Tacoma Tomorrow

Smaller Pierce Transit map viable, promising

2011-12-21T07:48:00.000-08:00

The Pierce Transit boundary conference is underway. The first meeting was held last Friday at the Puyallup Public Library. Derek Young, the representative for Gig Harbor, was elected as chair of the conference.

The first mention of what happened was from Derek himself via his blog Public Record. Kudos to him for communication with the public. He included a press release, a map of a draft of the new proposed boundary, and a link to the conference webpage.

If only the Pierce County Urban Growth Boundary looked like this.

As hoped, the new boundary draft removes unincorporated portions of the Key Peninsula, Mid-County, Graham, and parts of East Pierce County - including Buckley, Bonney Lake, and Orting. It also removes the City of Dupont, which is a new feature. Pierce Transit could have a fighting chance at the ballot box if the service boundary were redrawn in this manner.

As of this writing I haven't been able to acquire a list of precincts this map removes from the existing boundary, which is necessary to do any vote projections, but at first glance it appears that it's workable. A minimum of 100 transit-hostile precincts have to go to make the map viable.

If you'd like to attend the next meeting or submit comments regarding the process, the press release concludes:

The next meeting will be held Friday, January 20, 2012 at 9:00am located at Clover Park Technical College, 4500 Steilacoom Blvd, Lakewood WA, 98499, Building 3, Rotunda Room. Please visit www.piercetransit.org/ptic.htm for information regarding the Public Transportation Improvement Conference including a map the preliminary delineations, meeting materials and how to make comments to the Conference.

I will be working with community partners throughout the county and the region to support boundary revision that will help to secure the viability of public transit in Pierce County and the South Puget Sound.

Pierce Transit Explores Shrinking Boundary

2011-11-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

After finalizing the 35% service cuts in October resulting from the failure of Proposition 1 in February, the Pierce Transit Board has signaled that it is time to consider redrawing the service boundary.

Last week the Board gave direction to staff to draw up a resolution calling for a Public Transit Benefit Conference. The Conference of officials from incorporated cities and the County Council will hammer out a new transit service boundary over a period of six months.
Several key issues are at play here:

Taxation without Service - Communities that are paying significant amounts in sales taxes and not receiving any service don’t want to see that situation continue indefinitely, (Bonney Lake-Sumner Courier Herald)
High Costs in Suburban Pierce County - High per-rider costs of service in East Pierce County detract from Pierce Transit’s desire to focus resources where riders can be served efficiently, (here) and
Current transit service is not meeting demand - Tacoma and Lakewood riders periodically experience overcrowding and service spans that curtail mobility. Many want to go back to the ballot to restore service levels, but such a move is unlikely to succeed without significant boundary revisions.

Red areas are more transit hostile.

Previous analysis shows the presence of 163 transit-hostile precincts in the agency’s 414 square mile service territory. Transit-hostile precincts are areas where voters have rejected the last three transit measures since 2007 and also appear to have rejected a Pierce Transit ballot measure in 2002. Transit-hostile areas include: Key Peninsula, Buckley, Graham, Orting, Bonney Lake, South Hill, and Mid-County. In these areas average housing and employment densities are below what’s necessary for cost-effective transit service, even in the form of route-deviated BusPlus. Also, the current extent of the boundary obligates deadheading of Shuttle vehicles from Lakewood to East Pierce County at significant public expense.

Further GIS analysis indicates that at least 100 of the most transit-hostile precincts will need to be removed to give Pierce Transit a shot at passing a ballot measure. If the City of Bonney Lake decides to stay within the district, it will present a barrier to restoring service.

Proctor could use stop consolidation

2011-10-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

Service cuts are never easy, but here are my experiences with the new system on October 3rd.

Warning. This gets a little wonky, but you should all be used to it by now. For those of you not familiar with Pierce Transit - this system map, might help a little.

I had wanted to take Route 11 to connect with an outbound Route 51 at 6th and Union, but the scheduling on that doesn't work, because the 51 gets to 6th and Union just after the 51 leaves, which is weird, because that severely limits anyone wanting to commute out to South Tacoma or Lakewood.

Anyways, my journey began around 7am. I initially took Route 14 to the Proctor District from the area around Frisko Freeze. This route follows the portion of Route 16 that meandered its way through the North Slope Historic District via M St. and N. 15th St. to UPS and Proctor. Ridership was light and was geared towards schools at UPS and Proctor.

When I got to Proctor, I saw a Route 11 coming to whisk passengers on their way to Downtown, so I ran to catch it, just to see what was happening. Tina Lee, a Pierce Transit planner, was out to help educate riders about the changes to the new system and to keep track of schedule anomalies. Riders seemed generally interested in the fact that their bus now traveled along 6th Avenue.

Current Proctor stop configuration makes it harder to get Downtown than it should.
Route 11/16 can be consolidated where possible. Route 13/14 need stops closer to 26th.

I did see some really odd issues in Proctor that I think need to be remedied as soon as possible. Instead of overlaying routes on common stops, the current configuration seeks to split riders for different routes on different stops. This may reduce confusion with people boarding the wrong bus, but it also makes it more difficult for someone who is unfamiliar with the system to figure out "How do I get downtown?" They could take any one of four buses to get there - Route 11, 13, 14, and 16. All of them run hourly, so it makes sense to do overlays.

If the Proctor stop for Route 16 and Route 11 could be combined, and they can, because they both travel along N. 26th at Proctor going eastbound, then the service overlay could conceivably create better frequency at that stop - especially if service levels are restored. Also, the layover points for Routes 13 and 14 are too far to the south to being reasonably close to the Route 11/16 transfer point. Also Route 51 would be better if it did a counter clockwise loop to share the stop with the 11/16.

So, I took Route 11 to the intersection of 6th and Union, I got off and waited a few minutes for the 51, which is also odd, because the 51 then is timed too close to Route 11, limiting the use of the Union Avenue corridor for the UPS area.

I took the 51 down to work at TPU, where we sailed past Allenmore, a notable improvement from last go around, and stopped at Center and Union and had a little chat with the driver about the service change. Later on in the day I would take the 51 to Proctor for an appointment, bike back to work, and then take the 51 down to the train station, to see what we were giving up the connection to the Tacoma Mall for. We picked up a total of 4 passengers between Center St. and the Lakewood Sounder station, not counting me. My experience has been that we would have picked up twice or three times that by making the connection to the Tacoma Mall instead.

Post-Portland Transit Trauma (PPTT)

2011-10-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

Where I was yesterday.

As a transit rider in Portland, I'm just as mobile as any person with a car.

