Five Years of Public Transit Failure are Enough

The end of the 2018 legislative session marks another year of the House and Senate Transportation Committee’s feckless response to the area’s roadway gridlock.   Clearly neither Rep. Judy Clibborn, the chair of the House Transportation Committee, nor Sen. Steve Hobbs, the head of the Senate Transportation Committee, had any interest in legislation requiring Sound Transit be audited. Any competent audit would surely have exposed the total failure of Sound Transit policies to reduce area’s congestion.  (They even managed to avoid passing the well-deserved car tab reduction despite having control of both house and senate.)

For example, the Sound Transit Staff recently responded to a 2012 Board request “to update the agency’s parking policy” to “better manage demand at the regions park-and-rides”.  It consisted of proposing a “parking-permit program that would allow solo drivers to pay for a reserved space at selected transit facilities”.  Apparently neither the Sound Transit Board in 2012 nor their Staff by 2018 recognized that the best way to “update the agency’s parking policy” was to add more parking.   As a result, it’s been five years of public transit failure that’s likely to continue. 

All the P&R lots with access to transit have been full for years, yet Sound Transit didn’t recognize the need to add parking in 2012 and still hasn’t done so.   During the last five years they’ve budgeted nearly $6 billion on “System Expansions” with ~80 percent of that on light rail expansions, without including a single major P&R with access to bus routes.   The $6 billion already spent is but a tiny fraction of the billions Sound Transit has already dedicated to creating their light rail spine.  Yet they wait unto 2024 to begin adding a measly 8560 stalls by 2041. 

Sound Transit’s failure to add parking goes along with their failure to increase the number of bus trips.  Their Quarterly Ridership reports showed 2012, 4^th quarter bus trips, 115,163, had increased to only 120,400 during the 2017 4^th quarter.   Clearly, Sound Transit has shown little interest in increasing public transit “supply”.  It’s no wonder comparable total average express-bus-weekday boarding only increased from 54,345 to 61,526 during the five years.  

Sound Transit’s five-year failure to increase public transit capacity is reflected in Puget Sound Regional Council’s “Stuck in Traffic: 2015 Report”.  It included a chart showing the 32,700 hours of delay in 2014 represented a 52% increase in delays between 2009 and 2014.  A more recent Feb 12^th, 2018 Seattle Times Traffic Lab article reported 2016 traffic delays were nearly 2.5 times the 2009 levels. 

The article reported between Everett and Seattle, “you had to budget 94 minutes to drive alone during the morning commute, an increase of nine minutes over the 2014 commute”.   A clear result of Sound Transit failure to increase public transit supply between the two with 4^th Quarter 2012 weekday boarding, 8460, increasing to only 8472 in 2017 4^th Quarter.  

Sound Transit’s decision in 2012 to “manage demand” rather than increase supply has resulted in five years of increased not decreased congestion.  Their current plans to spend  $54 billion on a light rail spine routed through the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel will only continue that trend.

The Sound Transit Board needs to be "persuaded" to increase public transit supply.   One way to do so is with new P&R lots where commuters pay to reserve a stall with assured access to a free ride on their preferred bus route into Seattle.  Those paying the fees needed to cover Sound Transits normal 35% of operation costs would allow others to ride free.  For example, the 12/03/17 post detailed how parking fees from three 1000-stall Pay-to-Park lots near Lynnwood ($10) and two near Everett ($15) could provide 20,000 more commuters with daily public transit capacity into and out of Seattle.  

For $350 million (assuming  $50,000 per parking stall and $100 million for buses) Sound Transit could add the equivalent of 4-5 lanes of capacity during peak commute between Everett and Seattle.  The I-5 corridor South of Seattle and I-90 corridor to Issaquah could also benefit from Pay-to-Park.  And they could begin doing so in 3 to 4 years for a fraction of the money they’ll spend on light rail spine.

The PSRC 2015 report showed HOV lane congestion between Everett and Seattle had increased travel times to 75 minutes in 2014.  Those travel times have surely increased along with the recent drive-alone travel times.  The travel times for the increased public transit supply could be minimized by limiting an HOV lane to buses only or +3HOV during peak commute.  If needed, HOT lanes could be implemented with fees set to limit non-transit traffic to maintain 45 mph.  The benefits from potentially 20,000 fewer vehicles would more than offset the loss of +2HOV lane.

Each Pay-to-Park lot would have a non-stop BRT route into Seattle.  4^th Ave could be converted into an elongated T/C to facilitate egress and access with designated drop-off and pick-up locations on opposite sides depending on the route. While there could be two drop off locations there would be only one pick up location to assure those paying for parking would have access. 

It’s bad enough Sound Transit’s 2012 decision to “manage demand” rather than increase public transit supply has already resulted in five years of increased congestion.  It’s insanity to allow them to spend years and billions more on light rail extensions that do nothing to increase public transit supply into Seattle and only add to the congestion.