Smaller Pierce Transit map viable, promising

The Pierce Transit boundary conference is underway.  The first meeting was held last Friday at the Puyallup Public Library.  Derek Young, the representative for Gig Harbor, was elected as chair of the conference.

The first mention of what happened was from Derek himself via his blog Public Record.  Kudos to him for communication with the public.  He included a press release, a map of a draft of the new proposed boundary, and a link to the conference webpage.

If only the Pierce County Urban Growth Boundary looked like this.

As hoped, the new boundary draft removes unincorporated portions of the Key Peninsula, Mid-County, Graham, and parts of East Pierce County - including Buckley, Bonney Lake, and Orting.  It also removes the City of Dupont, which is a new feature.  Pierce Transit could have a fighting chance at the ballot box if the service boundary were redrawn in this manner.

As of this writing I haven't been able to acquire a list of precincts this map removes from the existing boundary, which is necessary to do any vote projections, but at first glance it appears that it's workable.  A minimum of 100 transit-hostile precincts have to go to make the map viable.  

If you'd like to attend the next meeting or submit comments regarding the process, the press release concludes:

The next meeting will be held Friday, January 20, 2012 at 9:00am located at Clover Park Technical College, 4500 Steilacoom Blvd, Lakewood WA, 98499, Building 3, Rotunda Room.   Please visit www.piercetransit.org/ptic.htm for information regarding the Public Transportation Improvement Conference including a map the preliminary delineations, meeting materials and how to make comments to the Conference.

I will be working with community partners throughout the county and the region to support boundary revision that will help to secure the viability of public transit in Pierce County and the South Puget Sound.

Pierce Transit Explores Shrinking Boundary

After finalizing the 35% service cuts in October resulting from the failure of Proposition 1 in February, the Pierce Transit Board has signaled that it is time to consider redrawing the service boundary.

Last week the Board gave direction to staff to draw up a resolution calling for a Public Transit Benefit Conference.  The Conference of officials from incorporated cities and the County Council will hammer out a new transit service boundary over a period of six months.
Several key issues are at play here:

1. Taxation without Service - Communities that are paying significant amounts in sales taxes and not receiving any service don’t want to see that situation continue indefinitely, (Bonney Lake-Sumner Courier Herald)
2. High Costs in Suburban Pierce County - High per-rider costs of service in East Pierce County detract from Pierce Transit’s desire to focus resources where riders can be served efficiently, (here) and
3. Current transit service is not meeting demand - Tacoma and Lakewood riders periodically experience overcrowding and service spans that curtail mobility.  Many want to go back to the ballot to restore service levels, but such a move is unlikely to succeed without significant boundary revisions.

Red areas are more transit hostile.

Previous analysis shows the presence of 163 transit-hostile precincts in the agency’s 414 square mile service territory.  Transit-hostile precincts are areas where voters have rejected the last three transit measures since 2007 and also appear to have rejected a Pierce Transit ballot measure in 2002.  Transit-hostile areas include: Key Peninsula, Buckley, Graham, Orting, Bonney Lake, South Hill, and Mid-County.  In these areas average housing and employment densities are below what’s necessary for cost-effective transit service, even in the form of route-deviated BusPlus.  Also, the current extent of the boundary obligates deadheading of Shuttle vehicles from Lakewood to East Pierce County at significant public expense.


Further GIS analysis indicates that at least 100 of the most transit-hostile precincts will need to be removed to give Pierce Transit a shot at passing a ballot measure. If the City of Bonney Lake decides to stay within the district, it will present a barrier to restoring service.

Proctor could use stop consolidation

Service cuts are never easy, but here are my experiences with the new system on October 3rd.

Warning.  This gets a little wonky, but you should all be used to it by now.  For those of you not familiar with Pierce Transit - this system map, might help a little.

I had wanted to take Route 11 to connect with an outbound Route 51 at 6th and Union, but the scheduling on that doesn't work, because the 51 gets to 6th and Union just after the 51 leaves, which is weird, because that severely limits anyone wanting to commute out to South Tacoma or Lakewood.  