MAX light rail goes to lots of important destinations, as does the grid system of frequent service buses. Trimet is comfortable, convenient, and frequent - plus light rail is free when you're in Downtown PDX. Trains operate late into the night, the stations are clean and well lit and are accessible to the pedestrian. Real time information displays with modern shelters and comfortable seating are on every block, the buses clearly tell you which stop is next, trip planning with stop-by-stop navigation is available at the click of one button (with an Android smartphone) and there are all-day passes available there every day, not just on weekends. You feel like a first class citizen when you're riding transit there.

Where we are today.

When I get back from Portland, I go through a form of Post-Portland Transit Trauma or PPTT for short, experienced in six or so stages. They are:

Denial: "This can't be right. There has to be another bus home after 10pm. We used to have buses that ran until 1am! I've got a copy of The Bus Stops Here that says so."
Anger: "Hourly headways???!?!? Ending at 7pm?!?!?! #$%*"
Bargaining: "I'll pay a $5 fare for late night service!"
Depression: "Why has Pierce County not passed a single transit measure since 2003?!"
Existential crisis: "Am I a transit rider if I call a friend for a ride or take a taxi?"
Acceptance: "Fine, I'll phone a friend, or catch a cab. I should also bring my bike just in case something goes wrong."

The most effective cure for this trauma: More service hours.

Before we can get more service hours though, Pierce Transit still needs more chemotherapy. The October 2nd service change was a good first start, that brought costs down and shielded the majority of ridership. But fundamentally, it comes down the fact that the Pierce Transit service boundary encompasses so many unservable, anti-tax, anti-transit gated rural and unincorporated subdivisions that a minimum of 100 precincts would need to be pruned off the periphery to have a fighting chance at passing a ballot measure.

Until the Pierce Transit Board OR the County Council OR two municipalities OR 10% of registered voters wake up and call for a Public Transit Benefit Conference, more of us are going to be stranded and suffering from Transit Trauma.

If you're experiencing Transit Trauma, please report it to the Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners.

Special thanks to Cody Bakken and Julian Garst for their help with this post.

Way to go, Bonney Lake

2011-09-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

Bonney Lake, is this what you really wanted?

Oh that's right. It was.

Suburbs haven't supported Pierce Transit in over 10 years

2011-08-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

Results from Pierce Transit Prop 1 - February 2002

Picture this for a moment: It's 2002, Tim Eyman's Initiative 695 has passed and been found unconstitutional, but it doesn't matter. The State Legislature in cowardice, eliminates the one progressive tax in Washington State, the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax, and limits car tabs to $30 per year. This cuts transit funding statewide and deepens Pierce Transit's reliance on the sales tax.

38% of Pierce Transit's revenues are now gone. Service has been cut roughly 20% in order to slow the rate at which reserves are drained. Pierce Transit puts together a revenue measure of an additional 0.3% to restore service back to its original trajectory. And what happens?

The suburbs vote it down - namely Buckley, Bonney Lake, Orting, South Hill, and unincorporated mid-county.

At the same time, Tacoma pulls Pierce Transit through, with a margin of 54% yes / 46% no. Skip forward nine years.

Has anything changed since 2002?

Pierce Transit Prop 1, Feb 2011. Red = Failed Transit votes in 2007, 2008, 2011. Eerily familiar to Feb 2002.

In the last ten years Pierce County's unincorporated population has mushroomed. In South Hill, the population increased 65.8%. Tacoma's growth rate hasn't kept pace, only increasing a paltry 2.5%. So generally speaking, that's a lot more no votes than Tacoma's urban pro-transit voters can handle.

If voters in the suburbs say get rid of transit funding in 1999 and then reject additional transit funding in 2002, say no again in 2007, no in 2008, and no in 2011, why should we expect a yes under any circumstances?

Pierce Transit Boundary includes 163 Transit-Hostile Precincts

2011-08-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

With presidential elections typically turning out pro-transit voters, Nov. 2012 is a logical choice for Pierce Transit to return to the ballot to return service to pre-recession levels. But there’s a real risk that history will repeat itself unless the service boundary is redrawn - and soon. Here’s why:

Unincorporated Pierce County and far flung towns have repeatedly demonstrated that they do not support any further taxes for transit, as evidenced by three consecutive transit votes since 2007. There is some evidence showing that voters in such areas have become more hostile to transit votes over time.

There are 163 "transit-hostile" precincts in Pierce Transit's service
boundary that have rejected every transit vote since 2007.

Service to outer suburbs and unincorporated areas is not cost-effective for Pierce Transit to provide. In October, the final 15% service cut will effectively cut out Pierce County east of Puyallup, the Key Peninsula, and unincorporated mid-county, helping to reduce per rider costs by a staggering 44%, while at the same time preserving more than a million rides per year versus a plan that included those areas. Keeping these areas while trying to go the ballot again requires large subsidies per rider, making frequent and attractive service difficult to provide.

Revenues from outlying areas don’t justify retaining them (previously covered). In fact, the expansiveness of the current service territory was built around the assumption that “more area = more cars” and “more cars = more car tab fees”. That is no longer the case as Pierce Transit has not collected any revenue from car tabs since 2000 and over 70% of Pierce Transit’s revenue now comes from the sales tax.

Transit taxation without transit service. In October, large areas that are taxed by Pierce Transit will have no local, express, Shuttle, or special event service at all. The situation is bound to become politically untenable very quickly, resulting in more political polarization, which will jeopardize support for any potential transit ballot measure.

Due to the recession by October, Pierce Transit will be 42.7% smaller than it was back in 2008. Service cuts have meant fewer living wage jobs in Pierce County. They have also resulted in less access to jobs and education, while also putting Pierce County at a competitive disadvantage for new economic development.

Voters in the City of Tacoma support new taxes for transit by healthy margins - even during special elections in off years, but it can’t balance out numerous precincts in unincorporated Pierce County that consistently vote against public transit service.

There is a need for new investments in transit service. Pierce Transit planner, Tina Lee, indicated at a City Council study session that Pacific Avenue is a corridor ripe for bus rapid transit. Bus service that is competitive with automobile travel attracts more riders and helps to conserve operating dollars in the long run, but it can’t happen without the infrastructure that levels the playing field for transit. While King County Metro, Intercity Transit, and Community Transit have been investing in transit options with sales tax rates of 0.8% or 0.9% sales tax rates (or higher), Pierce Transit has languished at 0.6% since 2002.

The process for revising a new service area is likely to take around five months (source: TNT). It takes a several months to put together a new ballot measure and to campaign for it. That leaves a shrinking amount of time for the process to get started. The Pierce County Council could convene a conference of cities to hammer out a revised service boundary that works.

New Stadium Way designed to support Streetcar

2011-08-02T07:28:00.000-07:00

Stadium Way at S. 4th Street

A key roadway for potentially extending Tacoma Link out of the core of Downtown Tacoma will be undergoing a $9.5m Complete Streets-style reconstruction starting in September. After work is completed in late 2012, the roadway will support northward expansion of Tacoma Link.

