Why I’m A Stop East Link Now Candidate

My candidacy this year, like my previous 7 candidacies, is not about winning but attracting attention to Sound Transit and WSDOT failed transportation policies and the Seattle Times failure to acknowledge that failure.  (I recognized there was very little any individual city or county council member or legislator could do to change their policies)

My candidacy allowed me to use my candidate’s statement in the Voters’ Pamphlet to attract attention to this blog exposing those problems and also do so at candidate forums. My post has now attracted more than 135,000 views.  However it’s October and so far I have yet to be asked to participate in any forums so this post is intended to go beyond the 200-word limit in Voters’ Pamphlet detailing my concerns.

This year marks more than a decade of attempts to expose Sound Transit East Link mendacity and incompetence.  It began in early 2009 when I told the Bellevue city council a 2004 PSRC study, funded by Sound Transit, concluded the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) limited Central Link capacity to 8880 riders per hour in each direction.

That East Link’s share of that capacity debunked Sound Transit’s 2008 DEIS claim East Link would have peak hour capacity of up to 24,000 people per hour, the equivalent of up to 10 lanes of freeway”.  

I urged the Bellevue City Council either require Sound Transit consider or fund their own study comparing light rail with BRT before approving the 10 permits Sound Transit needed for East Link. Even a cursory analysis would have concluded Sound Transit could have added 4^th lanes to the I-90 Bridge outer roadways and implemented two-way BRT on center roadway with 10 times light rail capacity at a fraction of light rail cost. 

Instead the Bellevue council approved the permits Sound Transit needed, resulting in their confiscating the i-90 Bridge center roadway and devastating the route into Bellevue for an East Link light rail system that will never have the transit capacity needed to reduce cross lake congestion and precluding BRT that could.

The council also abided Sound Transit delaying the 4^th lanes to I-90 bridge outer roadways despite the obvious benefit for commuters from both sides of the lake.  Sound Transit “likely” recognized the added 4^th lanes would allow two-way bus routes on center roadway that would have ended any support for light rail.  

Those concerns prompted them to delay adding lanes until they closed the bridge center roadway precluding any central roadway BRT assessment.  Cross-lake commuters endured years of increased congestion because of the delay.

I also urged the council consider a 2004 FHA Record of Decision conclusion the center roadway was still needed for vehicles with the added outer roadway lanes.  That conclusion refuted Sound Transit DEIS claims "Travel times across I-90 for vehicles would also improve or remain similar with East Link". 

It also refuted Sound Transit/WSDOT claim to a federal judge in the Freeman litigation light rail could be installed on center roadway since it wasn’t needed for vehicles.  The fact that it currently takes an average of 42 minutes for the 15.5-mile commute from Issaquah to Seattle confirms the FHA assessment.

The real absurdity is East Link operation, rather than reducing that commute time, will undoubtedly increase it.  The problem being Sound Transit intends to use East Link to replace all I-90 buses.  First of all, using East Link to replace current I-90 buses would have minimal affect on HOV lanes and none on GP lanes. 

Even worse, Sound Transit and King County Metro both agreed to halve current I-90 corridor buses as part of their “bus intercept” agreement with Mercer Island.  Thus East Link operation will result in hundreds if not thousands of current transit riders forced to drive, adding to congestion along the entire I-90 corridor.

It's "unfortunate" the Bellevue city council has enabled Sound Transit to spend $3.6 billion constructing a light rail extension that precludes BRT on I-90 Bridge center roadway and devastates the route into Bellevue.  Unfortunately very little can be done about that debacle.  However, it's "absurd" the Sound Transit/Mercer Island bus intercept agreement allows them to exacerbate the congestion.  Exposing that problem is just one of the reasons I run.