ST Doesn’t Recognize the Need for " Motorized Access"

The video of the June 9^th Sound Transit System Expansion Committee planning to implement the NE 130^th Street Infill Station exemplifies Sound Transit failure to understand the need for “motorized access”.  That the ST3 Map of “Voter Approved” extensions included the proviso 60-85% of riders would need “motorized access” from either parking near stations or access to bus routes to stations.  

 

However, a November 2016 Seattle Times article reported the 51 existing park and ride facilities next to express bus or trains stations in Snohomish, King, and Pierce County were already 95% full with 19,448 cars.   Sound Transit continues to ignore the Northgate Link debut showing the lack of “motorized access” limited ridership to a fraction of their website predictions.  (Sound Transit has stopped releasing the quarterly Service Delivery Reports, the Q4-2021 that would have detailed the ridership added at each of the 3 Link stations) 

 

Instead, a May 5^th video showed Sound Transit’s System Policy was to “maximize efficient use of available transit parking resources”.  The June 9^th video depicted the latest result, approving the NE 130^th Street Infill Station.  The Project Timeline detailed that spending $240 million on the station toward a Q2 2026 delivery was consistent with the “Affordable Schedule”.  Yet a map of the area shows the nearest parking was at Northgate, more than a mile away.  Still the proposal was unanimously approved without any of the board members asking how many commuters were expected to use the station for access or egress to and from light rail.

 

An April 28^th Board of Directors meeting approved giving WSDOT $141 million to implement “in-line” stations near Canyon Park and Brickyard P&R’s on I-405 into Bellevue. Again, no parking was added. An earlier example was a video of a January 27^th Sound Transit Board of Directors. It detailed plans for NE 85^th St Stride Bus Rapid Transit station along I-405 into Bellevue. It included a Funding Amount chart authorizing WSDOT “an amount not to exceed $287,260,000” for construction of the station, but nothing for parking.  

 

Sound Transit would also fund improvements to NE 85^th St to facilitate access but no bus routes from downtown Kirkland. That the board needed action today to authorize contract to avoid the “likely push delivery into 2027".  In both meetings the board asked no questions and unanimously approved project.

 

The bottom line is the Sound Transit Board doesn’t seem to recognize commuters need “motorized access” to both light rail and bus stations.  At this point, the costs of ending Sound Transits decade-long failure by adding parking far exceed any benefits.  (e.g. the $167,000 cost for each of the 500 stalls in Puyallup garage.)  

Thus, the only way to provide “motorized access” is local bus routes through areas where commuters live to existing light rail and bus stations.  Sound Transit should divert the nearly $700M for new stations toward funding those bus routes to existing stations. That the stations have access to BRT into Seattle to avoid having riders limiting access for current commuters on the route.