Every resident within the Sound Transit service area should be concerned with the Sound Transit Board's Dec. 16th approval of the 2022 Budget and Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP). It typified the actions of elected officials who've spent a decade pretending to be directors of a transit organization without understanding what constitutes effective public transit. They've never asked questions and unanimously approved any requests. (The Board no longer archives videos of meetings, minimizing exposing their "compliance".)
It's this "Pretend Board" incompetence that prompted this blog's ten-year attempt to expose. That they never recognized reducing congestion required attracting commuters by increasing access to transit routes to their desired destination. Central Link succeeded because large numbers of commuters lived within walking distance of stations or had access to bus routes to the stations. (The Board refused to implement a transfer station at UW stadium that would have benefitted thousands of commuters from both sides of the lake with a 520BRT/light rail connection.) They've delayed the Ballard to West Seattle Link that would've benefitted from commuter access to stations.
However, all of the Prop 1 extensions beyond UW, across I-90 Bridge, and beyond SeaTac require parking for access. Yet the Board has refused to add significant parking despite a 2016 WSDOT "Park and Ride Inventory" indicating lots with access to Prop 1 stations have been "fully in use" for years. That without added parking transit ridership can't increase.
The "Pretend Board" also never recognized transit capacity is limited by the number of vehicles per hour and the number of riders in each vehicle. A 2004 PSRC study, funded by Sound Transit, concluded DSTT limited the number of vehicles and capacity in each vehicle to 8880 riders per hour in each direction. Prop 1 extensions beyond UW, across I-90 Bridge, or beyond SeaTac do nothing to increase that capacity. Yet the Board approved a "2019 Financial Plan and Proposed Budget" predicting Link ridership would increase from 26 million in 2019 to 162 million in 2041.
Multiple blog post have opined the Northgate Link debut would finally demonstrate the validity of these concerns. That Northgate Link ridership would be a fraction of the 41,000 to 49,000 predicted on the Sound Transit website. The Seattle Times Traffic Lab had heralded the debut as "Transit Transformed" primising its "3 stations attracting 42,000 to 49,000 riders". Both should've been eager to report on the initial results, yet neither has done so. The likely reason they haven't was the Link's ridership was a small fraction of predictions.
Prior to the Dec 16th meeting, I'd emailed the Board members the previous post detailing these concerns. They denied ever receiving any "Public Comment". (There's no indication the Seattle Times Traffic Lab project that "digs into thorny transportation transportation issues" even watched the meeting.) Instead they proceeded to approve Resolution No. R2121-21 detailing the '"2022 Financial Plan and Proposed Budget" and 2022 Transit Improvement Plan (TIP). The budget included a $615 million loan and $1,767 million spending on Link.
The budget's list of system expansion projects neglected to include any additional parking. The budget also neglected to include a "Service Provided" section with predictions for trips provided, ridership expected, cost per rider, or farebox recovery. The 2022 TIP included spending $22 billion on "authorized projects". The resolution also claimed the "Proposed 2022 Budget and 2022 TIP are fully affordable within the agency's current financial projections". The entire process took less than 15 minutes. Again no questions were asked and R2121-21 was unanimously approved.
The bottom line is the entire area has already paid a heavy price for the "Pretend Board's" decade of failing to add parking with access to BRT routes into Seattle. That the billions they've already spent on Prop 1 extensions will do nothing to increase transit capacity into Seattle. The Board's Dec 16th meeting chose to ignore Northgate Link's debut results that "likely" demonstrated that failure.
It's already a debacle the "Pretend Board" has allowed Sound Transit to spend another $1.767 billion next year extending the Link; adding to the $8-10 billion already spent. It's a "disaster" they've been allowed to authorize spending $22 billion more over the next 5 years completing the extensions. The former being enabled by an equally inept Seattle Times Traffic Lab with no indication they're interested in the later.
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