Stadium Way served as a streetcar corridor before the demise of Tacoma's streetcar system in 1938. It is currently in a state of disrepair with broken sidewalks, caving asphalt, and a decaying substructure composed of fill dirt and decomposing wooden trestle.

Stadium Way may serve as
the combined brown corridor.

The new design improves pedestrian and bicycle access and will connect with the Bayside Trail System. Per Complete Streets requirements, the design includes bike lanes, a broad cliff-side pedestrian promenade with lookout points to view Mount Rainier and Commencement Bay, ornamental lighting and protected pedestrian crossings - in addition to a reinforced roadway with several new retaining walls.

In March, the Streetcar Stakeholders group identified three separate routing corridors that could potentially use Stadium Way, including lines to: St. Joseph Hospital via Martin Luther King Jr. Way (the Orange Line), 6th Avenue Business District (the Purple Line), and to Tacoma’s North End via ‘I’ Street (the Blue Line).

I asked the City of Tacoma engineer in charge of the project how the new roadway would be able to handle streetcars. Here was his response (emphasis mine):

North 1st Street will be designed for future streetcar use, with a 7.5% maximum grade.

"Our value engineering consultant has recommended not to exceed a 7.5% grade. Thus we designed a 7.5% maximum grade in N 1St Street. We did not have to enlarge any designed radii. The radius of the south bound lane at N 1st and E Street is the smallest horizontal radius on the project and still satisfies the minimum allowed for the street car. A rail expert analyzed our preliminary profile design and per his recommendations we were able to limit the longer length grades to 6% or less. Reversing vertical curves preferably have 100 feet of straight grade in between, which we were able to accommodate. The vertical curvature limits for street cars of these vertical curves were not a controlling factor.

The new street will be able to withstand the weight of a street car. Actually, Sound Transit would construct new concrete slabs in which the tracks would be embedded.

The overhead street car power supply would be suspended from a system with poles on both sides of the street, for the most part. It is highly speculative where additional stations will be located, but a physically feasible location is indeed north of South 4th Street. Another option might be along E-street. I am deferring this to Sound Transit."

-Raymond van der Roest, City of Tacoma Engineer

Learn more:

Will East Pierce Withdraw from Pierce Transit?

2011-06-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Monday evening the Pierce Transit Board, in a 4-3 vote, approved the October 2011 service plan "Focusing on Efficiency and Ridership." 17 15 fixed routes met the axe as a result. More than a hundred people testified at the meeting and four television camera crews were present. The Bonney Lake City Council even came to protest having routing in East Pierce County cut. (Perhaps this should have been more carefully considered before voting unanimously to reject Proposition 1 in January.) Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland reminded them of the resolution they passed.

Bonney Lake voted ~3:1 against Prop 1.

What remains to be seen is how the municipalities of Dupont, Bonney Lake, Buckley, and Sumner respond to having so much of their service cut. Will these cities call a Public Transit Conference to shrink the service boundary? Two cities within the service area will need to pass resolutions calling for such a conference to start such a process.

More on the service change after the jump.

What is significant about the reductions from this service plan is that the cost per rider will decrease from $9 to $5, a nearly 50% reduction in per passenger operating subsidy. So when new revenue and service hours are brought online, that Pierce Transit will be able to serve more riders more effectively.

There were two modifications to the plan based on public comment. Route deviations are likely planned for Route 500 between Downtown Tacoma and Federal Way Transit Center, which would allow for a connection between Downtown and Northeast Tacoma. Also, Route 496, a peak time Sounder feeder route between Bonney Lake Park and Ride and the Sumner Sounder Station will also be retained until February 2012, while Pierce Transit works to find a long term solution for that route. It’s likely that such a solution will involve Sound Transit.

Thumbs Up on Pierce Transit Service Reductions

2011-06-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

Pierce Transit’s proposed Service Reduction Plan (pdf) for October is a shift towards efficiency, economic sustainability, and long-term growth potential. While service cuts are tough on everyone, Pierce Transit is striving to do the least harm to the general ridership. Here are the highlights.

Death to Peanut Butter

It’s time to give Pierce Transit a hand on this one. It takes courage to say “enough is enough” to the ‘peanut butter’ approach to transit service, which hurts urban riders and leads to costs that spiral out of control. This plan helps the agency to turn the page and set a new course – making long overdue cuts to inefficient routes with low ridership and high costs per rider. Routing on the Key Peninsula, in Bonney Lake, Orting, and Sumner is discontinued. The reduction plan at the same time does its best to spare highly used urban routes in Pierce County serving Tacoma, Lakewood, University Place, and Puyallup.

There’s likely to be political fallout from this plan. One should expect Bonney Lake, Buckley, and Dupont to call for the taxing boundary to be redrawn. Written public comment is due by today, June 3. The hearing is on June 13th at 4pm at PT HQ. More after the jump.

Introducing Peak and Off-Peak Schedules

Pierce Transit has operated for a long while on the same standard half hour service profile using timed transfer centers. The timed transfers remain for the moment on most routes arriving at transit centers, since Pierce Transit is forced to cut service and connections can only be guaranteed this way. However, instead of making the cuts across the whole system, midday service is downscaled a bit with a shortening of the evening service span to retain usable service frequency during the day. At this point in time it is a good exchange, which can be built upon with more service hours.

Network focusing on Key Service Corridors

From a network perspective there’s a lot to love. Many changes, especially in the North End of Tacoma, greatly improve service and retain neighborhood geographic coverage in novel ways; even though the raw number of service hours are being cut.

For example, in addition to serving all previous destinations like the Stadium and Proctor Districts and Point Defiance, Route 11 will now serve Tacoma General Hospital, Jason Lee Middle School, the 6^th Avenue Business District, and the University of Puget Sound. On top of that, this routing configuration produces a combined service corridor between the Proctor District and 6^th Avenue along Union Avenue with Route 51.

Another combined service corridor is created between Sprague Avenue and Union Avenue on 6th with Route 1. This configuration helps to benefit shorter transit trips and inter-district trips with higher service frequency. In the future, this could position the corner of 6^th and Union to turn into a high profile on-street transfer point.

Further, a reconfigured Route 13 joins its sisters in the Proctor District for a full hub of Routes 11, 13, 16, and 51. This grants the riders of the Proctor District access to the Old Town/Ruston Way Waterfront, Thea Foss Waterway, and Tacoma Dome Station and accelerates trips made to Downtown Tacoma made from West Tacoma. Not bad for a 15% service reduction.

