My Campaign to Mitigate East Link Debacle

 The previous post opined my campaign for King County Executive was an attempt to alert voters the Northgate extension debut in September will demonstrate Sound Transit should have never extended light rail beyond UW station.  Sound Transit's refusal to provide access to light rail with additional parking or local bus routes to stations minimized its ability to reduce I-5 corridor congestion.

Instead, they initially proposed "seven to ten bus routes into Northgate station" and "link may replace bus route operation between Northgate and Downtown Seattle".  However commuter aversion to transferring from bus to light rail resulted in Snohomish  Community Transit, King County Metro and even Sound Transit continuing to route I-5 buses into Seattle.  The result being the September debut of the $2.6 billion spent on Northgate extension will demonstrate only a fraction of Sound Transit claim for 41,000, to 49,000 riders will use light rail.  That using light rail to reduce bus routes does nothing to reduce I-5 congestion.

This post opines my candidacy is to inform voters the blunder of spending $3.6 billion to route light rail trains across the I-90 Bridge center roadway dwarfs the Northgate debacle.  Rather than adding transit lanes Sound Transit confiscated two existing I-90 Bridge center roadway lanes.  Doing so clearly violated RCW 81.104.00 (2) by failing to consider far less expensive 2-way BRT on center roadway.  BRT would have had 10 times light rail capacity, 10 years sooner, at 1/10th the cost.  The loss of half the Central Link routes to SeaTac when East Link begins adds to the blunder.

Mercer Island, Bellevue, and Redmond city councils could have stopped East Link by disallowing permits Sound Transit needed for construction.  Instead they advocated for East Link, resulting in Sound Transit construction devastating the route into Bellevue, ending the quiet solitude of the Mercer Slough Park, and increasing cross-lake congestion.

In 2023 operation of the $3.6 billion East Link extension will demonstrate the devastation, disruption, and congestion from its construction was all for naught.  First, Central Link commuters will lose half their routes, potentially ending access for some during peak commute.  Second, Sound Transit, as with the initial Northgate Link proposal, attempts to make up for the lack of access to stations with a 2014 decision to force I-90 corridor bus riders transfer to East Link at MI light rail station.  40,000 of the 50,000 riders Sound Transit promised for East link would come from terminated riders.  Again reducing the buses on I-90 HOV lanes will do nothing to reduce congestion.

The I-90 version was the result of Sound Transit's 2017 Settlement agreement with the MI city council.  The council made a major blunder in signing an agreement giving Sound Transit "all powers necessary to implement a high-capacity transit system".  Despite nearly unanimous islander objection, the council used the Settlement Agreement to justify allowing I-90 corridor transit buses terminate on island.  However , the council compounded  that blunder by allowing King County Metro, which wasn't part of the agreement, to also terminate bus routes on MI.

The result being a "bus intercept" agreement with MI council requiring  I-90 corridor bus riders transfer to and from East Link on MI.  However, rather than terminating up to 89 bus routes an hour as initially planned Sound Transit and KCM agreed to halve current I-90 bus routes, ending transit access for thousands.  The real absurdity is the MI council is suing Sound Transit over where buses will drop off riders on MI rather than requiring KCM buses continue to bypass MI, minimizing the problem.

Whatever the result, the MI light rail station, designed to accommodate 15,000 daily riders, will be inundated with thousands more commuters.  During peak commute both transferees and islanders will likely have difficulty finding access to East Link's limited capacity.  Those averse to transferring and those who've lost access to bus transit will be forced to carpool or drive alone, increasing congestion along entire I-90 corridor.

The bottom line is this blog and my previous campaigns, which began in 2012 in an attempt to "Stop East Link Now, has become an attempt to mitigate the damage.  Sound Transit needs to be "persuaded" to concede light rail routed through the DSTT does not have the transit capacity needed to reduce area's congestion.  Forcing commuters to transfer from bus routes to light rail does nothing to reduce congestion.  That the only way to do so is to increase bus ridership with additional access to bus routes.  My King County Executive candidacy continues that effort.