Anyways, my journey began around 7am.  I initially took Route 14 to the Proctor District from the area around Frisko Freeze.  This route follows the portion of Route 16 that meandered its way through the North Slope Historic District via M St. and N. 15th St. to UPS and Proctor.  Ridership was light and was geared towards schools at UPS and Proctor.

When I got to Proctor, I saw a Route 11 coming to whisk passengers on their way to Downtown, so I ran to catch it, just to see what was happening.  Tina Lee, a Pierce Transit planner, was out to help educate riders about the changes to the new system and to keep track of schedule anomalies.  Riders seemed generally interested in the fact that their bus now traveled along 6th Avenue.

Current Proctor stop configuration makes it harder to get Downtown than it should.
Route 11/16 can be consolidated where possible.  Route 13/14 need stops closer to 26th.

I did see some really odd issues in Proctor that I think need to be remedied as soon as possible.  Instead of overlaying routes on common stops, the current configuration seeks to split riders for different routes on different stops.  This may reduce confusion with people boarding the wrong bus, but it also makes it more difficult for someone who is unfamiliar with the system to figure out "How do I get downtown?"  They could take any one of four buses to get there - Route 11, 13, 14, and 16.  All of them run hourly, so it makes sense to do overlays.

If the Proctor stop for Route 16 and Route 11 could be combined, and they can, because they both travel along N. 26th at Proctor going eastbound, then the service overlay could conceivably create better frequency at that stop - especially if service levels are restored.  Also, the layover points for Routes 13 and 14 are too far to the south to being reasonably close to the Route 11/16 transfer point.  Also Route 51 would be better if it did a counter clockwise loop to share the stop with the 11/16.

So, I took Route 11 to the intersection of 6th and Union, I got off and waited a few minutes for the 51, which is  also odd, because the 51 then is timed too close to Route 11, limiting the use of the Union Avenue corridor for the UPS area.

I took the 51 down to work at TPU, where we sailed past Allenmore, a notable improvement from last go around, and stopped at Center and Union and had a little chat with the driver about the service change.  Later on in the day I would take the 51 to Proctor for an appointment, bike back to work, and then take the 51 down to the train station, to see what we were giving up the connection to the Tacoma Mall for.  We picked up a total of 4 passengers between Center St. and the Lakewood Sounder station, not counting me.  My experience has been that we would have picked up twice or three times that by making the connection to the Tacoma Mall instead.

Post-Portland Transit Trauma (PPTT)

Where I was yesterday.

As a transit rider in Portland, I'm just as mobile as any person with a car.

MAX light rail goes to lots of important destinations, as does the grid system of frequent service buses.  Trimet is comfortable, convenient, and frequent - plus light rail is free when you're in Downtown PDX. Trains operate late into the night, the stations are clean and well lit and are accessible to the pedestrian.  Real time information displays with modern shelters and comfortable seating are on every block, the buses clearly tell you which stop is next, trip planning with stop-by-stop navigation is available at the click of one button (with an Android smartphone) and there are all-day passes available there every day, not just on weekends.  You feel like a first class citizen when you're riding transit there.

Where we are today.

When I get back from Portland, I go through a form of Post-Portland Transit Trauma or PPTT for short, experienced in six or so stages.  They are:

1. Denial: "This can't be right.  There has to be another bus home after 10pm.  We used to have buses that ran until 1am!  I've got a copy of The Bus Stops Here that says so."
2. Anger: "Hourly headways???!?!?  Ending at 7pm?!?!?!  #$%*"
3. Bargaining: "I'll pay a $5 fare for late night service!"
4. Depression: "Why has Pierce County not passed a single transit measure since 2003?!"
5. Existential crisis:  "Am I a transit rider if I call a friend for a ride or take a taxi?"  
6. Acceptance: "Fine, I'll phone a friend, or catch a cab.  I should also bring my bike just in case something goes wrong."

The most effective cure for this trauma: More service hours.