Not all Roses for Tacoma

It isn’t all roses, though for Tacoma. Here are the full route causalities limited to the City:

Route 220 (Orchard St.), Route 59 (Manitou), Route 26 (MLK Jr. Way), Route 61 (NE Tacoma), and Route 603A (Olympia).

Work remains to be done

Something about that service donut doesn't look right.

Despite all that I’ve said, there’s still some remnants of the suburban model should die alongside the other cuts. Service on S. 224th street to the Mountain Highway Wal-Mart would create a service donut hole bordered by Pacific Avenue, 112th St. and Meridian. I have told staff to consider shifting those service hours to Route 410, which was programmed to become part of a 15 minute trunk route in Proposition 1.

Next, Route 501, which seems to exist primarily for the purpose of giving residents of Milton (pop. 6786) access to Downtown Tacoma, should be merged with the service hours which link Downtown Tacoma with Federal Way. This would help to retain comparable service levels to King County Metro's Rapid Ride service to Federal Way Transit Center, while enforcing the Board-encouraged direction of using more direct paths between vital urban centers for fixed route service.

Route 51, in the combination with Route 220, is still missing a vital connection with the Tacoma Mall. Lots of young people use this route to commute to work each day. Many of my fellow riders I speak with tell me, "That's the whole point of the 51," and I tend to agree with them.

Finally, I’ve recommended to staff that the following routes be renamed to indicate their new configurations.

Route 11: Point Defiance via 6th Ave
Route 13: UPS - Waterfront - T Dome
Route 16: Proctor District - TCC

In summary

This is a good move for Pierce Transit and with all of the changes to routing and scheduling, in the long run it will be good for greater Tacoma. It in many ways turns the tables on communities that voted for more efficiency over more revenues during the debate over Proposition 1. Expect that a redrawing of the Pierce Transit boundary to either start discussion of additional service cuts (amounting to $4m) and/or another ballot measure to seek full funding in 2012.

Architects proposing Road Diet, Cycle Track for Tacoma's Pacific Avenue

2010-12-08T14:53:00.000-08:00

The Cycle Track Concept for Pacific Avenue

The City of Tacoma has posted some interesting architectural renderings (A) (B) of two concept designs for the greening of Downtown Pacific Avenue. In both concepts the architects propose additional street trees, rain garden-type storm drainage, and some form of road diet with bicycle right of way. In Concept A, bicycles would get a bike lane on both sides, but they would also have to compete with angled parking. In Concept B, bikes would get their own dedicated right of way to link Old City Hall at S. 7th St. to S. 17th and the planned Prairie Line Trail. Few transit elements appear to be present in this streetscape treatment, but there may be more to this than can be seen from the PDF's posted by the City.

Ken Peachey, a local cyclist, sees an opportunity for the City to live up to its sustainability principles. In an email he sent out this week he cites the recently unanimously adopted City of Tacoma's Mobility Master Plan policy, which was unanimously adopted by the City Council back in June, which states:

the City will give “…precedence to pedestrians, then to bicyclists and public transit. …The City of Tacoma will use this model as a conceptual tool for elevating pedestrians, bicyclists and public transportation in the planning and design of streets in a manner that is consistent with the City’s Complete Streets policy and Climate Action Plan."

Interested people are encouraged to attend the charette scheduled for Thursday and to submit their comments on the plans to soneill@cityoftacoma.org by 5pm on Friday, December 10th.

Event: Pacific Avenue Streetscape Charette

2010-12-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

Tacoma's Pacific Avenue around S. 13th St., circa 1910
Source: http://earthseaimagery.com/

From Liz Kaster @ City of Tacoma:

Public Charette Pacific Avenue Streetscape Project

The City of Tacoma would like your feedback. The public is invited to provide input and comment on conceptual designs completed for the Pacific Avenue Streetscape Project. Phase One of the project will improve the right-of-way from 7th Street to 17th Street and provide a streetscape design that complements the completed Pacific Avenue streetscape (17th Street to 21st Street). The project will incorporate innovative stormwater management design, complete streets concepts, multimodal transportation and wayfinding. The new streetscape will also be designed to attract and encourage new business in downtown Tacoma.

Thursday December 9, 2010

9:00 a.m. – noon

Tacoma Art Museum

1701 Pacific Avenue

Tacoma, WA 98402

If you would like more detailed information on this meeting, contact Sue O’Neill at (253) 591-5789 or e-mail her at soneill@cityoftacoma.org.

Anyone wanting to submit written comments may do so no later than 5 p.m., December 10, 2010 to:

Sue O’Neill, Asst. Division Manager

PW Engineering

747 Market Street, Room 544

Tacoma, WA 98402
soneill@cityoftacoma.org

Looks like this could be an opportunity to get some bus HOV lanes on Pac Ave, additional bike parking, and parallel parking near UW-Tacoma. Attend if you can.

Tacoma Link could help Pierce Transit during Snow

2010-11-24T16:00:00.000-08:00

Fantastic video by Oran of Seattle's Central Link Light Rail cruising past SR 518 Traffic

The reliability of the transportation system always suffers during inclement weather, but it doesn't have to. Regionally, the most reliable forms of transportation were on rails. Sounder Commuter trains ran on time and LINK Light Rail in Seattle and Tacoma operated mostly as normal. Sounder passengers enjoyed having warm seats, a smooth ride and free WiFi, while I heard anecdotally that some drivers, so frustrated with snarled traffic and spun-out cars on I-5, abandoned their vehicles and sought motel rooms in Kent or Auburn rather than waiting another 3 hours in traffic to get home.

Route 1's Snow Detour Map (Green)
Does it point the way for a Tacoma Link extension?

If you were waiting for any local bus route coming out of Downtown Tacoma, you were facing a delay of an hour or more and a "Sunday"-like schedule with no guarantee that your bus was actually going to arrive. Not only that, but on Monday, a Route 48 bus coming down South 19th Street's steep slope lost control and flipped on its side at UW-Tacoma, narrowly missing the university staircase - endangering the lives of 20 passengers and the driver.

All this took was a little ice and snow and a sustained deep freeze over two days.

What this says is clear: During periods of terrible weather commuters should be riding rails to get to work and school. And further, buses should stick to the flatter, more navigable parts of the City that can be easily cleared of snow and ice by City of Tacoma Public Works crews while staying off of Downtown Tacoma's "ski slopes."

One way to achieve this is to finally implement what has been planned and studied for the last five years by extending Tacoma Link up to the Stadium District and to Tacoma General Hospital. Coincidentally, this route mostly mirrors the snow route established for Pierce Transit's routes 1, 3, 11, 13, 16, 26, 28, and 45. During adverse conditions, Sound Transit light rail could eliminate the need for local buses in the majority of Tacoma from ever needing to come up or down Downtown's steep icy slopes. Instead, by transferring passengers to high capacity light rail on Division Avenue and in the Stadium District, buses could continue reliably serving other parts of the city. This would ensure safer and more reliable mobility for everyone and easier regional connections to Sounder Commuter Rail.

