City/county councils’ Viaduct meeting: WS-related toplines

| Alaskan Way Viaduct | Transportation | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

The King County Council–Seattle City Council joint meeting on The Viaduct just concluded a moment ago, lasting a little more than 2 hours. As was hinted at the Seattle Council briefing on The Viaduct that we covered downtown one month ago (read our story here), the information presented today was more about related elements such as the Urban Mobility Plan — ways that we will get around either without, or despite, The Viaduct. And it did provide some glimpses into West Seattle’s possible transportation future — near-future (another Viaduct meeting in WS was just announced for next month) and far-future:

NEAR-FUTURE: Another West Seattle open house on the Central Waterfront Project — in other words, what will replace The Viaduct’s central section — is now set for May 13th, 5:30 pm, Madison Middle School. (It’s on the Public Events page of the WSDOT website’s Viaduct section.) This is a followup to the first WS open house (Feb. 12 at Cooper Elementary; WSB coverage here).

Now, looking further ahead — lots of possibilities. Again, this isn’t everything discussed at this meeting, which is now in its third hour, but rather the items we heard of major West Seattle interest:

LIGHT RAIL? Future possibilities presented for transit included the bullet-point line “future development of light rail in the West Seattle and Ballard corridors.”

STREETCAR? The list of future route possibilities for extending the Seattle Streetcar did NOT mention West Seattle. However, the wish list did include an extension from Sodo via 1st Ave. to “Uptown.”

BUSES? Seattle Councilmember Tim Burgess asked the question that many people in West Seattle ask frequently (we even heard it at the Democratic caucus on Saturday, when King County Councilmember Dow Constantine — who co-chaired the councils’ meeting today — was taking Q/A) — why won’t RapidRide service start in West Seattle till 2011? (Burgess also asked why Ballard RapidRide isn’t kicking in till 2012.) The answer was more or less, that’s just the way the Transit Now ballot measure-funded projects are going, but there may be some other service increases possible in West Seattle before then. Also re: RapidRide — another bullet-point briefly mentioned was a “future Delridge RapidRide corridor.” The assembled councilmembers heard again about how dramatically bus usage has risen — even just going into the “Center City,” ridership has risen 17 percent in the past 3 years, according to Metro, with an increase of “34,300 (annual) boardings” in that time, and some routes are maxed out.

HIGHWAYS: Lots of discussion about ways to squeeze more people onto existing highways — 99, I-5, etc. Your interest, of course, will depend on which of those routes you ultimately use for your commute (if any), and we’ll link to citywide-media reports when they turn up later. A few notes that are likely of wide West Seattle interest: The state’s I-5 project manager acknowledged it’s a “series of chokepoints, constraints, and weaves” and says the state is currently studying some of those difficult spots (the West Seattle Bridge exit to NB I-5 was *not* mentioned so far as we could tell) to decide what could be done. Possibilities mentioned early in the meeting included extending the “collector-distributor lanes” on northbound I-5 southward to the WS Bridge exit, and adding a southbound lane from 520 all the way to Spokane St. (WS Bridge exit). Sections of 99 outside of The Viaduct also could be considered for a transit/HOV lane.

PASSENGER FERRIES: The King County Ferry District plans were briefly mentioned, including the goal of having the Elliott Bay Water Taxi running year-round between West Seattle and downtown by 2010.

TOLLS? PARKING? While writing this, during the Q&A time, we’re hearing that the transportation managers presenting information today had a “whole separate list of slides we didn’t think we had time to fit in this morning.” (At a future meeting, they promised, while also saying the first “corridor” to be tolled will unquestionably be 520.)

The big question with most of the above is, where will the $ come from. No real answers so far; at the Democratic caucus on Saturday, Councilmember Constantine did note that Sound Transit is still deciding whether to try another ballot measure this year, on the heels of the failed RTID measure last year.

Shelbi April 7, 2008 (12:21 pm)

Why don’t we just get a big park and ride over by the Yasukos or 7/11 at fauntleroy and 35th? then we can leave the neighborhoods free of congestion, and buses.

Al April 7, 2008 (1:39 pm)

Do you laugh or do you cry?

Mickymse April 7, 2008 (1:43 pm)

HOw about we just turn the old Huling lots into Park & Rides? After all, we’re already used to seeing cars parked there. ;-p

credmond April 7, 2008 (2:43 pm)

Al, you ask “do we laugh or cry,” I’m not sure this even qualifies as “bittersweet” which would result in crying/laughing. I think this is more the “cry and bang head against wall” type of thing. We’re about 8 months from the Stakeholder Advisory Group’s recommendation so plenty of time to bang your head into oblivion, which may be the preferred state come 2012.

Will April 7, 2008 (3:22 pm)

King County passed a new property tax assessment for the Ferry Distric late last year that we all start paying this month. I’d sure hope the City and County would have more to say about improving the Water Taxi – including: year round service, improved shuttle service (the shuttles were often severely overloaded last year), more parking options, and a dock safe to use in the dark and rain!

Al April 7, 2008 (3:22 pm)

credmond, that’s funny. I think it is a little bittersweet because they, and Dow Constantine in particular, seem to be actually discussing it in a somewhat public way. But still I mostly want to bang my head against a wall because they really aren’t listening or do not want to comprehend the problems most of us know well are coming…and have experienced before that have shut down the area, at least for even an evening (2001 earthquake, dump truck accident, multiple car accidents, etc.)

JanS April 7, 2008 (4:25 pm)

first, I think that we have to require the mayor to drive his own car EVERYDAY, and have to go at 8am, and absolutely has to take the NB I-5 exit. Everyday, friends. And he’d only be able to use the Viaduct once a week, and only southbound from down town at the end of the day…5:30pm.

