Sounder Openhouse w/WADOT and Jim Merritt

On Monday Sound Transit held an open house at Freighthouse Square to display the current design for the D-to-M street railway improvements. These improvements will enable Sounder commuter trains to make the trip from Tacoma Dome Station to South Tacoma and Lakewood by the year 2012. A number of Sound Transit staff were there, engineers and project managers, proudly showing off maps of ST2 and conceptual images of the Pacific Avenue overpass. I talked with a number of the staff to see what additional information I could get out of them that I didn't already know by simply paying attention to FeedTacoma, Exit133, and the Seattle Transit Blog. I was actually pleasantly surprised to hear how open the staff were about the details of their work and their sympathy for our concerns "down south in Tacoma."

Coincidentally, I happened to sign-in at the exact time that Mayoral Candidate Jim Merritt was doing the same. I introduced myself and told him that I wanted to talk to him about streetcars later that evening.

Amtrak Cascades + Sounder = ~30 trains a day!
I'll dispense with some of the more juicy bits right now. WADOT representatives were there to talk up the Point Defiance Bypass and upgrades to Amtrak Cascades, which will enable trains to speed out of Tacoma at 79mph, reduce rail congestion, and shorten the trip to Portland by about six minutes. What's really cool is that they're planning on holding to the same time schedule as Sounder expansion, meaning that the Amtrak Cascades line will be using Freighthouse Square as a station in 2012 - meaning that somewhere in the range of 30 passenger trains a day will stop there each day! Local and express buses, commuter rail, light rail, and high speed intercity rail - all in one place. There isn't a multimodal transportation center like that in the Pacific Northwest (outside of Portland, of course). Moving forward is dependent upon federal funds, but the staff were very adamant that the State would most likely see those funds, as we are "within the top 5 corridors" in the US - simply because we've done so much prior investment.

Pacific Ave. Sounder Overpass
I commented to a staff person that I thought that the Pacific Avenue overpass lacked life and active use, and would probably differ from the idealized pedestrian-filled, green-grassy hills lined by street lamps in the artistic renderings. There was too much bare infrastructure and empty grassy areas that are bound to rapidly fall into disrepair. I told the ST staffperson about my background in Urban Studies and essentially about Jane Jacobs' manner of looking at urbanism. He smiled and did agreed, but acknowledged that the project was already over budget as it was. He told me that ST and the City would essentially need to partner to come up with a plan for site maintenance, and that additional changes to the plan could be made concerning landscaping.

A conversation with Jim Merritt about Streetcars
I had never met Jim Merritt before, but I told him about the interview (The Melon) that I had listened to where he noted that "we need to get transportation back to where it was before 1938." He was of course talking about streetcars. I mentioned that I had done some historical research about the system and noted that I might have an insight as to what happened as to precipitate it's decline - which was essentially the fact that the City required that the streetcar companies pave the roads that the streetcars ran on - roads, which cars could easily drive on. We shared a moment of the history of the city, as Tacomans.

If he is elected mayor of Tacoma, I think I can say that he will pay attention to the detail of design, to make sure that things are done right the first time. I doubt that he would have allowed Tollefson Plaza to be constructed if he had been mayor, which is not to slam Mayor Baarsma. People have differing levels of expertise in different areas.

When I left the meeting shortly after filling out my comment card I felt like perhaps we might actually see some movement on issues that I care about in the near future - which is essential, because I have college educated friends who are looking to Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland because they're cool places to live. Tacoma can be that if we can commit to a bold new vision. I know it. I can feel it.

Tacoma's 2030 Transit Map

These days, a crisis is really an opportunity in disguise. President Obama has skillfully used the economic crisis to break through a backlog of necessary policy changes in health care, economic policy, foreign policy, and also transportation policy.

Pierce Transit, like many government entities these days, is in a financial crisis due to the economic downturn. To manage expectations of riders, PT is planning a process to redesign the transit system. Some of the goals of the process probably include: improving service, reducing costs, and probably coming up with a plan to ask the voters for more resources. They're planning on holding a few charettes, public meetings, and (hopefully) hosting some online map tools. According to Amber Simonsen at Pierce Transit, the end product of such a process will be to produce a 20-year transit plan, not unlike those that Sound Transit and Tri-Met down in Portland put together.


View Tacoma Transit System (proposed) in a larger map

I think this is actually a great opportunity to demand better transit from Pierce Transit in the form of streetcars, light rail, and bus rapid transit. Much of the existing bus system is adequate for long distance transport, but short trips are nigh impossible to make convenient for average citizens because buses are almost always late. The solution here is to add some traffic signal priority and to make some distinctions between what routes should use which modes of transport. Good portions of the bus system should be split into the following levels of service:

1. Light rail for high capacity transport along heavy transit corridors
   
2. High Frequency Circulators for short trips served mainly by streetcars
   
3. Long Distance Bus Rapid Transit between transit centers and far-flung parts of Tacoma
   
4. Paratransit, Dial-a-Ride & Vanpool throughout much of Pierce County
   

The economic, ecological, and livability improvements we would see throughout Tacoma if we implemented a system like the map I've put together (above) would far outweigh the costs. For example, Portland saw $3 billion in investment around their first streetcar line. We could use an investment in transit to leverage urban infill dollars here, which can encourage affordable housing, use underutilized infrastructure, build the city's tax base, and attract more residents. We can use a transit plan to leverage additional non-motorized trips from bicycles and pedestrians, reducing our carbon footprint and cleaning the air.

I think it would be reasonable to talk about the following investments over the next 20 years:

Tacoma Link Light Rail & Streetcars:

• Theater District to TCC - 6.0 miles
• North End Streetcar - 4.6 miles
• Hilltop Streetcar - 2.0 miles
• Stadium / Lincoln Streetcar - 3.1 miles
  
• Total 15.7 miles @ $15 million / mile, $236 million, ~$12 million / year
  

Bus Rapid Transit:

• Route 28 (12th St.) - Electrify this line
  
• Route 10 & 52 (Point Defiance, Westgate, TCC, Tacoma Mall)
• Route 500 (Downtown Tacoma to Federal Way) - to build ridership for Light Rail to Sea-Tac
• Route 202 & 41 (72nd St. and Portland Ave.)
  
• A hybrid of Route 48 and Route 3
  
• Pacific Avenue

Pierce Transit hasn't scheduled any meetings yet, but Tacoma Councilmember Julie Anderson is holding a public meeting on light rail and streetcars - specifically concerning extending light rail to Tacoma General Hospital. I'll be there, along with others in the community that are interested in these issues. We can use this meeting as a way to get organized in such a way to articulate our demands to Pierce Transit and coordinate their transit investments with the city's.

Julie Anderson's Meeting to discuss Light Rail & Streetcars

Date: Thursday, June 18th

Time: 5 PM to 7 PM 6 PM - 7 PM
Location: Tacoma City Hall, 747 Market St