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.
The fare structure for Link light rail ticketing could be headed toward changes, but data collected so far strongly indicates sticking to the distance-based status quo. Sound Transit is holding a public hearing on the matter on Thursday to solicit additional public feedback, but whether or not that will...
On Thursday, the Sound Transit System Expansion Committee approved a contract to start project development work on two Seattle infill stations. The long-awaited Graham Street and Boeing Access Road stations, which are planned to open in 2031, will move into early planning next year.
The history of both stations goes...
In transit circles, there's robust debate about whether density of people or service frequency is better at getting transit ridership? Reece Martin at RMTransit says both are good but better together. That probably is intuitive to most people in this space, but Martin dives into why both are...
Amazon and Vulcan have pushed Sound Transit to study a new 5th Avenue and Harrison Street station option.
On Thursday, Sound Transit offered a high-level look into a newly surfaced South Lake Union station location for the Ballard Link Extension, at the behest of boardmembers. The agency board could advance...
On Thursday, the Sound Transit System Expansion Committee will receive an update on the Denny and South Lake Union stations, two stations on the planned Ballard Link Extension. The update comes only three months after a tumultuous decision on locating the Denny station that risked loss of the corresponding...
The agency needs more trains, fewer pinch points, and a commitment to operational efficiency.
Sound Transit has been slow-walking details about the agency’s inability to provide long-promised service levels on Link. As light rail expands without sufficient fleet capacity, service is poised to regress to no better than 10-minute frequencies...
Reece Martin at RMTransit walks through how transit can be better designed to support frequent transit use. Basic things like larger doors and better designed interiors can reduce dwell times and passenger flows on trains. But Martin goes deeper into things like infrastructure, signaling, and track design. Those lessons...
Community Transit continues to march forward with its affordable and impactful bus rapid transit system expansion. The agency has officially picked an opening date for the upcoming Swift Orange Line, and is engaging with the public on potential station locations for expansion of the Swift Green Line.
Swift Orange Line's...