- People for Modern Transit comments regarding Draft 2005 SIP
People for Modern Transit favors alternative 2 for the 545 bus, which would run over Capitol Hill in the morning from Seattle to Redmond. It would run over Capitol Hill in the evenings when travelling from Redmond to Seattle. Riders from the Eastside would receive increased bus frequency while their trip would be unaffected. PMT has carefully read the Draft SIP. We continue to analyze the conclusions but we've identified a number of items, which we feel merit further comment.
1) Additional trip time across Capitol Hill is only 7 minutes (page 32)
- On Lake Washington Blvd, the route most likely to be used, staff measured the additional trip time at a “safe” upper limit of 7 minutes at the worst time of day. The additional trip time for a much longer Roanoke route was estimated at 13 minutes. These are 2 discrete route choices with 2 discrete time measurements, 7 minutes or 13 minutes. The representation in a recent P-I article as 'about 10 minutes' innaccurately portrays these discrete measurements as a range.
2) Capitol Hill route needs only 4% more peak platform hours than freeway route (page 31)
- Thus with nominal additional expenditure it should be possible to serve Capitol Hill with 10-minute frequency (the frequency of staff’s proposed Alt. 1).
3) Alt. 2 ridership is underestimated by neglecting several critical factors (page 36)
- The elimination of a transfer for Capitol Hill residents was not considered. National studies show this boosts ridership as much a 12-15 min trip time saving. Since Capitol Hill is one of the closest parts of Seattle to the 520 bridge, this saving is a much larger proportion of car commute time to the Eastside than from elsewhere in Seattle. This factor would boost ridership even more than it would elsewhere but it was not considered in the draft SIP.
- New riders from Capitol Hill to other Eastside destinations were not counted. New riders will have dramatically improved access to other Eastside routes (e.g. 555 and 271 to Bellevue, 255 to Kirkland, 245 to Crossroads, etc.)
- 25% of all Redmond employees in the entire city of Seattle live in the Capitol Hill area.
The conclusions on ridership are in direct conflict with a 2000 Metro study which found that ridership from Capitol Hill would more than double if the Seattle-Redmond Express traversed Capitol Hill. It's also hard to imagine providing direct express bus service to the densest urban center in the state and not increasing ridership substantially especially when one of the 545 stops on Capitol Hill is at the exact same location as the Link light rail station for Capitol Hill.
4) Alt. 2 superbly complements local network of Metro routes on Capitol Hill (page 35)
- Currently, there are no routes from Capitol Hill/First Hill to anywhere on the Eastside. Alt 2 will connect with the heavily used routes 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 43, 48 and 60. To reach one of the 2 transfer points at Convention Place or Montlake using one of these routes currently takes up to 50 minutes from Capitol Hill. One of the 5 proposed stops is at Broadway and John, the same location as the Capitol Hill Link Light Rail station.
5) Alt. 2 meets every characteristic of Regional Express service in Sound Move (page 33-36)
- It also meets all of the board’s Service Standards and Performance Measures. The evaluation is written almost entirely from the viewpoint of downtown Seattle and ignores the Capitol Hill urban center’s viewpoint in nearly every case. An objective evaluation would find that Alt. 2 is in fact consistent with every characteristic of REX service in Sound Move.
6) Alt. 2 makes the 545 wheelchair-accessible
- Alt. 2 would make the 545 bus stops wheelchair-accessible at Montlake and on Capitol Hill. This important consideration is not mentioned.
Here are some reasons why the 545 reroute over Capitol Hill makes sense:
1) 25% of all Redmond employees in the entire city of Seattle live in the Capitol Hill area.
2) The bus already drives within blocks of Capitol Hill today before diverting to the freeway. The difference in travel time is only 5-7 minutes to carry hundreds of new transit customers. The claims that it would make the express bus a slow local bus is not supported by the numbers.
3) A reroute over Capitol Hill will be the same travel distance as via freeway since Capitol Hill is located directly between downtown Seattle and the 520 bridge.
4) The density of the Cap Hill/First Hill urban center is 7 times greater than the rest of Seattle.
5) It fits perfectly with the policy of Sound Transit Express to connect the major urban centers of Bellevue, Everett, Seattle and Tacoma with other communities in Central Puget Sound.
6) The transfer options for Capitol Hill residents are dismal at best, which is why many people have given up and drive to the Eastside.
7) A 2000 Metro study that more thoroughly studied this issue found that ridership from Capitol Hill would more than double if the Redmond express crossed the hill, with little impact on riders from elsewhere. A Metro rider survey showed that 38% of the existing riders to Overlake would prefer a route over Capitol Hill.
However, even with all of these positives, the draft SIP report still manages to recommend against the Capitol Hill route. We hope Sound Transit carefully considers these comments when preparing the final Service Implementation Plan.