Invest in transportation options that work for everyone

Bus Rapid Transit - More people, more places, more flexible

How Does Bus Rapid Transit Work?

Ride Share Programs Are Very Cost Effective

More Info about Car Sharing Programs

Safe bike routes needed

For information on cycling in the Puget Sound Region

Walkways

Sidewalks, trails and safe crosswalks are needed in every community

Smarter Transit is an all-volunteer, pro-transit, non-partisan, non-profit citizens’ organization. Our mission is to support and advocate for accountable public transportation governance and investments that grow transit, vanpool, carpool ridership, and safe bike and walking routes throughout the Puget Sound region in the most cost-effective way.

We occasionally post articles and news of interest regarding transit and transportation issues that affect the Puget Sound Region. If there are stories that you think deserve attention, or if you have news or information that you’d like to share, please contact us!

Contact us!

There are better solutions and greater needs

Bus Rapid Transit and Bus Rapid Transit “lite” offer more flexibility than light rail. It carries more people more places.

Ride share programs are very cost effective and use existing infrastructure.

Safe bikeways and walkways are needed in every community.

Maintaining our existing infrastructure should be a priority.

Let’s put our money where it actually moves us forward.

What we want in the region

  • Invest in a high capacity, affordable, rapid bus system that covers the whole region within a few years instead of inflexible, expensive and limited capacity light rail lines that reach a fraction of the region after decades.
  • Finish the HOV system and commit to policies that keep it functioning at 45 mph 90 percent of the time.
  • Realize the extraordinary potential of carpool and vanpool programs.
  • Recognize that new technologies will change the way we get around making it even more critical to have the flexibility to upgrade and change as we need.
  • Maintain our existing roads and bridges and fix the choke points that lead to congestion.
  • Spend money on the simple sidewalk, safe crosswalk and bike path.  These make communities truly livable and walkable.
  • Start with the question, What’s the problem we’re trying to solve? Identify real goals and performance measures and allow objective analysis of the alternatives.
  • Put directly elected people in charge instead of unelected boards who have no accountability and often a conflict of interest.

What is Bus Rapid Transit?

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is not buses as you know them. BRT treats buses like subways but with more flexibility. BRT buses always have right of way: they don’t stop at red lights or get stuck in congestion. Loading is also much faster because riders pay before they board, stations are raised to be level with the bus floor, and buses have more and wider doors. One lane can facilitate 300 buses per hour. Light Rail can only handle 10 trains per hour and can never have more than 4 cars per train.

King County Metro’s Rapid Ride is not BRT – think of bus service on a continuum from classic slow city bus to “rail on rubber tires.” This description of BRT (bus rapid transit) contains all the elements of an ideal system. But, many things can be done to improve the speed of the buses through a corridor. KIng County Metro’s Rapid Ride is really just higher frequency – more should be done to actually make it “rapid.”

Read the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy’s “What is BRT?” for a fuller picture.

Even the former FTA Administrator advocated for expanding Bus Rapid Transit type service over expensive rail …at one time.

“Riders often want rail – but you can entice diehard rail riders onto a “special” bus, sometimes by just painting the bus a different color than the rest of the fleet. Busways are cheap. You can get a designated lane just by painting it. And with signal preemption, you can move a lot of people at very little cost compared to rail.”

– Peter Rogoff in 2010 as head of Federal Transit Administration

In November, 2015, Peter Rogoff took over as CEO of Sound Transit and is now “excited by big light rail expansion plans.”

The Source: Federal Transit Administration chief: ‘Paint is cheap, rails systems are extremely expensive’.

Read the Seattle Times article on Peter Rogoff.

Get involved

Contact your appointed and elected officials: Puget Sound Regional Council, Sound Transit Board and Washington State Legislature.

Volunteer: Smarter Transit is a non-profit organization run by all volunteers. We need help with research, writing, speaking, networking.

Share what you’ve learned with friends and on social media.

Contact Maggie Fimia or John Niles: Here

Learn more

Sound Transit Revealed Get into the numbers of light rail, BRT and SoundTransit.

Transportation Matters A blog about rails, cities and politics in the Pacific Northwest.

Key Performance Measures Our report on what the data shows for transit 2040.

Here is a summary of the Sound Transit Contracts See who contracts with Sound Transit and also how many staff they hire 

All Sound Transit contracts over $100,000 since 2007 by category

Original list of contracts from Sound Transit

Modeling has shown for decades that fixed light rail lines do not dictate where the great majority of people decide to live. It’s confirmed again in this recent study
http://www.citylab.com/search/?q=does+light+rail+work

Does Light Rail Really Encourage People to Stop Driving? No, but it does pull them off buses, if a new study of British systems is any indicator.
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2013/02/does-light-rail-encourage-people-stop-driving/4800/

Have Light Rail Systems Been Worth the Investment?
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/04/have-us-light-rail-systems-been-worth-investment/8838/

Expedia moves to Seattle – An example of how businesses go where they want to go, not where the “Plans” tell them to go.
Expedia Moves to Seattle

84% of Portland’s regional trips still by car
Despite bike and transit gains, 84 percent of Portland region’s trips still by car: Metro study

Transit Riders Union concerned about a two class transit system
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/03/22/23823256/transit-riders-union-concerned-that-two-class-based-public-transportations-systems-taking-shape-in-seattle

