Numerous citizens have emailed us recently about how the increased enforcement at the downtown parking garage has made it extremely difficult to find parking to catch a bus. I promise you the city is working hard with Metro to resolve this.

Unlike many recent park and rides and transit center projects, Metro did not provide any parking when they built the Renton Transit Center. They intended it to be a place to transfer between buses, not a place to catch the bus.

But rider patterns have been different than Metro anticipated, so Metro has been negotiating with Renton to provide parking. Metro has been leasing 100 parking spots in our Renton taxpayer-funded garage at very low rates. They pay us $40,000 annually for this. Lately, the 100 spots have not been sufficient, but Metro has so far not agreed to lease any additional spots.

The garage cost Renton taxpayers 11 million dollars six years ago, and it was put in to make it convenient for shoppers to park downtown; it also costs us $70,000 annually just to maintain it. We give Metro over $20,000,000 (twenty million dollars!) per year to provide bus service to Renton, a staggering amount, so we do not understand why they can not either provide parking the way they do in other communities (they have build their own garages in other cities), or pay a little more than $40,000 to lease an adequate number of spaces from us.

I understand our Mayor will be meeting with folks from Metro on Monday to see if we can reach an understanding of some sort to resolve this.

If this interests you and you want to read more, read some of the emails on this topic by clicking "read more" below.

( Read more... )

Sound Transit Phase 2 won by a wide margin on Tuesday night, showing once-again our region's commitment to environmental responsibility and world-class transportation infrastructure. The new light rail will undoubtedly be a valuable system when it is complete.

Now, the pressure will be on to make sure Renton does not get left out in the cold by the new system improvements.

Most Renton residents do not realize that prior to last Tuesday's vote, City of Renton residents were paying a combined total of 30 MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR for transit service to our city. This money was being collected as sales tax and property tax, to be used for Metro and Sound Transit service. With 85 thousand residents in about 30,000 households, this equates to roughly ONE-THOUSAND DOLLARS PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR for transit service to Renton. I don't know about you, but I question whether we have been getting an appropriate level of service back for these dollars.

Specifically, I think of the downtown transit center. To Metro's credit, they did find three million dollars to build this center, and the city was grateful for that. But note that the three million was about 10 % of our ANNUAL payment for transit.

And since the construction of the transit center, Metro has done very little to help us keep it feeling safe and convenient for our residents. For example, Renton taxpayers ended up paying for a parking garage for which we lease stalls to King County Metro when it was apparent that parking was going to be a problem. In addition, we paid for a new police substation to be installed near the transit center, to discourage loitering and mischief, again at an additional cost to Renton taxpayers. And most expensively, we now pay for extra police patrols, and some private security, to improve the conditions at the transit center. Considering we send Metro 20 million dollars a year, and Sound Transit 10 million dollars a year, you would hope that these agencies could pay for some Metro Police to help us with some of this work.

Sound Transit has let us down in another key area. While they committed in Phase 1 to put in two new HOV direct access freeway access point, to help buses swiftly get on and off I-405 near the center of town, they were unable to deliver on either of these. The 100 Million dollars (of Renton taxpayer's money) which was budgeted for this has not been spent to help our local transit system. The only consolation we have since received is that Sound Transit is, to their credit, helping us with $19 million for improvements to the Rainier Avenue corridor to give buses and HOV lane. This is good, and I support it, but it is still only 19 cents on the dollar of what we were promised in Phase 1.

NOW WITH PHASE TWO TAXES, Renton households will be paying another $69 per year, and some people say several times that depending on inflation modeling assumptions, ridership, cost overruns, or other factors.

I WANT YOU TO KNOW that I remain a huge fan of transit. I have been to many cities in the US, Asia and Europe that have extraordinary transit systems that do the lion's share of moving people around within the urban areas. And these systems are fun and convenient to ride.

But we need to make sure our 85,000 Renton residents are not left out in the rain while everyone else manages to hop a ride. This means we need to remind Sound Transit of their promises on new express bus service, make sure Metro is using large enough coaches on their Renton routes, and make sure that they keep their transit center clean and safe. We also need to ask Sound Transit to make promised capital improvement investments in our city. With 85,000 residents, Renton is twice the size of Redmond, four times larger than Mercer Island, and as big as Federal Way...all cities that have been assured good access to the new light rail extensions. While we will not have good rail access, we need to be included in bus system improvements, and see good return for our existing thousand-dollars per year, plus our new half-cent on the dollar in Sales Tax for Sound Transit Phase 2.

Click here for the Seattle Times story on Sound Transit Phase Two.

There's some frustration out there about the current state of transit in our region.

Here is one of the more passionate letters we've received at city hall recently:

________________________________________________

Subject: Eastside Passenger Rail - GET IT RIGHT!
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:21:06 -0800

Listen (PLEASE!),

I'm getting sick and tired of politicians being clueless about mass transit
in the Seattle area and Washington state in general. You people haven't gotten
the hint for DECADES now! Tell me - are you BOUGHT AND PAID FOR AGENTS OF THE
AUTO INDUSTRY OR WHAT?

Get this through your heads...

IT WOULD BE INSANE TO TURN THE EASTSIDE RAILROAD INFRASTRUCTURE INTO A BIKE
TRAIL!!! ( Read more... )

Read the story here

Hmmm... I'm not sure this is the best way to control crime in our transit system...

Seattle Times columnist Charles Brown received the following question about junked-up busses in Renton. Has anyone else noticed this on the Renton 111 route?

_____________________________________

Q&A | Why junked-up Renton buses?

Seattle Times staff reporter

Talk traffic to us

Q: Does Metro Transit overtly assign better buses to some routes than to others?

With a discriminating eye, Renton resident Cherise Thompson senses discrimination. Thompson frequently takes Metro's Route 111 from the Renton Highlands Park-and-Ride lot. "Over the last year, I used to commute to Issaquah ... and grab a bus there," she said. "My perception is the Renton Highlands routes receive all the junked-up, graffiti-filled buses, while Issaquah receives the brand new coaches."

Read the complete question/answer here

 The Seattle Times ran another story on developing Lake Washington Ferry Plan.

Here is an excerpt:

"Ferries from Shilshole, Renton and Des Moines would go to Seattle. There is also some interest in creating an Eastside connector route that would parallel Interstate 405, but right now Bellevue lacks a dock site on Meydenbauer Bay, Arkills said.

If the city could secure one, King County could run an Eastside line from Renton to Bellevue to Kirkland, he said."

Click here for the full story.