The previous post concluded Sound Transit CEO Timm will continue what she was hired to do, implement “Voter Approved” light rail extensions for as long as the Seattle Times enables them. This post responds to the paper’s request for a headline with one that could end their enabling: “Voter Approved Extensions Won’t Reduce I-5 and I-90 Congestion.”
If they do publish the article, it’s been a long time in coming. The paper’s ignored a decade of this blog urging they include a performance audit of Sound Transit’s light rail extension in their list of 10 priorities for legislators. Even a cursory audit would have concluded the “voter approved” extensions won’t reduce congestion into Seattle.
They do nothing to increase parking for access to transit, the number of trains per hour, the number of cars per train, or the number of riders in each car. Thus, the extensions can’t change the fact that 4-car light rail trains lack the transit ridership capacity needed to reduce I-5 and I-90 peak hour congestion.
Sound Transit’s responds to the need for light rail riders by using the Link to replace bus routes into Seattle. Reducing bus routes reduces transit capacity into the city and nothing to reduce GP lane congestion. The former bus riders also reduce the access for current Link riders and exacerbate lack-of-capacity problem during peak hour commute. The longer the extensions, the more bus riders added, the greater their loss of access, and, the greater the costs of providing the service.
There wouldn’t have been the “Voter Approved” extensions without Seattle’s 70% ST3 approval. It was far less popular outside Seattle since King County approval was only 58%. Pierce and Snohomish counties combined, where much of the money will be spent, voted 53% to reject it.
The bottom line is an article with the headline “Voter Approved Extensions Won’t Reduce Congestion” could inform readers light rail spine extensions won’t have the capacity to reduce I-5 and I-90 congestion into Seattle. That the “voter approved” extensions will reduce access to transit for those in Seattle who voted to approve them. That Sound Transit should divert light rail spine funding to Ballard and West Seattle extensions for those who made ST3 funding possible..
Those living in Sound Transit service area deserve the headline and article from Seattle Times.
Here are the benefits of ST3 from 2016: https://www.soundtransit.org/st_sharepoint/download/sites/PRDA/ActiveDocuments/ST3_Appendix-C_2016_web.pdf#:~:text=Both%20direct%20and%20quantifiable%20benefits%2C%20such%20as%20those,are%20important%20to%20understanding%20the%20impact%20of%20ST3.
ReplyDeleteThey have in 2040, it is taking 18 minutes to get from Bellevue to Issaquah, but I can get to Issaquah from Mercer Island, which is further away, in 15 minutes by car. That is more because of covid and people changing how many days they work in office and the reconfiguration of the I-90 Homer Hadley bridge.