We have a lot to say about this. As huge fans of transit expansion we want @SoundTransit to succeed, but their performance - since ST3 passed in particular - has made it difficult for us to sing their praises.

1/?
The outside consultants focused on political and management problems (we’ll get to that) but glossed over a huge best practices red flag.

Use of consultants, and particularly consultants managing consultants.

2/?
In planning, that means burning cash chasing obvious dead ends:

“Studying improbable alternatives suggested by the board, the public or others during the planning and design phase wastes time and distracts the project team from its goal of advancing progress,”

3/?
In construction, that means poor quality and oversight + high capital maintenance on the back end.

A problem on just one project could be a bad contractor. Every major ST2 project planned to complete from 2022-2025 has major construction defects that are driving delays.

4/?
At a political level, nearly no stakeholders have a vested interest in what Sound Transit builds being good for riders.

That’s a niche concern and mostly left to advocates.

The agency should engage in rider focused quality control in advance.

Riders are the point.

5/?
The Sound Transit Board are politicians and they do the best they can for the most part - but they will always be pressured to prioritize short and mid-term concerns over long term quality.

There are a lot of election cycles between here and opening day.

6/?
Huge long term decisions are left to the whim of whomever happens to be on the ST board when planning happens.

Did you know Seattle has NEVER put together a citywide Link plan?

The role of the board should be following through on a plan, not coming up with one on the fly.

7/?
In a vacuum that contains no local plans, Sound Transit relies on a process that came and went in 2014 with little fanfare to drive decisions with huge impacts: The Long Range Plan.

That means Sound Transit will not build the brand new Link Tunnel for future expansion.

8/?
The scale of political waste involved in knee capping an investment this huge cannot be overstated, but we find it to be a hard line/brick wall.

It’s just one example but it’s a symptom of a culture that prioritized political expediency over a good result.

9/?
We have more to say on this subject but will leave our comments there for now and offer our recommendations next.

We do have good things to say too. The way @JulieETimm is attacking Operations issues since she took over gives us good reasons to be hopeful of progress.

10/?
In addition to the report’s recommendations:

1). Replace consultants involved in all oversight positions or close to decision making with staff.

2). Internal/rider focused review of any alternative prior to any work occurring and again before public release.

11/fin

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More from @SeattleSubway

Mar 2
Automated enforcement needs to be spread out across the city and should include a wider range of infractions (red light, speeding, bus lane violation, etc.) Lege work is needed on some of that.

Traffic violence is a serious public safety hazard and needs to be treated as such.
Traffic violence tends to hit lower income communities harder. A lot of people with lower incomes live adjacent to our our most dangerous streets like Aurora and Rainier. We need more than enforcement, we need to make those streets safer for people too.
Recent reports of how frequently cars are running up on sidewalks (constantly) and hitting buildings shocked us... so we have a proposal:

Let's use revenue from automated enforcement to put bollards anywhere a car has run onto a sidewalk or into a building.
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Oct 2, 2021
Thread: exploring @SoundTransit’s three new light rail stations as part of the 4.3-mile #NorthgateLink light rail extension, which will add 40,000-50,000 additional daily riders post-COVID, at a cost of $1.9B. The project arrived $50m under budget.

northgatelink.com/?gclid=CjwKCAj…
U DISTRICT STATION

The most stunning thing about this station is @SoundTransit’s public art program and the installation of “Fragment Brooklyn” which evokes urban living through windows and other artifacts, infused with video-art bringing it to life.

crosscut.com/culture/2021/0…
At U District Station today starting at 10, people can get $3 bites at dozens of restaurants marked by the blue (or Bora Bora Seashore-colored, to be specific) stanchions.

udistrictseattle.com/udistrict-stat… @UDPartnership
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