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.
Notices recently started appearing at Link stations to warn riders that more stringent fare enforcement would go into effect later this month. Sound Transit is stepping up penalties for repeat offenses of agency fare policies.
Starting November 15, Sound Transit will begin tracking non-payment offenses that could lead to fines...
Dave Amos of City Beautiful talks about hexagon blocks and explains how they could offer a better urban form than the traditional gridiron. They almost got their moment in planning cities at scale, but their existence today is relatively rare.
Grappling with capacity constraints, Sound Transit is splitting its 2024 Service Plan into two phases, approving the rail plan but taking more time on ST Express.
Sound Transit's service plan for 2024 has gotten a bit of a shake-up since earlier this year. Plans to consolidate and redeploy Snohomish County-Seattle...
Google Wallet will soon support digital ORCA cards and allow for contactless payment via Android-powered mobile devices. That will save many Puget Sound transit riders the need for a physical ORCA card.
Mobile payments have been a highly anticipated feature since the new ORCA system launched last year. Google...
Freiburg im Breisgau is famous in planning spheres for its high rates of biking, walkable suburbs, and green ways of building. Mike Eliason has sung the praises here of the German Black Forest city for its Baugruppen housing approach and famed Vauban. Intriguingly too is that though Freiburg was...
For more than a year, an elevator bank at University Street station has mostly been shuttered. The reason isn't because of broken or faulty equipment like neighboring elevators have experienced, but an ongoing dispute between Benaroya Hall and Sound Transit.
University Street station's Exit A2 is unique among Seattle's downtown...
Elevators and escalators at the Chinatown station will all be new by 2026 following phased replacements.
Sound Transit officials have approved the first phase of escalator and elevator modernization in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT). That will initially benefit International District/Chinatown station as phases of work are completed through...
Preliminary concepts for Amtrak Cascades service growth have surfaced, offering an early look into the potential direction of frequencies and infrastructure enhancements to support them. As part of a renewed service development plan process responding to public feedback, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has developed five options...