Sound Transit’s Real Problem is the Product not the Process.

The Seattle Times March 3rd front page Traffic Lab article “Be bolder, tough to get light rail done, panel advises Sound Transit” fawns over a March 2^nd Transit Analysis Group” (TAG) presentation to the Sound Transit Executive Council. 

The article included the “expert panel suggested 6 reforms” needed to improve Sound Transit’s ability to implement plans to increase spending from $4B in 2022 to $8B in 2024.  Neither the TAG nor Traffic Lab apparently recognized Sound Transit’s real problem is not with the process but with the “product” that results.  Voter approved light rail spine extensions that won’t reduce peak hour freeway congestion and cost too much to operate during off peak.

 

Reducing freeway congestion requires reducing the number of vehicles on roadway: the “gold-standard” being limiting traffic to 2000 vehicles per hour assures 45mph.  Yet none of the “reforms” recognize that 4-car light rail trains don’t have the capacity needed to accommodate the number of commuters needed.  That the only way to achieve the needed capacity is with BRT routes along restricted access HOV lanes.

 

None of the recommendations recognize Sound Transit’s decade-long failure to provide commuters with access to public transit. (A 2016 Seattle Times article reported the 19,486 existing parking stalls with access to transit in the three-county area were already 95% in use.) 

 

Instead, Sound Transit exacerbated the lack of capacity problem with the Northgate Link by requiring riders transfer to the link for "access" to the commute into and out of Seattle. Replacing bus routes reduces transit capacity into the city and nothing to reduce roadway congestion. They refuse to release “Service Provided Performance Reports” showing the lack of access still limited ridership to a fraction of the 41,000 to 49,000 predicted.  

 

The “product” of the January 26^th Sound Transit Board plans for operating the Lynnwood extension exacerbates the Northgate Link failure.  The voter approved, $2.7B, 8.5-mile extension lacks the access needed for even a fraction of the 37,000 to 57,000 riders predicted. Instead includes spending $270M on a 130th St infill station a mile from any parking.  Plans to provide riders by replacing additional bus routes further reduces transit capacity into Seattle and access for current riders.  The combination of high light rail car operating cost, added Lynnwood trip length and schedule will add $500,000 daily to costs.  

  

The bottom line is the “voter approved” extensions don’t have the capacity to attract the number of riders needed to reduce multilane freeway peak hour congestion and cost too much to operate during off peak.  That Sound Transit’s operating plans to use the extensions to replace bus routes reduces transit capacity into Seattle, doesn’t reduce freeway congestion, and the riders transferred reduce access for current riders.  

 

That recommendations to improve the process for implementing the extensions does nothing to improve the product.  The Seattle Times Traffic Lab should recognize that doing so with "increased boldness and toughness" doesn't change that result.