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News & ArtsTuesday, July 26, 2011
Transportation / City High-Capacity Street Rail Recommended For Ballard, U-District, and Queen Anne
Posted by Cienna Madrid on Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 12:05 PM
- Courtesy of SDOT, click to enlarge.
Seattle Department of Transportation planning manager Tony Mazzella and Tom Brennan of Nelson/Nygaard presented the recommendations to the Seattle City Council's transportation committee this morning (.pdf). The routes are among 15 high-priority corridors previously singled out by the Seattle Department of Transportation and transportation consulting group Nelson/Nygaard for light rail and rapid bus service investments in the city's ongoing Transit Master Plan update. Once completed, the plan will provide the city with a 20-year template for future transit investments.
So why were these north-and-city-centric corridors selected for street rail above others—like, say, a high-capacity service to West Seattle?
Mazzella says that the routes were chosen using a variety of quantitative and qualitative factors—including social equity, current and future transit demand, alignment with Sound Transit routes, neighborhood zoning, and topography (you'll notice that on the above map a fourth high-priority route stretching from Coleman dock up Madison Street was earmarked for Bus Rapid Transit—which is essentially a bus route with fewer stops—due to its steep grade).
And when 12,000 people were surveyed about Seattle's transit system last fall, "people said speed and reliability were their highest needs," explained Brennan. "We didn’t hear a lot about transit coverage."
Plus, "we felt [street rail] was heavily weighed towards serving commuters," explained Mazzella. "And serving the areas of greatest growth means serving urban centers." Nevertheless, council members seemed cautious of the plan, if not downright skeptical of investing in street rail over buses.
"We're on the verge of building the Capitol Hill street car and there are suggestions that we should've done it differently or should be doing it differently," says council member Tim Burgess, who didn't elaborate on what the hell he was talking about.
"Are the investments we're making in South Lake Union and the First Hill street car ones that are good long term investments?" echoed committee chair Tom Rasmussen. "Are we making mistakes now that we'll regret later?"
I'm not sure what the fuck, exactly, they're getting at.
But here's a quick stab in the dark: Obviously, street rail is the most expensive option to build along these corridors—SDOT estimates that street rail would cost $47 million per mile to extend a rail line to Ballard, as opposed to $16 million per mile for BRT—and these capital costs would be shouldered by the city, not King County Metro. And the city is currently broker than a Greece.
But there are three points to consider, here:
1) The Transit Master Plan is a 20-year plan (and beyond). It would be foolish not to plan for street rail, which Brennan estimates is a seven-year planning-to-construction process. And the plan doesn't prioritize street rail above other, cheaper transit improvement projects—like bus rapid transit, or smaller investments in bus bulbs, boarding islands, off-board fare payment, or raised bus boarding platforms.
2) While capital costs are higher for building street rail, operating costs will likely be higher for operating multiple buses (paying for more drivers, maintenance on more buses) to accommodate the city's growing demand. The city could apply for federal assistance to help cover its capital costs (but not operating costs).
- Courtesy of SDOT
It seems like we'll have months yet to argue about this. SDOT is planning on submitting its final version of the Transit Master Plan to Mayor Mike McGinn in September. After that, the plan will likely go through several rounds of public comment before being submitted to the council for consideration early next year.
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I'm willing to be proven wrong - has anyone done a serious and unbiased assessment of the SLUT's cost/rider compared to buses?
While waiting at the stop for my first ride on the SLUT, I watched 2 buses go by, both of which would have taken me where I wanted to go. Made the whole thing seem really fucking stupid.
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wait. bus rapid transit? is that what we have now? can we make bus transit actually rapid?
street rail would be three times the cost but it seems like it would also be three times faster, especially when going to ballard or the u district.
I'm not sure I'm opposed to this. I'd take something like (creating my own phrase here) "high-capacity streetcars" any day over the current low-capacity streetcars. I'd take Portland's mediocre downtown light rail any day over Portland's spiffy downtown streetcars.
But I'd still like to think we're better than Portland, and when I see these plans, I don't see anything that brings us any closer to having a true high-capacity light rail line along the west end of the city--which of course the McGinn administration, though its ever-reliable study, has told us we don't need, even if an earlier study under an earlier mayor told us we did.
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We have choices.