Have they considered double decker buses ala Sound Transit? Do these people have a clue about anything beyond downtown proper? (and that’s negotiable)…

WSB April 7, 2008 (7:21 pm)

Will – The full details on the Ferry District and the Water Taxi’s future have been previously reported – this was a huge briefing touching briefly on a wide variety of puzzle pieces in the regional transportation picture. One good place to read details is the King County Ferry District webpage to which we have linked that phrase in the report above (we use links as much as possible in our articles to help people explore related info) – here it is again. Also, if you click on the Elliott Bay Water Taxi category in the list of WSB content categories in our right sidebar, you can browse our full archive of coverage, newest to oldest, including a variety of meetings, briefings, announcements, and other updates with some of the details you might be looking for. – TR

Frank April 7, 2008 (9:53 pm)

If you guys think the City and/or County Councils WILL do anything to solve or mitigate congestion relief by increasing the flow of cars through the I-5 and SR-99 corridors, then I have a nice bridge to sell you in NY!!

Taxes will be raised, tolls will be instituted, HOT lanes will be established (at the cost of one lane of traffic) and ballot measures will be put before the “people” to approve. But the only real goal for these bodies is to get people OUT of their cars and on to public transportation. Someone above mentioned maybe Nickels should drive to work for a week on I-5. That I’d like to see, but better yet I’d like to see him do that for a week, then take SR-99 for a week, then the bus for a week, and finally – shut 99 down for a week (just let me know so I can take vacation time!) and let him take the surface streets.
“Grid Lock” Greg and “Traffic Snarl” Sims can’t be bothered to see what we go through as commuters.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again – when they can make it so I can spend less than 1.5-2 hours on my commute (a distance of 22 miles R/T), roundtrip, by taking pubic transit, then I’ll start taking it. But the way it stands today I’ll spend between 2.5 and 3.5 hours to go 22 miles, roundtrip. Today, leaving from Westwood, I spent 25 mins getting to work (left the house at 7:20AM) and 30 min getting home (left work at 4:50PM), I can live with that. My usual route going is 35th to WSFW to 99 to Mercer to Eastlake Ave and then reverse on the way home. I get on 99 at Roy by the Center. 55 mins R/T today (sometimes shorter, sometimes longer, but NEVER, EVER as long as when I take the bus!!!)
The best way to solve traffic is to add a lane in each direction of 99 and I-5(esp. through the Seneca choke point).

Jack Loblaw April 8, 2008 (6:35 am)

If we had built a monorail we would have flown above the traffic. It does not matter what the vehicle is: monorail,light rail or underground. It needs to move in a path that does not involve traffic or pedestrians. Grid Lock Greg just couldn’t stand it that we might actually fix the problem getting out of West Seattle and into the city so he and his cronies killed the monorail. It is time to think to the future which is not going to be cars. Every time we drive I-5 to Southcenter mall we are amazed that Seattle finally got it right and actually built transportation that is above the traffic. The route of the light rail is questionable as it was a political decision, the lack of park-n-rides is amazing but the above traffic concept is great. Nothing is going to be fixed before I retire in 9 years but something must be done for the future as we cannot go on the way it is now. It will take leadership to do this which we are sadly lacking. The transportation issue needs to be above politics and our leaders need to step up and work for the people rather than special interests. Seattle can never be a great city without fixing the traffic mess. London England has fixed the traffic mess since 1863 when the first tube line was installed. They currently have 250 miles of underground which allows you to connect within a few blocks of almost any location in central London. You can travel across the city ( 7 million people ) in 25 minutes via tube or an hour in a car. They have a congestion charge for driving into the center of the city. It is 8 GBP or about $ 16. Imagine if Seattle had a congestion charge how many people would get out of their cars and use public transportation (if we have a decent system ). Buses suck and I will never use them as they are stuck in the same traffic mess and take twice as long as a car. We need something that is faster than a car, cheaper and possibly pollutes less. We can solve this if we work together and elect leaders that have vision ( and don’t do PR events about pot holes ) and the guts to lead.

MSW April 8, 2008 (11:51 am)

This city is setting itself up for the biggest mess imaginable if they choose not to rebuild the viaduct. I’m sure the viaduct will come down right when the economic slow down finally arrives in our region. 6 month into the tear down of the viaduct and people will be wanting heads to roll for the traffic hell they will be sitting in. I just wonder how long before businesses start to move out of the city to find better locations. Currently the viaduct is heavily used by business as well as commuters. Everyday when I go to work and come home, I see UPS, DHL, FedEx, USPS and other business traffic heading north and south on the viaduct. Businesses aren’t going to stick around if they can’t get goods and service to their customers. How is mass transit going to help businesses deliver goods and services?

Jack Loblaw April 8, 2008 (4:49 pm)

If we had functional ( functional means faster than a car and not using the roads that cars are on ) mass transit more people would get out of their cars which would leave better access to roads for commercial vehicles. We still will need the viaduct or a replacement no matter what the end solution is as just having one North – South main road ( I-5 ) is about as stupid as not having a spare tire in your car.

David April 8, 2008 (9:55 pm)

If you read the transportation article on the front page of the blog it talks about rider ship being up 17% over the last 3 years, wow less than 6% a year! IMO that is not a dramatic enough increase to say it is working, but leave it to our mayor to say otherwise. If I remember correctly Dow Constantine doesn’t even live in WS but yet he is making decisions for us regarding transportation? Frank I’m with you, transportation should take less time, not more! I also agree with everyone on lets close down the Viaduct for month and see what happens.