Before we can get more service hours though, Pierce Transit still needs more chemotherapy.  The October 2nd service change was a good first start, that brought costs down and shielded the majority of ridership.  But fundamentally, it comes down the fact that the Pierce Transit service boundary encompasses so many unservable, anti-tax, anti-transit gated rural and unincorporated subdivisions that a minimum of 100 precincts would need to be pruned off the periphery to have a fighting chance at passing a ballot measure.

Until the Pierce Transit Board OR the County Council OR two municipalities OR 10% of registered voters wake up and call for a Public Transit Benefit Conference, more of us are going to be stranded and suffering from Transit Trauma.

If you're experiencing Transit Trauma, please report it to the Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners.


Special thanks to Cody Bakken and Julian Garst for their help with this post.

Way to go, Bonney Lake

Bonney Lake, is this what you really wanted?

Oh that's right.  It was.

Suburbs haven't supported Pierce Transit in over 10 years

Results from Pierce Transit Prop 1 - February 2002

Picture this for a moment: It's 2002, Tim Eyman's Initiative 695 has passed and been found unconstitutional, but it doesn't matter.  The State Legislature in cowardice, eliminates the one progressive tax in Washington State, the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax, and limits car tabs to $30 per year.  This cuts transit funding statewide and deepens Pierce Transit's reliance on the sales tax.

38% of Pierce Transit's revenues are now gone.  Service has been cut roughly 20% in order to slow the rate at which reserves are drained.  Pierce Transit puts together a revenue measure of an additional 0.3% to restore service back to its original trajectory.  And what happens?  

The suburbs vote it down - namely Buckley, Bonney Lake, Orting, South Hill, and unincorporated mid-county.

At the same time, Tacoma pulls Pierce Transit through, with a margin of 54% yes / 46% no.  Skip forward nine years.

Has anything changed since 2002?

Pierce Transit Prop 1, Feb 2011.  Red = Failed Transit votes in 2007, 2008, 2011.  Eerily familiar to Feb 2002.

In the last ten years Pierce County's unincorporated population has mushroomed.  In South Hill, the population increased 65.8%.  Tacoma's growth rate hasn't kept pace, only increasing a paltry 2.5%.  So generally speaking, that's a lot more no votes than Tacoma's urban pro-transit voters can handle.

If voters in the suburbs say get rid of transit funding in 1999 and then reject additional transit funding in 2002, say no again in 2007, no in 2008, and no in 2011, why should we expect a yes under any circumstances?

Pierce Transit Boundary includes 163 Transit-Hostile Precincts

With presidential elections typically turning out pro-transit voters, Nov. 2012 is a logical choice for Pierce Transit to return to the ballot to return service to pre-recession levels.  But there’s a real risk that history will repeat itself unless the service boundary is redrawn - and soon. Here’s why:

• Unincorporated Pierce County and far flung towns have repeatedly demonstrated that they do not support any further taxes for transit, as evidenced by three consecutive transit votes since 2007.  There is some evidence showing that voters in such areas have become more hostile to transit votes over time.

There are 163 "transit-hostile" precincts in Pierce Transit's service
boundary that have rejected every transit vote since 2007.

