In the News
Seattle looks to transform Third Avenue from transit-only to inviting ‘front door’
Seattle’s Third Avenue is known primarily for two things: transit and disorder. After years — decades, even — of effort to control the latter, city leaders have begun to wonder whether rethinking the former might help. Read the article...
Crews repair issue that shut down Link light rail service between U District, Northgate
SEATTLE — Just before 9 p.m., Sound Transit tweeted that repairs were completed after a mechanical issue caused a power outage and shut down the Link 1 line service between the University District and Northgate going northbound. Hundreds of commuters had their...
Sound Transit goes all-in on a gentler kind of fare enforcement
Sep. 2, 2022 at 6:00 am Updated Sep. 2, 2022 at 6:55 pm After two years of not enforcing payment, Sound Transit will bring back spot checks of passengers by deploying “fare ambassadors” who educate nonpaying riders and issue lighter penalties — a new strategy leaders...
Planning for Delridge light rail highlights displacement risks up and down the line
Aug. 20, 2022 “How can you, Sound Transit board, choose a route that destroys a child care center and an agency that serves people with disabilities?” resident Lucy Barefoot asked at a recent meeting. “They are the very same people you’re building this light...
More delays for light rail to Bellevue, Redmond, Federal Way, Lynnwood Aug. 18, 2022
KENT — Sound Transit revealed Thursday that light-rail service to the Eastside, which was to begin by July 2023, will open a year or more later because contractors must reinforce or rebuild 4 miles of flawed concrete track supports through Mercer Island and...
Sound Transit 3: Progress in West Seattle, paralysis in Chinatown International District
Almost six years after voters approved a massive light-rail expansion, Sound Transit made progress this summer by declaring preferred locations for three stations and a short tunnel in West Seattle. But the agency’s board members are still flailing when it comes to...
The collateral damage from urban planning by Marie Wong Ph.D
August 8, 2022 The Chinatown-International District (CID) is facing one of the most potentially (and likely) devastating urban planning disasters with the four light rail alignments that are proposed with the Sound Transit 3 (ST3) expansion. ...
Seattle’s new transportation director will have to hit the ground running
The Seattle Department of Transportation owns and operates 124 bridges. A city auditor report in 2020 rated the Second Avenue Extension Bridge in Pioneer Square (built in 1928), Magnolia Bridge (1929) and University Bridge (1930) in “poor” condition. Overall,...
Poor, minority communities more likely to have bad roads, study finds
https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/07/29/road-conditions-poor-neighborhoods/ The Transportation Department has also identified longer commutes for people who don’t own cars and a higher burden of transportation costs on poorer families. The...
Broken pavement causes awkward 9-month lane closure on I-90
Road surfaces in Washington state declined for years due to underinvestment and procrastination, even while WSDOT built new highway megaprojects that politicians, business associations and drivers supported since the early 2000s. Finally in 2022, the...
She was hit by a train in Seattle. If we had taken these simple steps, she might not have been
King County Metro calls the risk of people or cars getting hit by light rail in the MLK Way corridor an “undesirable” hazard. Undesirable is what you would call losing your car keys or missing an appointment — not getting hit by a train. A better way to...
Cracked tiles mean light rail in Rainier Valley will run less often this summer
The ceramic platform tiles are breaking prematurely, Patrick said, after just 13 years. The adhesives beneath are failing. Water seeps in, water freezes and water thaws, further prying the tiles from concrete base…This isn’t the first tile failure blamed on weather...
Seattle’s most dangerous light-rail stretch — and how to make it safer
“Based on the severity and probability, the risk of collision between pedestrians and LRVs [light-rail vehicles] along the MLK corridor presents an ‘undesirable’ hazard,” says a 2019 analysis by Metro safety administrators, prompted by a spike in crashes. That...
Concrete track supports on I-90 floating bridge create new worry for Sound Transit
By Mike Lindblom Sound Transit has discovered another construction problem with its future Seattle-to-Bellevue light-rail extension, this time on the I-90 floating bridge deck. Inspections in late March found three concrete track supports where material had flaked...
Paying a Sound Transit fare is fair by Bruce Dammeier and Cassie Franklin
by Pierce County Exec. Bruce Dammeier and Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin Public transit is meant to provide a cost-effective way for people to get from one place to another. It is not intended to serve as lodging or a safe haven to use illicit drugs or alcohol....
Seattle’s Chinatown seeks to push a future light-rail station farther away, by Mike Lindblom
“SAVE THE CID,” “WHAT’S AT STAKE?” and “SPEAK UP FOR THE CHINATOWN INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT,” they say, beckoning people to learn about the years of noise, dust, demolitions and truck traffic ahead, if Sound Transit chooses to dig the district’s second light-rail station at Fifth Avenue South, next to the landmark Chinatown Gate.”