Bellevue and Mercer Island Can Mitigate East Link Debacle

It’s time the Bellevue and Mercer Island city councils concede they made a major blunder in approving the permits Sound Transit needed for its East Link light rail extension across I-90 Bridge.   That Sound Transit’s 2008 East Link Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) extolling the benefits of cross-lake light rail was shear fantasy.   East Link is only the most egregious examples of Prop 1 extensions that should have never been approved and will inevitably be considered as some of the biggest transportation boondoggles in history.

Ten years ago Sound Transit could have added 4^th lanes to I-90 Bridge outer roadways for non-transit HOV and implemented two-way BRT on bridge center roadway with 10 times light rail capacity at 1/10^th the cost.  There was never any need for Sound Transit to confiscate the I-90 Bridge center roadway and devastate the route into Bellevue.   The FHWA concluded in 2004 the confiscation of the bridge center roadway will result in frequent gridlock on bridge outer roadways. 

East Link operation will inevitably end Mercer Island’s access to Seattle during peak commute.   East Link trains will likely be full before they ever reach the MI light rail station.  Islanders being the last with access to I-90 congestion will face long lines to get on roadway and slow traffic across bridge.    

East Link construction has devastated the route into Bellevue, ending forever its persona as the “city in the park” with elevated light rail tracks permanently scarring its skyline.  East Link operation will end I-90 transit bus routes forcing many riders to transfer to and from light rail for the commute into and out of Seattle.

At this point very little can be done about the past 10 years.  However both cities can at least mitigate the debacle.  Instead both are proposing to exacerbate the problem with agreements with Sound Transit to boost East Link ridership.   Sound Transit’s fundamental problem is very few commuters will live within or be able to park within walking distance of East Link light rail stations.

Sound Transit initially proposed boosting ridership with a Jan. 21^st, 2014 Integrated Transit Solution presentation to the Mercer Island city council.   It detailed plans to terminate all the I-90 bus routes at the South Bellevue and Mercer Island light rail stations with 40,000 of East Link’s projected 50,000 daily riders from the terminated bus routes. 

Even then Sound Transit didn’t acknowledge reducing the number of buses on I-90 Bridge outer roadway would do little to reduce congestion on HOV lane and nothing for GP lane.  Mercer Island council objections to the 2014 proposal eventually led to a recent “bus intercept” agreement with Sound Transit and King County Metro.  They agreed to halve current I-90 corridor transit bus routes in order to transfer riders at the island station  The loss in bus transit capacity when East Link begins operation will force thousand of former transit riders to add to already heavy congestion along the entire I-90 corridor into Seattle.

The Bellevue council’s contribution to East Link ridership is their proposed “transit oriented development” in the East Main area.  It adds riders by using the  land use code to transform a thriving business district into a residential area with “open spaces to create a pedestrian oriented streetscape”.  It’s not clear how many millions they intend to spend or how many East Link riders they anticipate will be added.

Both city councils can mitigate the problem.  The Mercer Island council can refuse to allow Sound Transit and King County Metro to use the island’s light rail station to transfer riders.  (It was supposedly designed by Sound Transit to accommodate 4500 riders daily.)  Bellevue can simply tell Sound Transit to drop the East Main station. 

Both councils should “encourage” Sound Transit recognize the need to increase bus transit capacity along the I-90 corridor and across the I-90 Bridge.  Allow cross-lake I-90 buses to have access to the bridge center roadway as was done for years in Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel.   Facilitate the cross-lake buses by reducing East Link frequency to reflect the ridership with limited access to stations. (Doing so will increase much needed Central Link south capacity.)

The entire eastside deserve as much