Hawaii struggles to keep rail project from becoming a boondoggle
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/us/hawaii-struggles-to-keep-rail-project-from-becoming-a-boondoggle.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

Billions Spent but fewer people using public transportation in Southern California
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ridership-slump-20160127-story.html

Sound Transit Revealed: More detail about light rail and bus rapid transit
http://www.soundtransitrevealed.com

Transportation Matters – Troy Serad has a passion for transit, especially trains that make sense, does not own a car, but the most important thing is that, like Mark Ahlers, his information is based on facts and careful research.  His background is in urban planning, rail planning, accounting and cartography. https://transportationmatters.wordpress.com

What is Bus Rapid Transit – BRT?
https://www.itdp.org/library/standards-and-guides/the-bus-rapid-transit-standard/what-is-brt/

Great website that works with cities around the world on transportation issues including Bus Rapid Transit.
https://www.itdp.org

Bus Rapid Transit Institute – National data and info

National BRT Institute

CETA Archives, Coalition for Effective Transportation Alternatives
</a>http://www.effectivetransportation.org<a href=”http://smartertransit.org/resources-and-organizations/”></a>

Here is the link to Sound Transit 2016 Budget. Pages 15 & 22 summarizes the amount of department budgets and staff.
http://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/Adopted%202016%20Budget.pdf

Contact your local elected officials:
http://www.psrc.org/about/members/

Find Your Legislator:
http://app.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/

About Face by Sound Transit CEO
https://transit.dot.gov/about/speeches/administrator-peter-remarks-boston-reserve-bank-next-stop-national-summit-future

2014 PSRC Regional Growth Centers – Where does growth really go in our Region?
http://www.psrc.org/assets/10190/Centers_Monitoring.pdf?processed=true

June 22, 2015 Seattle Times  Small Ridership numbers don’t justify the costs

June 1, 2015 Crosscut We Deserve Better Transportation Planning

March 26,  2015 Daily Journal of Commerce Transportation 2040 Plan: What’s the Return on our $174 Billion investment?

Latest transportation stories from local papers

In the interest of providing the whole range of news regarding transportation and transit we are providing links to current articles and opinion pages. Smarter Transit does not necessarily agree with the views or info provided in all articles or op-eds.

Sound Transit News

General Transportation News

  • Port of Seattle expected to pay $2 million after...
    by Mike Lindblom on October 24, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    An airport customer toppled and suffered injuries while riding a shuttle van to the car-rental building -- resulting in a $2 million payout by the Port of Seattle, for not securing the rider's three-wheeler.

  • WSDOT tries a ‘bridge-in-a-backpack’ in...
    by Mike Lindblom on October 23, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    Composite fibers, best known as a lightweight material in Boeing airplanes, are being tried out as a bridge material in Duvall, where crews assembled a 51-foot-bridge to replace a concrete pipe that blocked fish passage. It's an experiment that may help WSDOT deal with court orders to reopen salmon […]

  • Seattle City Council could consider new car-tab...
    by Heidi Groover on October 21, 2020 at 1:41 am

    Less than a week after the Washington Supreme Court struck down an initiative limiting car-tab taxes, Seattle City Council members might consider new vehicle fees to help address looming budget shortfalls.  Councilmember Andrew Lewis on Tuesday said the council should discuss going back to voters […]

  • West Seattle Bridge repairs would be cheap, but...
    by Mike Lindblom on October 21, 2020 at 1:29 am

    The city's long-awaited "cost benefit analysis" of West Seattle Bridge options favors a partial replacement, or internal strengthening of the cracked span. Mayor Jenny Durkan is supposed to decide in coming weeks whether to pursue repairs, or proceed directly to demolition and replacement of the […]

  • City ballot measure would raise sales tax for...
    by Heidi Groover on October 20, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    A city ballot measure would, if approved by voters, charge a 0.15% sales tax to raise roughly $42 million a year. The money would fund bus service and other transit programs.

  • The tech that might help cyclists and cars...
    by JOHN R. QUAIN on October 18, 2020 at 1:01 pm

    With more Americans riding bikes, there's new pressure to find ways to make streets safer for everyone. Safety researchers are increasingly looking to technology for answers.

  • New no-cost Metro, Sound Transit passes available...
    by Heidi Groover on October 17, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    People who qualify for state programs like Supplemental Security Income can now receive no-cost passes to ride King County Metro buses and Sound Transit trains. The new program is designed for people who make less than 80% of the federal poverty level, or about $10,000 for an individual and $21,000 […]

  • Washington Supreme Court strikes down I-976,...
    by Heidi Groover, Joseph O’Sullivan and Mike Lindblom on October 15, 2020 at 3:53 pm

    Initiative 976, which cut car-tab taxes to $30, is unconstitutional because it “contains more than one subject, and its subject is not accurately expressed in its title,” the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

  • City staff lean toward replacing, not repairing,...
    by Mike Lindblom on October 14, 2020 at 10:51 pm

    The role model is the Lake Champlain bridge between New York state and Vermont. It was completed in late 2011 using so-called "accelerated bridge construction" tactics.

  • Lightning strikes Washington state ferry Saturday...
    by The Associated Press on October 12, 2020 at 12:52 pm

    A Washington State Ferry was knocked out of service Saturday evening after it was struck by lightning, and repairs kept it out of service into Sunday.