News
Clarification: Transit Improvements in the Car-Tab Proposal; Plus, Metro Weighs In
Yesterday, we reported on a poll by Streets and Sidewalks, one of two groups that has registered to oppose the proposed $60 vehicle license fee, which will pay for transit upgrades, road maintenance, and bike and pedestrian improvements. David Miller, the neighborhood activist behind the campaign, said we got "every fact" in the post wrong.
Today, Miller clarified two facts in the post:
When we said the poll asked respondents if they knew the measure would improve fewer than one percent of bus routes in the city, that was incorrect. The poll did not ask about the number of routes the measure would improve.
Their messaging, but not the poll itself, says the measure "only improves 0.89 corridors per year." Miller says he arrived at that number by dividing the $4 million per year the city initially allocated on transit speed and reliability projects by the average of $4.5 million he calculated the city has proposed spending on improvements in each of the 15 corridors in its Transit Master Plan. Four divided by 4.5 = 0.89 corridors per year over the life of the transportation benefits district the $60 fee would fund.
However, that figure is somewhat out of date. City staffers say the $4.5 million figure is no longer included in its figures for transportation benefits district spending; instead of an average, the city is now using a corridor-by-corridor breakdown. Moreover, the latest figures show the city completing work on eight corridors over ten years of the plan. Current estimates work out to between $1 million and $4 million per corridor.
That range is because not all corridors are equal: Some are mostly funded by other agencies and include improvements that are already underway (like the Metro-funded RapidRide routes); others are almost entirely funded by SDOT.
Miller's second objection to our post was a more straightforward error on our part: We reported, based on information from someone who took the survey, that the survey claimed the measure includes $38 million for streetcars. The survey actually reported the correct number, $18 million. We regret the errors.
Miller and his counterparts at Citizens Against Raising Car Tabs, the other anti-car-tab group, may be unhappy with the amount of transit the proposed fee would pay for, but Metro, for its part, is ecstatic. In a letter to Seattle Department of Transportation director Peter Hahn on Monday, Metro general manager Kevin Desmond said the car-tab measure, which includes millions for improvements to bus speed and reliability, would make Metro "more appealing to current and potential riders and more efficient to operate.
"These projects would bring immediate reliability improvements and slow the effects of future increases in traffic congestion." The speed and reliability improvements will "bring immediate improvements for Metro customers and can lead to higher transit ridership," Desmond wrote.
Today, Miller clarified two facts in the post:
When we said the poll asked respondents if they knew the measure would improve fewer than one percent of bus routes in the city, that was incorrect. The poll did not ask about the number of routes the measure would improve.
Their messaging, but not the poll itself, says the measure "only improves 0.89 corridors per year." Miller says he arrived at that number by dividing the $4 million per year the city initially allocated on transit speed and reliability projects by the average of $4.5 million he calculated the city has proposed spending on improvements in each of the 15 corridors in its Transit Master Plan. Four divided by 4.5 = 0.89 corridors per year over the life of the transportation benefits district the $60 fee would fund.
However, that figure is somewhat out of date. City staffers say the $4.5 million figure is no longer included in its figures for transportation benefits district spending; instead of an average, the city is now using a corridor-by-corridor breakdown. Moreover, the latest figures show the city completing work on eight corridors over ten years of the plan. Current estimates work out to between $1 million and $4 million per corridor.
That range is because not all corridors are equal: Some are mostly funded by other agencies and include improvements that are already underway (like the Metro-funded RapidRide routes); others are almost entirely funded by SDOT.
Miller's second objection to our post was a more straightforward error on our part: We reported, based on information from someone who took the survey, that the survey claimed the measure includes $38 million for streetcars. The survey actually reported the correct number, $18 million. We regret the errors.
Miller and his counterparts at Citizens Against Raising Car Tabs, the other anti-car-tab group, may be unhappy with the amount of transit the proposed fee would pay for, but Metro, for its part, is ecstatic. In a letter to Seattle Department of Transportation director Peter Hahn on Monday, Metro general manager Kevin Desmond said the car-tab measure, which includes millions for improvements to bus speed and reliability, would make Metro "more appealing to current and potential riders and more efficient to operate.
"These projects would bring immediate reliability improvements and slow the effects of future increases in traffic congestion." The speed and reliability improvements will "bring immediate improvements for Metro customers and can lead to higher transit ridership," Desmond wrote.
