Eastside Residents Deserve Better

 My campaign for King County Executive continues my decade-long contention east side residents deserve better.  It began with my attempts to prevent Sound Transit from confiscating the I-90 Bridge center roadway and devastating the route into Bellevue for light rail limited to half the DSTT capacity.  Doing so precluded 2-way BRT on the bridge with 10 times light rail capacity, 10 years sooner, at 1/10th the cost

It obviously failed so my attempt has shifted to attempting to mitigate the damage by trying to prevent King County Metro from terminating their buses on Mercer Island rather than continuing into and out of Seattle.  East Link's need for riders has prompted Sound Transit to use it to replace I-90 Bridge bus routes.  They refuse to recognize the bridge congestion is not due to too many buses.  The result of years of waiting and increased taxes the $3.5 billion spent on East Link will be I-90 corridor transit commuters forced to transfer to and from buses on Mercer Island for their commutes into and out of Seattle.

During peak morning commute their access will be limited by East Link capacity and they'll face chaos at DSTT stations and a wait on the island for their return bus routes.  When Northgate Link debuts, during peak commute, I-5 transit riders will still have the option of riding bus routes into and out of Seattle.  I-90 commuters deserve the same with East Link.  My campaign is to expose that need.

East side I-405 commuters also deserve better from both SoundTransit and WSDOT.  Other than extending East Link from Overlake to Redmond and a Kirkland-to-Issaquah light rail extension in 2041, the only east side benefit from ST3 taxes approved in 2016 was the 38-mile BRT connection between Lynnwood and Burien.  Sound Transit "neglected" to include BRT routes on SR520 to UW light rail station that would have benefited thousands of commuters from both sides of the lae

Prior to the vote the ST 3 map scheduled BRT to begin operation in 2024 with an estimated $812-$869 million (2014$) capital cost and 15,000-18,000 projected 2040 daily ridership.  However the Sound Transit  September 2019 Agency Progress Report, prior to COVID pandemic, later delayed operation with a 31-Dec-25 "Bus Rapid Transit-East Corridor" finish.

The latest Agency Progress Report, March 2021, is even less definitive about I-405 BRT operation with the following statement: 

Open for service date will depend on Board direction from realignment process.

Clearly I-405 BRT is not a priority with Sound Transit. When service does begin Sound Transit's version of BRT will be limited to a single bus route every 10 minutes making 10 stops between Lynnwood and Burien.   The latest available data on the I-405 HOV traffic is a January 8th, 2018, University of Minnesota "I-405 Traffic Data and Corridor Performance Analysis Final Report".  

It reported average 2017 January-to-June daily traffic volume was  229,857 Northbound and 266,858 Southbound or nearly 500,000 daily.  Thus, even if Sound Transit's version of BRT, 6 buses an hour, has 15,000 to 18,000 riders, it's a fraction of what's needed to reduce I-405 HOV travel times.

Even that ridership was at risk for BRT in 2016 because of the following proviso in the ST3 Map.

Relies on WSDOT to maintain adequate speed and reliability of I-405 express toll lane system.

A Dec 25, 2017 Seattle Times article, “I-405 express toll lanes between Renton, Bellevue on way” included the following WSDOT response to the congestion.

In 2019, work crews on Interstate 405 will start building a new lane in each direction between Renton and Bellevue, as part of a series of changes that aim to improve traffic low on what officials call Washington's worst corridor for congestion.

Yet more than four years later the WSDOT still hasn't begun adding the lanes.  Their plan to impose tolls on the new lanes as well as the current HOV lane shows they still don't recognize problems with 2 HOT lanes.  HOT fees reduce commute times by reducing the number of  vehicles on HOV lanes from those able to carpool to the 2000 vehicles per hour (vph) needed to assure 45 mph.  

However, imposing fees on the 2nd lane increases traffic on the remaining I-405 GP lanes to where more drivers are willing to pay the limited fees WSDOT charges.  During peak commute they increase traffic beyond the 2000 vph on both HOT lanes, slowing both BRT routes and those who pay the fees.  Pre-pandemic travel times between Lynnwood and Bellevue reflected that problem.

Reducing I-405 congestion requires WSDOT limit HOT from Lynnwood to Burien to one lane with fees raised to limit traffic to 2000 vph.  (The added GP lane also reduces congestion for those commuters.)  However the way to reduce congestion is for Sound Transit to include far more BRT routes as part of the 2000 vph. Rather than a 10-stop route from Lynnwood to Burien each P&R lot should have direct routes to Bellevue with riders provided by increased parking or local bus routes.

Again, east side residents deserve better form the taxes they pay for ST3 and the gas tax to WSDOT,   My campaign will advocate for how.

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