Stephen Fesler
Stephen is a professional urban planner in Puget Sound with a passion for sustainable, livable, and diverse cities. He is especially interested in how policies, regulations, and programs can promote positive outcomes for communities. With stints in great cities like Bellingham and Cork, Stephen currently lives in Seattle. He primarily covers land use and transportation issues and has been with The Urbanist since 2014.
King County Metro started construction on a new million zero-emissions bus base in Tukwila this month. It will house 120 battery-electric buses currently on order and arriving in a few short years. Metro is betting heavily on battery buses getting more dependable.
Using the Gini coefficient which measures inequality, Ray Delahanty of CityNerd runs through the top 10 cities in America with the highest levels of income and wealth inequality. Delahanty focuses his analysis on cities in metropolitan regions with more than 1 million people. Surprisingly, Seattle doesn't even rank in...
Sound Transit revealed a plan to boost Lynnwood Link frequencies to 10 minutes and provide more four-car trains. Officials had warned of a severe capacity pinch after the 1 Line extension opens but before light rail can cross the I-90 bridge to reach Sound Transit's new Bellevue train base.
The original planned frequencies Sound Transit was set to deliver with a fully built out ST3 now seem unachievable, with staff this week providing a more deliverable alternative.
Dave Amos of City Beautiful talks about some examples of circular cities and the history of circle cities. Whether circle cities are deeply practical at the local block level or at the regional level for organizing communities and transportation network are issues Amos discusses in this video.
RapidRide projects soak up resources and take many years to come together. Instead of focusing on a trickle of RapidRide lines, Metro should ramp up bus service and route improvements systemwide with a network approach.
Paine Field Airport in Everett could see some notable expansions in the coming years to support increasing demand. Snohomish County, which owns the airport grounds but not the passenger terminal itself, has developed a draft master plan that is pending final approval from the feds and county council. A successful expansion would require far better transit options.
Reece Martin at RM Transit digs into what's so great about junction stations. These are stations where multiple rail lines converge and they can happen in multiple situations. Martin demonstrates how junctions are most powerful where, on a shared corridor, the first opportunity to create a transfer opportunity that...