Not only that, but a light rail extension to Tacoma General Hospital could have saved Pierce Transit the purchase of a new $500,000 bus, and may reduce future lawsuit liabilities.

Bus flips near UW-Tacoma, Save Our Buses Kickoff Postponed

2010-11-22T13:36:00.000-08:00

It looks like Tacoma is experiencing a slightly different form of "snowpocalypse" that Seattle experienced two years ago. This Pierce Transit bus overturned at the corner of S. 19th and Jefferson earlier today at the top of the steps of UW-Tacoma. No one was seriously injured. More information at: The News Tribune.

All Pierce Transit routes are now operating on snow detours. Check your route to see how it is affected.

Also, due to the snow, Pierce Transit's Save Our Buses campaign kickoff, planned for later today, has been postponed to a later date.

Bus craches into concrete barrier at UW-Tacoma.

How "Save Our Buses" wins in Pierce County

2010-11-16T17:50:00.000-08:00

Save Our Buses, the measure to save Pierce Transit from having to cut local bus service by 35%, is having their campaign kickoff on Monday. The implications of losing this measure are pretty severe, but they could have been worse if it weren't for the agency's recent emphasis on cost cutting.

Here's a rundown of what could go down:

Frequent routes would be slashed from 15 minute service to 30/45 minutes,
Weekend service would be slashed,
Regional connections to Federal Way and Olympia could disappear,
Service to outlying areas may be completely discontinued.

All of this could plunge working families, the elderly, and people with disabilities into transportation chaos, stranding them.

The impact of a sustained loss of revenue of this magnitude would be like turning back the clock two decades and could jeopardize attempts by the City of Tacoma to ask voters next year to invest in its non-motorized Mobility Master Plan and streetcar projects. But enough doom and gloom, let's look at this issue more rationally.

What happened last time?

The last time Pierce County voters had a transit measure in front of them was in November of 2008. In Pierce County ST2 was about building for the future. It was about having more than we have today. It guaranteed more trips on Sounder commuter rail to Seattle, $80 million in matching funds to extend Tacoma Link further into Tacoma, enhanced express bus service, and right of way acquisition to set the stage for light rail to the airport.

Sound Transit 2, sailed to victory buoyed by positive votes in King and Snohomish counties, locking in a future of sustained investment in fixed rail transit for the Puget Sound region for at least the next 15 years. However, in Pierce County, ST2 narrowly failed.

Sound Transit Proposition No. 1

APPROVED	124,856	49.08%
REJECTED	129,536	50.92%

Source: Pierce County Auditor

Where Transit Won/Lost in 2008

Sound Transit 2 election margins by precinct with an overlay of Tacoma's historic streetcar system

The urban/suburban/exurban divide is alive and well in Pierce County. While numerous precincts in Central Tacoma and North Tacoma showed transit victory margins of greater than 400 votes, suburban Pierce County solidly rejected more investment in transit by margins greater than 50 votes per precinct. The sheer number of precincts in unincorporated Pierce County tended to balance the positive returns coming out of Tacoma, University Place, Lakewood, and Puyallup.

How Save Our Buses can win

In 2008, "Mass Transit Now," the campaign arm of ST2 offered only a handful of opportunities for grassroots volunteers in Pierce County to actively engage the public in discussions about investments in public transportation - and it showed. Most of Tacoma voted in favor, and part of that is because volunteers like me and Peter Jung took time out of our weekends to canvass neighborhoods in Central Tacoma. By supporting the Save Our Buses campaign, with our dollars and our time, by talking to friends and neighbors to encourage them to vote yes in February, we can be key to winning this ballot measure.

Messaging will be important. As opposed to ST2, Save Our Buses will have to be very clear in their messaging to folks that this is about keeping what we have, and making changes to use it more efficiently - through the evolving PT Tomorrow bus revamp.

It will be essential to focus on key, transit-supportive precincts in Tacoma, Lakewood, University Place, and Puyallup by encouraging turnout, registering voters, and raising awareness about the impending vote. By improving turnout by another few percentage points, we can preserve these vital services.

What's our plan B?

In the event that Pierce Transit's Proposition 1 fails, there will be a need for the Board of Commissioners to take decisive action. The agency will have to make immediate cuts to service and I would encourage the Board to look into reviewing the service boundary (which we've covered in the past and Intercity Transit did some time ago). People in Tacoma and Lakewood are willing to pay taxes to support public transportation, let's not let people who don't want transit and don't use it hold up the demand for those services. Arrangements in each affected community would need to be made for those with mobility issues.

The next step would be for Pierce Transit to return to the ballot, potentially in the municipal primary in September, but that would sacrifice months of valuable time and result in the loss of existing riders as people get fed up with the cash-starved system and begin purchasing automobiles to make their trips instead.

If that fails, it might fall on the municipalities themselves to try to come up with funds to keep transit service at decent levels through the use of Transportation Benefit Districts, as our northern neighbor Bellingham has with Whatcom County Transit. However, the revenue potential and delay time make these possibilities rather uncomfortable Plan "C's," and may jeopardize other worthy projects like implementation of Tacoma's forward-thinking Mobility Master Plan.

Tacoma Link Extension meeting tonight

2010-11-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

Tonight at UW-Tacoma, Sound Transit and City of Tacoma officials will be hosting the second-to-last mini alternatives analysis meeting on the Tacoma Link Extension. The purpose of this meeting will be to 1) finalize route "evaluation criteria" and 2) to respond to staff proposals for potential concept alignments based on the map that was drawn up collectively by the Stakeholders Group last month.

From previous meetings I can tell you that there are three primary destinations being discussed, St. Joseph Hospital, 6th and Pine Mixed Use Center and Salishan via the Emerald Queen Casino. Each of these potential routes has their own quirks dealing with right of way, ridership and cost. We can expect to see some more firm numbers on each of these proposals tonight.

Essentially it boils down to if we choose to go North, we have to decide whether we take "straight shot" Stadium Way (which is being reconstructed using complete streets guidelines next year) or make a "hill climb" to St. Helens Avenue. After that it's pretty much the same alignment along Division Avenue to Tacoma General, at which there's a decision to be made about either heading west on 6th Avenue or South on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The other alignment that's still in play somewhat is the extension to the East along Puyallup Avenue to Portland Avenue to the Emerald Queen Casino, Lower Portland Avenue, and Salishan. There aren't too many permutations with that route currently since support on the committee depends on serving the mixed income quasi-New Urbanist Salishan development.

I put together the diagram below to summarize the options and debates that have taken place thus far. Staff may have other ideas to present other than these tonight.

