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Renton and nearby cities are working with Metro and the federal government to improve our bus connections to rail transit. New “Bus Rapid Transit” could begin in 2013 subject to congressional approval of the federal contribution. Improvements on Rainier Avenue (being funded in part by Sound Transit dollars) would help the new buses get in and out of downtown Renton more quickly.
Click here for more details on this specific proposal.
Click here for more information on Metro’s “Rapid Ride” program.
That will definitely be an improvement since the Tukwila Link station has a parking lot that seems to be full all of the time.
Naah, Sound Transit is more into wasting money on decorative concrete, a-la Newcastle. Perhaps they can use some of the 1% for the arts to carefully craft some chunks of shopping cart shaped concrete piled up next to bus shelters.
It’s too bad we can’t extend this to the Highlands – there’s a lot of people that could use the service. Even with this scheme, a Highlands resident would have to transfer three times to get to Seattle. Might as well take the car.
It’s too bad about ADA rules, as goofy as it sounds a Funicular would be a good transit system from the stations to DTR – you wouldn’t need a army of union goons to keep it working.
Another colossal waste of taxpayer dollars to serve the very few. I’m just a pissed off taxpayer tired of seeing our government waste our money on social engineering. What the heck are we going to do when we run out of money? Wake up America!
Light Rail is projected to cost the taxpayer about $5 per passenger per trip in addition to the ticket costs. It’s a horrid waste of our money.
Right now, it costs $7 per trip in taxpayer subsudies
http://crosscut.com/blog/crosscut/19710/Sound-Transit-s-(un)progress-report-on-light-rail/
That $7 doesn’t include capital costs, if so, my calcs say that it costs about $13 per trip if the system was depreciated over 45 years.
Wisconsin? That’s another state. Try and focus on the subject at hand just a bit.
Might as well finish it
The economic value of any bus ‘rapid’ transit system* is questionable, but if a new F Line is going to be built, it should be done in a fashion that provides the greatest possible transportation value to the communities that it serves.
I should probably refrain from thinking about what transit systems are intended to accomplish. Like – I have to disagree with the rational that the BRTs are intended to “improve our bus connections to rail transit” as the F Line, the last BRT line planned, is the only line that has more than a passing relationship with train stations. Most of the BRT lines run into Seattle parallel to rail rather than feeding stations, except the F Line.
The fundamental purpose of transit is to herd people to the places that they need to go. Primarily, that would be getting from home to work in the morning and from work to home in the evening. Both the heavy and bLight rail systems are designed to server only Seattle, and with about half a million jobs (46% of the King County total), there is a certain amount of logic to this design, but we should attempt to tune the system to serve the communing needs of Renton as well. The F line should be adjusted to serve the major employment center here.
There are about 56,000 jobs in Renton. One third of those are Boeing Jobs. Boeing has offices in the Longacres Park, Triton Towers, along Park Ave. north of 6th and at the 737 final assembly building (FAB). The F Line already serves the Tukwila rail station near Longacres and the Renton Park and Ride near Triton Towers, but most of the Boeing jobs are a little further north of the DTR Transit station near the 737 FAB, The Landing and PacCar. It only makes sense to extend the F Line just two miles to serve this Industrial / Office / Commercial / Residential / Retail / Entertainment center. Any other plan is just uninformed. There may even be a reason to extend the F Line that makes sense to transportation engineers.
There is a plan to build a new Park and Ride and a new HOV intersection near PacCar at N 8th and I-405. This is at the SE corner of The Landing. The planning for the F Line should include this future P&R. The timing of this new P&R may not be certain, but if the F Line is not designed to connect from its inception, it is unlikely that the capital funds needed to extend it later will ever be found.
The transportation engineers at Metro who are planning the North Renton P&R are almost certainly not talking to the RapidRide engineers as they are probably in an internal competition for decreasing local and federal funds. Renton transportation planners should enlighten the RapidRide designers and Renton’s political leadership should consider encouraging the leaders at KCMetro to extend the system to DTR North.
We are never going to get ‘served’ by Blight Rail, we might as well insist that the BRT service that we do get is as efficient and effective as possible.
With Obama gleefully cheerleading the ‘democratic’ transformation of the Middle East into and Islamic Caliphate, while blocking all efforts to develop domestic oil resources, the price of gas is likely to get so high that there may even be commuters willing to tolerate the cramped, smelly and dangerous conditions endemic to public transportation, but every minute these systems operate, they will find a way to lose lots of loot no matter how uncomfortably full they are.
*Typically the only thing rapid about BRTs, is the rate at which they expend money.
Re: Might as well finish it
Projects like this always sound good, because no one questions the real value. As long as it supports your political view you are inclined to look the other way even though your values are fiscal conservative. This is the same problem Wisconsin faces. It only makes emotional sense to drive the state into the ground under the auspice of how wonderful unions are. A very socialistic concept to boot.
Buses are terribly inconvenient and Americans aren’t likely to give that convenience up. Added to that people who tend to have lesser economic means tend to ride the bus. With this comes increased chances of being a victim of criminal activity and most people know this. Some real thug types ride the buses and hang out at the transit centers. No one in their right mind would want to be around that element and as long as the cops can’t clean these areas up due to liberal laws I’m not interested in this mode of transportation.
Being ultra conservative doesn’t change make this easy for me. There are certain things I see as a personal benefit to me, but in the big picture are bad in our current economic condition.
Re: Might as well finish it
Liberal laws? Please. The year before last a woman in Seattle shot somebody who kept harassing and touching her on the bus. She got away with it and rightfully so. Seems like an “ultra conservative” would be aware of their right to bear arms.
The only time I’ve ever been assaulted or threatened with assault has been walking across the street to the bus stop…by a car driver. Please tell me how many people have been killed or maimed riding the bus or even waiting for one as opposed to killed or maimed riding in a car. There’s a reason people who take public transportation don’t have to carry a specialized insurance policy.
Re: Might as well finish it
Right to bear arms and shooting someone are not the same.
Yea, insurance policy, that must be it. Being killed and maimed riding in a car is not the same as a choice made to assault someone either.