I-5 Corridor Transit Questions the Traffic Lab Ignores,

The August 28^th Traffic Lab article “Why light rail chose I-5 over Aurora” ignores the real question for I-5 corridor public transit.  Why didn’t Sound Transit route the Northgate extension directly into Seattle rather than through a tunnel to UW station and University Link?

Doing so would have eliminated two stops near UW and a stop at Capitol Hill.  Routing the Northgate extension directly into Seattle would have added transit capacity into the city, avoiding Northgate Link riders reducing commuter access to transit on University Link access.  (It’s also too late to question why Sound Transit didn’t add that capacity at a fraction of the cost of light rail extensions by adding bus routes along I-5 on restricted access lanes)

The Lynnwood extension riders would have increased the lost access no matter which route Sound Transit selected. Even more important is why did Sound Transit even extend light rail to Lynnwood? Rapid Ride E already provided 24-hour service with routes every 4 to 20 minutes, depending on time of day.  They typically took around 50 minutes from Aurora T/C to and from downtown Seattle.  The route provides access at multiple stops every 5 streets along route into and out of Seattle, with off-peak operating costing a fraction of  4-car light rail trains.

The Traffic Lab could also question why Snohomish Community Transit is using the Lynnwood link to replace all SCT’s 400 routes into Seattle.  As with the Northgate Link, using light rail to replace bus routes into Seattle reduces transit capacity into the city. The SCT buses are all routed during the peak commute hours, reducing access for current Line 1 riders. Any potential transit times saved will be offset by the hassle associated with transferring to light rail for the commute into Seattle, lack of options for egress in Seattle other than DSTT, and similar hassles for the return trip. It's also not clear how those riders will pay Sound Transit fares.

Another I-5 corridor question Traffic Lab has never asked Sound Transit, “Why are you routing East Link trains beyond CID to Northgate and beyond to Lynnwood?”.  Routing it through the DSST halves the number of Line 1 trains.  Those wishing to go beyond CID north or south could transfer there to existing Line 1 trains.  Also routing the East Link trains to Lynnwood will double the cost of off-peak operation with capacity that far exceeds ridership.

The bottom line is the Traffic Lab apparently doesn’t recognize 4-car light rail trains don’t have the capacity to attract the number of vehicles needed to reduce multi-lane roadway peak hour congestion and cost too much to operate off-peak. That despite a week of their heralding the Lynnwood Link debut, “a new era in transportation” their expectations about 50,000 people a day are expected to board or exit a train in the four new stations” are “dubious” at best. 

The question remains whether Traffic Lab will report on actual added Lynnwood ridership.  They’ve never reported riders added by Northgate Link were far short of the 42,000-49,000, and “Transit Transformed” they’d predicted prior to its October 2021 debut. 

Again, it’s a question the Traffic Lab should ask and report.