• Service to outer suburbs and unincorporated areas is not cost-effective for Pierce Transit to provide.  In October, the final 15% service cut will effectively cut out Pierce County east of Puyallup, the Key Peninsula, and unincorporated mid-county, helping to reduce per rider costs by a staggering 44%, while at the same time preserving more than a million rides per year versus a plan that included those areas.  Keeping these areas while trying to go the ballot again requires large subsidies per rider, making frequent and attractive service difficult to provide.
• Revenues from outlying areas don’t justify retaining them (previously covered).  In fact, the expansiveness of the current service territory was built around the assumption that “more area = more cars” and “more cars = more car tab fees”.  That is no longer the case as Pierce Transit has not collected any revenue from car tabs since 2000 and over 70% of Pierce Transit’s revenue now comes from the sales tax.
• Transit taxation without transit service.  In October, large areas that are taxed by Pierce Transit will have no local, express, Shuttle, or special event service at all.  The situation is bound to become politically untenable very quickly, resulting in more political polarization, which will jeopardize support for any potential transit ballot measure.
• Due to the recession by October, Pierce Transit will be 42.7% smaller than it was back in 2008.  Service cuts have meant fewer living wage jobs in Pierce County. They have also resulted in less access to jobs and education, while also putting Pierce County at a competitive disadvantage for new economic development.
• Voters in the City of Tacoma support new taxes for transit by healthy margins - even during special elections in off years, but it can’t balance out numerous precincts in unincorporated Pierce County that consistently vote against public transit service.
• There is a need for new investments in transit service.  Pierce Transit planner, Tina Lee, indicated at a City Council study session that Pacific Avenue is a corridor ripe for bus rapid transit.  Bus service that is competitive with automobile travel attracts more riders and helps to conserve operating dollars in the long run, but it can’t happen without the infrastructure that levels the playing field for transit.  While King County Metro, Intercity Transit, and Community Transit have been investing in transit options with sales tax rates of 0.8% or 0.9% sales tax rates (or higher), Pierce Transit has languished at 0.6% since 2002.
  
• The process for revising a new service area is likely to take around five months (source: TNT). It takes a several months to put together a new ballot measure and to campaign for it.  That leaves a shrinking amount of time for the process to get started.  The Pierce County Council could convene a conference of cities to hammer out a revised service boundary that works.

New Stadium Way designed to support Streetcar

Stadium Way at S. 4th Street

A key roadway for potentially extending Tacoma Link out of the core of Downtown Tacoma will be undergoing a $9.5m Complete Streets-style reconstruction starting in September. After work is completed in late 2012, the roadway will support northward expansion of Tacoma Link.

Stadium Way served as a streetcar corridor before the demise of Tacoma's streetcar system in 1938.  It is currently in a state of disrepair with broken sidewalks, caving asphalt, and a decaying substructure composed of fill dirt and decomposing wooden trestle.

Stadium Way may serve as
the combined brown corridor.

The new design improves pedestrian and bicycle access and will connect with the Bayside Trail System.  Per Complete Streets requirements, the design includes bike lanes, a broad cliff-side pedestrian promenade with lookout points to view Mount Rainier and Commencement Bay, ornamental lighting and protected pedestrian crossings - in addition to a reinforced roadway with several new retaining walls.

In March, the Streetcar Stakeholders group identified three separate routing corridors that could potentially use Stadium Way, including lines to: St. Joseph Hospital via Martin Luther King Jr. Way (the Orange Line), 6th Avenue Business District (the Purple Line), and to Tacoma’s North End via ‘I’ Street (the Blue Line).

I asked the City of Tacoma engineer in charge of the project how the new roadway would be able to handle streetcars.  Here was his response (emphasis mine):

North 1st Street will be designed for future streetcar use, with a 7.5% maximum grade.

"Our value engineering consultant has recommended not to exceed a 7.5% grade. Thus we designed a 7.5% maximum grade in N 1St Street. We did not have to enlarge any designed radii. The radius of the south bound lane at N 1st and E Street is the smallest horizontal radius on the project and still satisfies the minimum allowed for the street car. A rail expert analyzed our preliminary profile design and per his recommendations we were able to limit the longer length grades to 6% or less. Reversing vertical curves preferably have 100 feet of straight grade in between, which we were able to accommodate. The vertical curvature limits for street cars of these vertical curves were not a controlling factor.

The new street will be able to withstand the weight of a street car. Actually, Sound Transit would construct new concrete slabs in which the tracks would be embedded.

The overhead street car power supply would be suspended from a system with poles on both sides of the street, for the most part. It is highly speculative where additional stations will be located, but a physically feasible location is indeed north of South 4th Street. Another option might be along E-street. I am deferring this to Sound Transit."

 -Raymond van der Roest, City of Tacoma Engineer

Learn more:

• City of Tacoma Public Works - Stadium Way Reconstruction Project
• City of Tacoma - Streetcar Stakeholder Final Report
• Engineering Schematic of Stadium Way Redesign