Sound Transit has gone public with some of what it heard in its just-concluded comment period on the draft ST3 plan (here’s the official news release).
Going through toplines, one thing surprised us: ST says that in a telephone survey it conducted – separate from the online survey linked to the ST3 website – respondents in areas far from West Seattle considered the WS-to-downtown light-rail route a priority. The “Project Priorities” start on page 25 of this presentation and include the Top 5 projects as ranked by 1,000 respondents in five areas. West Seattle-to-downtown light rail was in the top 5 for four of the five areas – in order of how they appear in the presentation, Snohomish respondents ranked it fifth, North King respondents ranked it first, East King respondents ranked it first, South King respondents ranked it third. Pierce is the only area where it didn’t appear in the Top 5. As for the online survey (whose respondents, ST notes, were “self-selected”), its toplines are here. According to breakouts in that document, West Seattle zip codes accounted for about 2,400 of the 34,706 online survey responses around the region.
WHAT’S NEXT: As reported in our coverage of the ST3 discussion at last week’s West Seattle Transportation Coalition meeting, the final ST3 proposal for the November ballot is due next month. Then, the plan and its funding, including a mix of sales, motor-vehicle, and property taxes, is in the voters’ hands.
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