June 24, 2014 · Exit133

Sound Transit Long-Range Planning

Sound Transit is asking for your input on the future of regional high capacity transit in the Puget Sound region.

Our region is projected to see a population increase of 30% by 2040. All those people will mean worse traffic, and higher demand for transit services. Sound Transit is planning ahead by updating its long-range plan this year.

The Long-Range Plan serves as the blueprint for how the Central Puget Sound region can use mass transit expansions to protect and promote its mobility, economy, and environment. Updating the plan will address how to respond to rising demand and congestion as our population grows by about one million people by 2040. Future ballot measures will be shaped by the plan.

As a part of this long-range planning Sound Transit wants to know how, when, and where the public would like to see mass transit grow - after current voter-approved projects are completed in 2023.

Last fall Sound Transit took public comment, and developed a Long-Range Plan Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (Draft SEIS), which covers traffic and environmental impacts of potential future development, and potential mitigations for those impacts.

The Draft EIS is available for public review through July 28. Sound Transit will then consider and respond to comments. The ST board expects to update the long-range plan by the end of 2014.You can submit comments in writing by mail or email, or attend one of the scheduled public meetings. The Tacoma meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 10, at the Tacoma Convention Center.

There is also a quick online survey for the public to share their priorities for the future of transit in the Puget Sound region. Learn more and take the survey on the Sound Transit project page.

Which priorities would you like to see added to Sound Transit's long-term to-do list?

Previously from Exit133: Tell Sound Transit where to go next.

Filed under: Transportation, City Projects, Pierce County, Transportation Planning, Transit

7 comments

R.G. June 24, 2014

Yes! Get that Tacoma to Federal Way line. It would be great to get another way to get into Seattle or the airport.
Chris June 24, 2014

Seattle to Federal Way is already included in the Long Range Plan - so you don't need to advocate for that to happen. What needs advocacy is any potential extension of Tacoma Link further west or south (or east). An extension from Tacoma General Hospital to 6th Avenue and TCC still makes a lot of sense from a ridership and access perspective. Lower 6th Ave is about a mile away from Tacoma General. It wouldn't be that hard or expensive to do an extension out that way once Hilltop Link is complete.
Chris June 24, 2014

If you really want to get your hands dirty, you can show up to the Infrastructure, Planning and Sustainability meeting tomorrow at City Hall. That committee will be discussing the Long Range Plan update with Sound Transit staff. There's also a letter coming in from the Transportation Commission on the subject of Tacoma Link station locations.
Confused in the North End June 24, 2014

A sound transit plan seems like the tail wagging the dog. Tacoma still lacks any kind of transportation plan beyond a list of repair projects. Tacoma seems to be trying to do some planning for the city and as this progresses maybe a transportation plan will emerge. In any case, if the city has no plan for the population increase, how can anyone pretend to have valuable input to sound transit which only represents a portion of transportation for the city.
- JDHasty June 25, 2014
  
  "Tacoma still lacks any kind of transportation plan beyond a list of repair projects" That is not unlike what happens to a homeowner who defers maintenance on their home in order to finance a wild eyed spending binge or a family that finances an extravagant vacation by running up their credit cards beyond their ability to pay it off within a couple of months. Tacoma policy makers did things that resulted in Tacoma forfeiting control over it's destiny when they allowed the existing infrastructure fall into disrepair in order to fund an ill conceived downtown redevelopment plan that has a nebulous if not nonexistent schedule for completion. At this point there is not a day that goes by that City crews do not have to respond to utilities that are being crushed beneath the weight of heavy vehicles (such as buses, garbage trucks, concrete trucks, moving vans etc) due to the fact that large percentage of our pavement is shot which has allowed the roadway subgrade to deteriorate to such an extent that it no longer can support and distribute the loads of heavy vehicles. Given the City's proclivity for electing people who are totally fiscally irresponsible and not interested in programming future incoming revenues in ways that the City Manager documented in a series of open houses that The City recognizes they must if this trend is to not propagate.... the City's ability to plan for the future will only get less tenable.
- Xeno June 25, 2014
  
  The city certainly has plans related to density in the subarea EIS plans. You are absolutely right about a transportation plan, which I believe is in the works after seeing the Council appoint a transportation commission to look into such issues. I think the plans have to be married but plan or no plan Sound Transit is going forward with their own plan. Tacoma needs to be at the table somehow, someway. The city is anticipated to grow by 60%, you could see a very different Tacoma in 2040.
Sid June 25, 2014

I visited West Seattle yesterday, the Junction neighborhood, for the very first time. What is wrong with Tacoma? That neighborhood looks exactly like many of our neighborhoods here. A home like the one I own in Tacoma in West Seattle costs three times as much. It is insane that property owners and the city of Tacoma don't bother improving the infrastructure of the individual districts within Tacoma instead of pumping all the cash to downtown. It really blew my mind to see an exact replica of many neighborhoods in Tacoma, but three times as expensive, simply because of the quality of shops and the care the home owners give to their houses. What I saw there was a sense of responsibility and pride in the neighborhood. We've given many years of hard work to try and make a difference here in Tacoma, they just don't get it here.