup? Take Sound Transit’s survey.
• Sound Transit’s proposed transit service for next year (2027) is available for public review.
• OPINION | Neglected Traffic Medians on Rainier Avenue South Point to Inequity in the South End (South Seattle Emerald)
• Who Put 2,400 Eco-Blocks in Georgetown? Researchers Still Don’t Know. (South Seattle Emerald)
• Join the Renton Area Mobility Project Board and help shape the future of transit (Metro Matters). Submit your application here.
• Avoid the Squeeze: Take the Bus to Link Light Rail (Community Transit)
• Seattle’s first major roundabout opens near future light rail station in Pinehurst (SDOT Blog)
• Dan Strauss pushes for more Ballard bus service ahead of Seattle Transit Measure vote (MyBallard)

Continue reading “Midweek Roundup: avoid the squeeze, take the bus” | 75 comments

By OLIVER CHEN

Living in Seattle, I’ve come to appreciate the humble bus. I find riding the bus much more pleasant than driving through the city (and certainly much better than circling for parking!). Sitting alongside my fellow Seattleites makes me feel like a participant in the ebb and flow of the city rather than sealed off from it.

Over time, I’ve gotten a sense for the rhythms of the routes that pass by my home: where people get on, where people get off, and when the bus fills up or empties out. Seeing that, I wondered if I could get that same view more broadly, across the entire city or even the entire region, rather than just the tiny slice visible from my front door.

King County Metro publishes a ridership dashboard as well as an annual system evaluation covering route-level performance. Those resources are great for tracking specific routes or for comparing ridership over time, but they don’t tell me where ridership is actually concentrated: where people are already riding transit, and where additional service might be most useful. In a city growing as fast as Seattle, getting transit right is a practical necessity; city streets simply cannot absorb the trips that Seattleites need to make.

Continue reading “Mapping King County Metro Ridership” | 59 comments

Deadly stroad crosswalks are unique to the US. (Safe By Design)

How LA Metro accidentally made itself fare-free. (Alex Davis)

Musical interlude: Walking in LA. I can take a Bus Downtown (You Can Walk Downtown).

This is an open thread.

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This Monday, July 13, Seattle City Council is holding public hearings on the Seattle Transit Measure, Mayor Katie Wilson’s proposed renewal of funding for more frequent, reliable bus service across Seattle. Councilmembers are considering a long list of potential amendments to the proposed measure. Some proposed amendments would cut funding, shorten the measure, and slow down new service. Others would make it stronger for riders.

There will be two public hearing sessions on Monday: Session I will be remote-only starting at 9:30am, and Session II will be hybrid in-person and remote starting at 5:00pm. The Fix the L8, the Transit Riders Union, and Transportation Choices Coalition are calling on all Seattle transit supporters to show up and stand and/or speak in support of the measure during the hearings. RSVP here: https://bit.ly/savebuses13.

The detailed agenda for the sessions is available here. Comments are usually limited to 1-2 minutes. If too many people sign up to comment at the 9:30am meeting, they will be asked to return to comment at the 5pm meeting.

Continue reading “Action Alert: Stand Up for Seattle Transit” | 1 comments

Sound Transit has unveiled their initial proposal for the 2027 service plan. These changes are relatively minor compared to the Fall 2026 service changes that will take effect in August. This proposal includes changes for routes 510, 512, 532, 535, 545, 560, and Link.

Routes 510 and 512

In Everett, early-morning Route 510 trips and late-night Route 512 trips would be truncated at Everett Station. This removes the four stops in downtown Everett north of the station.

Continue reading “Friday Roundtable: Sound Transit’s 2027 Service Plan Proposal” | 85 comments