There's an opportunity for public comment before the start of the meeting if you want to attend. The next meeting will be the last one, which will likely be when the group votes to endorse a set of criteria for Federal Alternatives Analysis and potentially a preferred concept alignment.

The meeting is at 5pm at UW-Tacoma in room CP103

The agenda is as follows:

Introductions and Agenda Review
Review of Streetcar Routes
Route Evaluation

Validate values
Review data/maps
Review criteria and methodology
Apply methodology and evaluate the routes

Review of other Evaluation Criteria

Small Starts Criteria
ST Long Range Plan Criteria

Wrap up and Next Steps

Read more about the Tacoma Link Extension via the recently updated City of Tacoma Streetcar Stakeholder page.

Tacoma's Six Year Transportation Program

2010-11-09T23:10:00.000-08:00

As is required for every city in Washington State, the City of Tacoma is preparing an annual update to its Six Year Comprehensive Transportation Program. It is really quite astounding how much work is identified in this document for Tacoma. Over $500 million of transportation projects are identified in the next six years within the borders of Tacoma. And out of that $241 million currently has no formalized source of funding. I compiled together this nifty excel chart using data summarized from the current draft of the document ^(pdf).

The 2010 update to the plan has pleased the Environmental and Public Works Committee so much that it was recently decided to set the time of November 16th at 5:30pm for a public hearing of the plan. In the plan there are a number of categories of funding. I'm no expert on this, so bare with me as I explain what I have observed in my brief exploration of this document.

Arterial Streets

Moral of the category is that full replacement of pothole infested streets is expensive! Almost $70 million in unfunded needs for full replacement of streets has been identified. And keep in mind that there are only 29 projects total in this category! That's about $3.7 million per project and most of them are for mere sections of street - Alaska from 56th to 72nd; Stadium Way from 9th to Tacoma Ave; A direct access ramp from I-5 to Tacoma Mall Blvd.

Nonmotorized

This is where a bunch of trails and the Mobility Master Plan fall under. Unfortunately most if these projects are mostly unfunded. As for the Mobility Master Plan, the City is planning on allocating about $1.5 million on short term Bike and Ped improvements, but still leaving nearly $12.5 million unfunded.

Bridges

Bridges are also expensive. Even more so than streets. The bulk of the expenses however comes from three bridges. The Hylebos Bridge has just $13 million remaining through 2011 and then should be ready to go. The Murray Morgan is fully funded to the tune of $57,077,000. And the Puyallup Bridge which already has $23 million for the western part is seeking an additional $8.5 million for the western part and another $9 million for the eastern part.

Business Districts

There are a variety of odds and ends included in here specific to each business district. It can include beatification, sidewalk repair among other things.

Landscaping/Streetscape

Only two projects in here. The first is the Pacific Ave Streetscape and the second is the Urban Forestry Program.

LIDs

This is an interesting category. LID is short for Local Improvement District where the city will collect a property assessment to be used on a nearby transportation project. Those property assessments make up a very large sum of money. There are a number of placeholders here for potential lids, but already there are 24 identified LIDs. Some highlights from these include the Broadway Streetscape and some work around Point Ruston.

Neighborhoods

Similar to the Business Districts there are again a number of odds and ends included in here. Some include traffic calming and there is also a wayfinding program as well.

Sidewalks

This one kinda speaks for itself. Improve a sidewalk if it is mangled up, or build one if it doesn't exist, but typically only at critical areas - such as under SR 16. Some public stairways are included a bit here too.

Special Projects

A very special category indeed. There are a number of Tacoma Rail-related items here, the Suaro Site, and some Tacoma Link stuff as well. Of particular interesting note is the Stadium Way Streetcar Line listed as unfunded at a cost of $37,700,000. The project status for this reads as follows:

This project is currently being evaluated through a mini-alternatives analysis being conducted by the City, Sound Transit, and Pierce Transit. This study, to be completed in December 2010, will determine if the extension route will be along Stadium Drive or an alternate route.

Also worth noting is that the reconstruction of Stadium Way is already fully funded.

Streetlighting

Most self-explanatory category name in the document.

Street Rehabilitation

Although there is nearly $17 million committed to street rehabilitation around the city, there is still an additional $24 that Tacoma could use in this effort.

Traffic Signals

Some repair work of signal stuff and new signals at 30th & Alder, 30th & Orchard, Port of Tacoma & Lincoln and a mystery location TBD!!

Pierce Transit, Tacoma invest in Transit Signal Priority

2010-11-04T15:00:00.000-07:00

Pierce Transit is working with the City of Tacoma to install transit signal priority equipment to 86 intersections in the vicinity of greater Downtown Tacoma. This equipment will work with transponders on Pierce Transit's buses to increase the amount of time that a traffic light stays green when a the vehicle approaches the intersection.

View Pierce Transit TSP Project in a larger map

The large six square mile area where the equipment will be installed is bounded by Sprague Avenue to the West, Portland Avenue to the East, Division Avenue to the North and Interstate 5 to the south

This effort builds upon previous work done by PT on several other corridors within the City that had significant on-time performance issues (such as Route 57 and non-downtown portions of Route 1) that were implemented back in 2004. The new equipment will likely improve on-time performance of the Westbound Route 1 to Tacoma Community College, which routinely suffers delays in the range of 5-10 minutes during peak periods when the route is heavily used. Route 1 operates at 15 minute headways for the vast majority of the day and at 30 minute headways off-peak. Route 1 also deviates off of Pacific Avenue to Tacoma Dome Station to connect with Sounder Commuter trains from Seattle.

The project is funded by a Congestion Management and Air Quality grant filed by PT to help speed transit vehicles through the downtown core. The project will use Opticom equipment produced by Global Traffic Technologies, a firm based out of St. Paul, Minnesota.

An interlocal agreement outlining goals and responsibilities between Pierce Transit and the City of Tacoma is on Pierce Transit's Board Agenda for the next meeting on November 8th. If you'd like to attend, Pierce Transit Board Meetings are held at PT Headquarters at S. 96th and South Tacoma Way at 4pm - which for transit users is accessible via Routes 48, 3, and 300.

We'll be tracking the development of this project as it comes online. Peter Stackpole, a Senior Planner at Pierce Transit, will be acting as the Project Manager. He will be working with Chris Larson from City of Tacoma Public Works Department to implement the project.

Hope for JBLM Traffic?

2010-10-31T19:10:00.000-07:00

Photo from Flickr user womynspiritrise

There's been a bunch of buzz lately about Traffic and Mass Transit from Tacoma through the JBLM area to Olympia. As anyone who has ever ventured even close to the JBLM area knows, the traffic is horrendous and the public transit quite literally sucks. The worst backups can stretch for over 10 miles. As for public transit there are only 4 routes through the area all with very little coordination.