SR-520 floating bridge replacement and possible light rail in Seattle extension
- OR -
A Deeply Borrowed Tunnel for SR-99 that makes no sense to any sane engineer.
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http://lochkelden.org/v01-083w.jpg
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http://wafreepress.org/45/streetcar.html
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I guess they're better than buses. They're not faster, but they don't rock and sway like bendy buses. The last time I rode the 16 to downtown I thought I was going to die from motion sickness (to say nothing of the average. But it solves none of our really pressing transit issues.
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Remember when the monorail was going to connect ballard and west seattle, the two most dense neighborhoods in the city? how many years ago was that idea?
Why the fuck should I take a bus?
@3, bus rapid transit is basically the same bus routes we have now with fewer stops. It's one of the options being considered.
Cienna, don't let these guys off the hook with a half-assed definition of bus rapid transit. The most critical aspect of true BRT is having dedicated lanes for at least most of a route. If it has that, even if it has to navigate street crossings, I welcome BRT, even if I'd still prefer true high-capacity/mass transit.
Actually, if I had to give a non-laughable definition of this new term "high-capacity street rail," I'd say much the same. It has to have its own dedicated right-of-way. If it has to share a lane with cars like our current model of streetcar, then it has no right to be called "high-capacity."
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Its bad enough as it is that people dare to play "Beat the train" and get their clocked cleaned when they get hit by a 2 ton train, it will happen more often when street level trollys expand out.
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It is about more than just what is the cheapest way to move a group a certain distance.
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You're right--our streetcars wouldn't have dedicated lanes, either, and they should. But SDOT estimates they'd be 3-7 cars long, which definitely helps with capacity.
Charming as it may be, West Seattle is far and away the least dense of any of Seattle's "flagship" neighborhoods. And there are miles of industrial channels and just plain nothing between it and anywhere else. But you know that; the quasi-isolation is why you and all your neighbors moved there in the first place.
I do hope the city can come up with something better than Metro's anemic RapidRide plan to meet West Seattle's (totally disparate) transit needs. But rail sent in that direction would be an egregious waste of money when many, many denser neighborhoods still suffer the bus crawl.
Of course, this rail plan is sub-par in every way. But sub-par is par for transit in Seattle, right?
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No, I just think a surface street trolly, competing with our existing fleet of buses, is a waste of money. Were better off spending more, to do it the right way, which is the tunnel or elevate. People wont use the trolly if the bus or light rail is technically faster.
Ideally, I'd like to see light rail extended from Westlake further north to connect with Belltown, Lower Queen Anne, tunnel through Queen Anne, then out towards Ballard. We shouldn't even consider the monorail part of our transit system. It's a toy for tourists and doesn't even accept ORCA (adding to its novelty). Where a trolley streetcar system would make sense would be from central Ballard out into the surrounding neighborhoods (if they could find a way to deal with the hills). Also, light rail from Union Station to West Seattle.
If only we had the money...
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Adding this streetcar service is stupid. It will just compete with everyday street traffic for the same roadway, and will go no faster than the rest of traffic during rush hour. Its one and only advantage is higher capacity than busses, at the cost of a much more expensive system.
Kinison is correct. We need dedicated transit that is NOT competing with cars and busses for the streets. Whether it is light rail or monorail or real BRT or whatever, doesn't matter. It needs to be on its own dedicated right of way, off city streets, not competing with regular traffic. Only then can it truly move more people more rapidly than current busses and cars, and not bog down rush hour more than it already is.
I weep if this is the best they can come up with for the next 20 years. Pathetic.
Throw down a platform @ Golden Gardens. Plenty of parking there and call it a day.
I live in Ballard. It would take me just as long to drive out to Golden Gardens as it takes me to drive directly to work. And are you suggesting using regular train tracks? You are on crack.
The most laughable thing Mazella referred to was "social justice". I'm sure all my neighbors on Delridge Way are glad that the good folks of Revenna, Queen Anne and Ballard are being taken care of first.
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Are you kidding? You'd be able to walk up that hill faster than the fetishized bus could travel. The hills are why Seattle has electric trolley buses, folks...
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If we're going to build streetcar lines, then let's build them right rather than say, "Whatever's good enough for Portland is good enough for us."
If anyone has any links, I'd appreciate...
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