FOLLOWUP: West Seattle Transportation Coalition has questions for you

In our coverage of the West Seattle Transportation Coalition‘s recent “call to action” meeting about Sound Transit light rail for West Seattle, we mentioned the group planned to put together a survey/poll with questions they hoped would be answered by as many West Seattleites as possible.

It’s ready now. First, WSTC explains it:

In November 2016, we will be asked to vote on “Sound Transit 3,” also called “ST3”. This vote will help shape the future of light rail to the peninsula. On December 4th, 2015, Sound Transit presented various options to the Sound Transit Board. In response, the WSTC sent (this) letter to the Sound Transit Board, the Mayor and City Council.

On January 28th, 2016, the WSTC held a Call to Action to gauge peninsula residents’ reactions to ST proposed ST3 expansion plans. West Seattle Blog coverage of the meeting can be found here.

The WSTC would like YOUR feedback on a survey to help us refine the position we should advocate for. We will be submitting the feedback to Sound Transit’s Board and other elected officials that govern Sound Transit.

Here’s the survey link: Answer the questions here. There’s some urgency, as ST will decide on its plan this spring, asking voters to approve paying for it in a ballot measure this November.

Mary S February 9, 2016 (8:16 pm)

I really appreciate them doing all this hard work for us. I wish there was a mockup of what a potential elevated station could look like actually in West Seattle.

Wsea February 9, 2016 (8:26 pm)

How do we vote without all the information. All options sound great until you inform us of the time to implement and cost. I’d even take a ballpark figure. they also need to add how the bus system would use the light rail. Ie. How to the neighborhoods get to the station. Or, what about bus transfers to alki from the light rail for weekend out of area folks.

Tom February 10, 2016 (8:17 am)

I really think the station needs to make it’s way all the way south to white center, but I’m very opposed to having any “at grade” sections. The whole point of this is to get some transit here that’s completely seperate from existing traffic bottlenecks that are only predicted to get worse. Putting and undisclosed part of the line “at grade” flies in the face of this.

Mary S February 10, 2016 (10:08 am)

I get what you are saying about the “at grade” options, but honestly my thought was, just what the heck will the elevated tracks look like, and where exactly would they go?

natinstl February 10, 2016 (4:09 pm)

Mary S-exactly my same question regarding elevated, I think what will happen is that homeowners will be displaced to make that option viable. Our neighborhoods are too small for elevated without doing so. While light rail may be nice I don’t think it will work well with how WS is laid out. I would rather they just provide regular bus service to the water taxi every day. I would take it far more often then.

dcn February 10, 2016 (8:03 pm)

Survey respondents should also pay attention to the downtown routes for these proposals. C-03b, the at grade proposal, would travel along 1st Ave S downtown. I think this is a mistake for 2 reasons: 1) It would probably preempt cars off that street, since it says the rail would get a dedicated lane. This is a major road for cars to reach the West Seattle Bridge, and already bogs down big-time during the evening commute. I’d like to see better signal timing along this street so that cars flow south more easily in the evenings. Since there is no access to the West Seattle Bridge along 4th Ave S, losing this street for car traffic would have a huge negative impact.

2) C-03b doesn’t connect to the existing lines the way C-03a and C-03c do, since it’s on 1st Ave S instead of the bus tunnel. This would make it harder to get from West Seattle to the U-District, or other places connected on the main rail spine. I don’t know why Sound Transit would consider any line for West Seattle that doesn’t connect to the rest of the system.