From previous meetings I can tell you that there are three primary destinations being discussed, St. Joseph Hospital, 6th and Pine Mixed Use Center and Salishan via the Emerald Queen Casino. Each of these potential routes has their own quirks dealing with right of way, ridership and cost. We can expect to see some more firm numbers on each of these proposals tonight.
Essentially it boils down to if we choose to go North, we have to decide whether we take "straight shot" Stadium Way (which is being reconstructed using complete streets guidelines next year) or make a "hill climb" to St. Helens Avenue. After that it's pretty much the same alignment along Division Avenue to Tacoma General, at which there's a decision to be made about either heading west on 6th Avenue or South on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The other alignment that's still in play somewhat is the extension to the East along Puyallup Avenue to Portland Avenue to the Emerald Queen Casino, Lower Portland Avenue, and Salishan. There aren't too many permutations with that route currently since support on the committee depends on serving the mixed income quasi-New Urbanist Salishan development.
I put together the diagram below to summarize the options and debates that have taken place thus far. Staff may have other ideas to present other than these tonight.
There's an opportunity for public comment before the start of the meeting if you want to attend. The next meeting will be the last one, which will likely be when the group votes to endorse a set of criteria for Federal Alternatives Analysis and potentially a preferred concept alignment.
The meeting is at 5pm at UW-Tacoma in room CP103
The agenda is as follows:
- Introductions and Agenda Review
- Review of Streetcar Routes
- Route Evaluation
- Validate values
- Review data/maps
- Review criteria and methodology
- Apply methodology and evaluate the routes
- Review of other Evaluation Criteria
- Small Starts Criteria
- ST Long Range Plan Criteria
- Wrap up and Next Steps
Read more about the Tacoma Link Extension via the recently updated City of Tacoma Streetcar Stakeholder page.
Posts
The LINK extension should be first to the highest density area which is North. That route is by far the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars and is the most logical.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that economic development is a very positive result of the streetcar lines, but transportation and commute improvement should be the only real criteria considered. Streetcars are for commuting from homes in Tacoma to jobs in Tacoma, or to bigger transit hubs like the Tacoma Dome for jobs outside Tacoma. That means routes that lead to the highest-density areas, and routes that are the fastest, should take top priority. Based on your helpful diagram, that looks to be northward up Stadium to 6th Ave and Pine.
ReplyDeleteI agree, with both comments above. To me, economic development is a great bonus, but should be lower on the priority list next to serving our *existing* population and economy.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think it's important to note that the TOD piece only works as well as the transit network's connectedness. If you don't tap the neighborhoods and the existing population first, you can build LINK stops in dead areas until you're blue in the face and you'll still have a dead area. The reason TOD works is because it instantly connects an area with the a large chunk of the city's population.
ReplyDeleteThese are all good points. I'll be making a post later tonight that will update you all on what the committee is talking about and what the staff facilitators are responding with.
ReplyDeleteI'll say that some members of the Advisory Group are being -very- vocal about weighting the TOD-aspects in low income communities high.
6th Ave. is the obvious alignment. You have to serve the existing riders. There's plenty of room for that to build TOD over time, too. It's not like 6th Ave. is multi-story apartment buildings.
ReplyDeleteI just don't see the value of the other options.