VRCC
POB 15218
Seattle, WA 98115-0218
TRANSPORTATION FOR NE SEATTLE
I attended a meeting on 7-30-98 organized
by King County Council member Cynthia Sullivan to discuss
transportation opportunities for NE Seattle. The meeting was held
in the Council Chambers with Paul Bey from Sound Transit, Lois
North from the Monorail committee, Public Development Commission,
Rene Mongelais from the State Department of Transportation, and
Eric Lieson from Metro. Each one of the speakers made a
presentation of the overview of their plans for easing
transportation pressures north of the canal. Three of the
presentations were done with video assist, Metro brought some
enlarged photos and mockups of changes proposed for Lake City
Way, and the audience was allowed to ask questions and pose
conditions on the speakers.
The audience was comprised mostly of Community Club/Council officers. There were about 30 people there to listen and make comments.
Metro representative Eric Lieson read a prepared text. He promised increased service in 1999 to University Village and Wedgewood only in our area. Those View Ridgers on N.E. 35th Street will have a revision of bus numbers: Route 65 will replace current Route 25 in 1999. He did not address the issue of all bus transportation going downtown, except the express busses, requiring a transfer in the University District. I asked him to explain this issue, and he reiterated the plan for University District transfers. I also asked him what Metro plans for bus service for the residents along Sand Point Way from 125th to Laurelhurst. I explained that the need for service was bound to increase with the added development of University Village, business strips along Sand Point Way, and Sand Point/Magnuson Park. I also reminded him that NE Seattle needed a convenient service to Northgate. He said nothing was in the plans for increased service in this area before 2010. Another person in the audience, in her questioning, mentioned she had been looking at the Lake City Way photos and mockups, and wanted to know why there was so much concrete added to the vicinity, and not one tree. He said he would make that inquiry known to the planning staff.
Sound Transit, formerly Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), outlined its plans for increased public transit in the region. It included regional express busses in the suburbs, more HOV's, rail, and linking lite rail to SeaTac with cars running every 4-8 minutes from downtown Seattle. They expect 15,000 riders per hour, and the cars will be electric powered. They expect that Tacoma projects will be complete in 2001, and their whole system will be complete by 2006. Several members of the audience, myself included, pleaded with these groups to coordinate their planning and construction efforts so that the commuting public will be as little disrupted as possible. I also asked the speaker what plans there were for neighborhood input and what they were going to do to convince they neighborhood residents that it was worth their time to respond. I explained that we had just completed a major, unheeded neighborhood response project, and that these residents would be very leery of another such fruitless effort.
Rene Mongelais of the State Department of Transportation outlined some efforts the State was planning to ease North-South traffic woes. Some of the areas they are planning to improve are Aurora Street from Battery Street to Shoreline with sidewalk improvements and express lanes along this corridor. She noted more than once that safety issues were prominent in DOT planning, and they were looking at State Route 522 from Lake City Way to Woodinville and beyond. She noted that sidewalks, side-streets and driveways entering State Roads are problems they intend to tackle. She said there would be an open house in October for public comment, but time and place are not set yet. At last she came to the trans-Lake Washington Study and 520 increase of usage east of Redmond. The DOT appears to notice that they are dealing with protective neighborhoods and will work with them to make any changes minimally intrusive. There will be workshops this fall, and they expect the planning phase to be complete by Summer 1999. There were few direct questions to this speaker. The Montlake president made a plea to include its neighborhood in any changes on the west end of 520.
The elevated Transportation Company (ETC), formerly Public Development Authority, speaker, Lois North, outlined the organization of the ECT for us. There are twelve unpaid citizens serving to determine how Initiative 41 would work itself into a viable, effective entity. Lois showed us several monorail systems around the world that are moving incredible numbers of people with great efficiency. Initiative 41 authorized ETC to build a monorail system for Seattle. This effort is not a subject for the RTA, no lite rail will be included, and the system must be self-supporting. This means that there will be more taxes on business because the initiative stipulated no new taxes. Some public support, however, will be needed. One of the questions and details to be worked out are who will operate the ETC system/service. Lois noted that ETC expects neighborhoods will be impacted and questions are anticipated. One of the questions I asked her is if ETC intends to rebuild our current monorail and replace it with a prototype of what will be coming to the rest of Seattle. She said they had not considered that but she would take that idea to their next meeting for discussion.
There were two audience members who brought up the daylighting Ravenna Creek and another on the South Side of the Northgate park & ride parking lot. Metro representative, Eric Lieson, indicated some interest in this issue.
I am thankful to Cynthia Sullivan for arranging this meeting. I believe that the people here representing their respective organizations had not come to this forum with stonewalling in mind. I am practical enough, however, to believe that if NE Seattle is to have a user-friendly transportation system, we (you and I) must take advantage of every opportunity to make our wishes known throughout the planning process.
Carol Veatch