The traffic has been so exacerbated in the area due in large part to the increases in base population, but also nearby towns and cities that make up the total population of Pierce and Thurston Counties. As noted at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Growth Coordination Plan's (JBLMGC for short) website, population has grown substantially in the last decade. The following tables taken from the JBLMGC's website summarize how much the area has grown:

Ft. Lewis and County Growth

Ft. Lewis	2000	2009	Net Change	% Change
Military	19,089	30,800	11,711	61.3%
Dependents	29,015	46,816	17,801	61.3%
Totals	48,104	77,616	29,512	61.3%
Counties (including cities)	2000	2008	Net Change	% Change
Pierce County	700,820	805,400	198,370	16.3%
Thurston County	207,355	245,300	78,825	18.3%
Totals	908,175	1,050,700	277,195	15.7%

Municipal Growth in Study Area

Municipality	2000	2008	Net Change	% Change
City of Tacoma	193,556	202,700	9,144	4.7%
City of Lakewood	58,293	58,780	487	.8%
City of Lacey	31,226	38,040	6,814	21.8%
City of DuPont	2,452	7,390	4,938	201.4%
Town of Steilacoom	6,049	6,255	206	3.4%
Town of Roy	260	875	615	236.5%
City of Yelm	3,289	5,150	1,861	56.6%
Totals	295,125	319,190	24,065	8.15%

A lot of people and media outlets have noticed and wrote about this issue as well as weighing in on what to do. Back in May, Tacoma Tomorrow wrote a series on traffic through the area including articles about I-5, the bus service and even the coming rail infrastructure. In time, the Northwest Guardian wrote a piece about how bad the traffic is in the area. More recently, Seattle Transit Blog discussed the issues and potential remedies. The Tacoma News Tribune and Olympian both agree that traffic is bad and something should be done about it.

Well what should be done about it? Surely there are a number of opinions on that as well. There has been talk of having the base have more flexible hours of operation, a call for widening I-5, and most recently a spur from the Tacoma News Tribune to get started on planning for better transit service.

So what is being done if anything by our government? Firstly, Tacoma Tomorrow highlighted in the previous Tacoma to Olympia series about the I-5 - Fort Lewis/McChord Transportation Analysis being performed by WSDOT. The final report from this study presented the predicted traffic operation improvements under scenarios that included upgrading interchanges and/or adding general purpose lanes to I-5. However, as mentioned earlier in the post, there is also the JBLMGC which has a more comprehensive analysis relating specifically to the base and also focuses more in depth on transit strategies. Some highlights from their draft plan transportation appendix include HOV lanes at gate entrances, increased transit service within the base and even the possibility of an integrated system of transit stops along the interchanges and just after the gates.

Regardless of all the talk and plans, action on improving the traffic situation is slow going. The On-Ramp blog noted WSDOT's efforts in providing better signal timing and more incident response crews. However, until some new construction of bigger and better transportation facilities occurs, or the population throughout the area declines, the traffic probably isn't going to get much better.

Tacoma Link to remain free, pending study

2010-10-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

Tacoma Link has won a reprieve from the $1 fare proposed by Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl. Two days ago, at the City Council study session, Sound Transit Board Member Jake Fey announced that the proposal was "off the table."

Downtown Tacoma's Link Light Rail service
to remain fare-free for the time being.

The issue was discussed briefly at the City of Tacoma Streetcar Stakeholders Group meeting last week. Sound Transit Community Relations Specialist, Rachel Smith, indicated that the issue was related to a standing agency policy that requires that a fare be charged on a service when doing so would raise more revenue than it would cost to charge a fare. Since the ORCA card has been implemented, it reduces the overhead cost of charging a fare - and since Tacoma Link already has security onboard the trains, there is adequate staffing to act as fare enforcement officers. She also mentioned that the $1 fare would be a "one way" fare to coincide with the fare policy on Seattle's Central Link Light Rail.

However, it was also stated that the policy is somewhat flexible, allowing for local entities to pick up the tab in leiu of charging a fare on a particular service. I asked a question about whether it would be possible to instead charge for parking at Tacoma Dome Station and remit those funds to Sound Transit through interlocal agreement as an alternative to charging fares. Staff indicated that that is a possibility that could be studied in the future, but regardless of that, "the Board will need to address the issue and consider if they want to make an exemption to the policy for Tacoma Link."

Mayor Strickland and Councilmembers Mello, Boe, and Fey all seem to be in support of finding an alternative arrangement or at least a different schedule for implementing a fare on Tacoma Link. With the addition of paid parking in Downtown, the planned infill station at 12th and Commerce, and changes happening at least one Downtown employer taking place, ridership will be in a state of flux for the next several months. This is without mentioning immediate plans for extension of the line North or East.

The bottom line at the moment is that Tacoma Link is currently budgeted to raise $800,000 in fares in the next budget cycle. Modifying the budget will require an amendment approved by the Sound Transit Board.

More on this subject:

Save Our Buses!

2010-10-15T17:43:00.000-07:00

With all the election campaigning and attack ads and whatnot going on, here's yet another campaign to watch, only this time it's for Pierce Transit's Ballot measure coming up on February 8, 2011. Earlier today, Transportation Choices Coalition announced that the Save Our Buses Campaign in Pierce County is LIVE. Andrew from TCC summarizes the effort being done so far:

I have been working hard over the last few weeks with a dedicated group of volunteers and community leaders to get the Save our Buses campaign up and running in Pierce County.

...

Also Mayor Strickland and Councilmember Terry Lee have agreed to Co-Chair the campaign!

The Save Our Buses campaign is already brewing up quickly on the internet with a website at http://www.approveprop1.com/, a facebook fan page and a twitter account (@Save_our_Buses). The website is looking pretty good for now and has an option for those with money to spare to donate to the campaign.

For those not up to speed, Pierce Transit is facing a dramatic shortfall in funding due to the economic decline. Since Pierce Transit relies heavily on the sales tax as a revenue source, the decline in revenue could force Pierce Transit to cut services by 35%. Pierce Transit has been cutting jobs and costs, raising fares and had also completed a system redesign and still came up short in filling the funding gap. Therefore, the Pierce Transit board unanimously approved a ballot measure to ask voters if they want to approve a 0.3% increase in the sales tax for Pierce Transit. If this ballot is approved, Pierce Transit will be able to maintain a similar amount of total hours of bus service throughout Pierce County implementing the system redesign alternative of the Preservation Alternative shown below:

Here's hoping for the best in saving our bus service.

Tacoma Link to Shutdown for VP Biden's Visit

2010-10-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Sound Transit is tweeting that due to Vice President Biden's visit to UW Tacoma on Friday, October 8th, Tacoma Link service will be out of service from ~~6:30am to 1pm~~. 10:30am - 1pm (source: Sound Transit). No word yet if buses will be serving stations or if passengers have been given notice.

Update: Pierce Transit will be modifying routing for all buses on Pacific Avenue for the same time period. More information here via PDF: http://piercetransit.org/alerts/pac_ave_detour.pdf

VP Biden apparently isn't popular enough to get
the kind of Tacoma Link service Lady Gaga got.

The directive for this probably comes from on high, Secret Service style, but one really has to question whether it makes the Vice President any safer. Buses operate alongside UW Tacoma closer to the venue where he will be speaking and they don't run on rails.

This situation is likely to make a number of downtown commuters unhappy as yet another alternative to paid parking is removed. Since paid parking went into effect parking spots have opened up far beyond the 15% vacancy rate that was were desired (as covered on TacomaUrbanist). At Tacoma Dome Station parking availability is down and ridership on Tacoma Link is up, but we don't know much for sure since those statistics are not out yet.

Please share this post with as many people as you can as this is the first we have heard of this kind of impact from the Vice President's appearance. As always, we will keep you posted.

Dude, where's my bike lane?

2010-09-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

This summer sort of started off on a good note with the Tacoma Mobility Master Plan being integrated into the Comprehensive Plan of the City of Tacoma. It is a wonderful document by design. There are about 100 pages worth of design standards for all kinds of bicycle facilities and other elements of the Complete Streets movement. There is even a prioritized project list of phased projects all geared towards connecting all of Tacoma with bicycle facilities - bike lanes, bike trails, bike boulevards, the works.

However, Tacoma's Mobility Master Plan has been a perfect example of how having a plan does not necessarily mean the plan will actually be carried out. There are two major flaws with the Mobility Master plan: there is no funding for it and the City isn't organized enough to diligently execute the implementation of the plan into their daily business.

On the funding side of things, the entire Mobility Master Plan in the three distinct phases is slated to cost about $38.5 million. The first phase is $13.7 million total which includes 18 bicycle boulevard projects, 18 bike lane projects, 4 sharrow projects, a cycletrack along Wright Park, $6 million worth of sidewalks, 4 intersection improvements and 6 shared use paths. All told, quite a bit in terms of how far transportation money goes these days. Yet as it stands today, the Mobility Master Plan is simply lucky to achieve any kind of progress as there is no dedicated source of funding for these projects.

And as for putting in the bike infrastructure, the City of Tacoma has been erratic at best in getting things in the Mobility Master Plan done as part of regular road maintenance. There have been two roadway improvement projects recently completed that have raised my eyebrow.

The first was a repaving project on 6th Ave between Sprague and Tacoma Ave. This particular stretch of 6th ave acording to the short-term mobility master plan project list is supposed to have a bike lane from Ainsworth to Broadway. The roadway was paved sometime in late July and in early August looked like this:

Since then, a yellow centerline has been striped along the road, but the bike lanes are nowhere to be seen. I personally had numerous email exchanges with the City of Tacoma about this, but nothing has happened. Now that the fall is here with winter quickly approaching, it looks like this critical stretch of 6th Ave won't see bike lanes on it for a still indeterminate amount of time.

The second even more eyebrow-raising and nearly face-slapping incident has been the case of the appearing and disappearing bike lanes on North 30th Ave. Kevin Freitas delightfully observed on September 24th that new bike lanes had been striped on the N 30th hillclimb:

However, the very next day the same bike lanes turned into this:

In the comment thread of KF's post on the N 30th st there is some discussion of how sharrows would be a better treatment for the downhill side, but regardless, the uphill side was de-striped as well. Also a interesting tidbit, N 30th is a medium-term project, but somehow bike lanes were striped there (even if just for a day) before any bike lanes of the short-term project on 6th ave were striped at all.

So as can be seen Tacoma really doesn't have it's act together in terms of taking action on the Mobility Master Plan. Without the dedicated funding a lot of these projects aren't going to get done. However, even as a part of regular road reconstruction projects, the City has been blowing it in terms of implementing Mobility Master Plan projects by not simply laying down some extra paint when road repaving projects are carried out.

Tacoma Link In 2011: $1 fare proposed

2010-09-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl presented her budget to the Sound Transit Board earlier today. In King County, thanks to a 25% dropoff in revenue, there will be significant delays to projects, including an indefinite deferral of all light rail construction south of S. 200th St. Light rail from Tacoma to SeaTac seems to get further and further away with each passing year.

However, thankfully, Tacoma Link came through mostly unscathed.

Included in the detailed budget were some interesting tidbits:

A proposed $1 fare for riding Tacoma Link starting in June 2011
$62,000 for Ticket Vending Machines at each of the stations
$971,000 for Alternatives Analysis for Tacoma Link extension (enabling federal funding)
$371,000 for Digital sign and audio announcement system for Tacoma Link

Ticket Vending Machine in International District

The Sound Transit Board also approved the concept agreement with the City of Tacoma concerning the "Commerce Street Station" between 11th and 12th Streets.

Attracting Businesses Downtown with Better Streetscapes?

2010-09-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Anybody who knows much about Tacoma would know that the City has a deep desire to attract more businesses to its downtown. They bent head over heals to try to keep Russell and offered incentives for Davita as well. Not everything in these business deals are quite related to this blog's focus, but there has been quite a bit of transportation-related concepts and projects coming not out of the public works departments, but out of the economic development area.

Prairie Line Trail
Now this project isn't directly out of the economic development module of things. This particular project would turn the old railway tracks that run through UW Tacoma into this wonderful trail. It would stretch from the waterfront through the brewery district. The Tacoma Weekly wrote up a good story on it about a month ago here. Many more details and pretty sweet sketches including a grade-separated crossing concept can be found in the grant application here^(pdf).

Streetscapes and Wayfinding

Recently in an Economic Development Committee meeting^(pdf), there was a discussion about better streetscapes and wayfinding signs. The wayfinding signs were recommended to be given a budget of $200,000 over six years out of the city budget. The streetscapes are still under consideration. Norm Dicks had secured $800,000 that can be used for the streetscaping. The picture shown above is a concept for Pacific Ave in downtown.

Tacoma Dome Station Additional Parking

And most recently, the City of Tacoma City Manager has proposed seeking some Build America Bonds to construct more parking over at Tacoma Dome Station. The following video showed the type of parking structure that could possibly be created.

Additional Stuff

And let's not forget all the other enhancements that have already been going on. This includes the Broadway LID, the upcoming 11th Street Station for Tacoma Link and a downtown-wide upgrade of the signaling system. Taken together with the additional transportation enhancements that have been going on in Downtown Tacoma, things are beginning to look and feel a little newer.