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 is expanding its on-demand microtransit service, Metro Flex, to serve the Issaquah area. The expanded service begins on October 16 as part of a partnership with the City of Issaquah.
The larger Metro Flex service area takes in swaths of Issaquah's Olde Town and nearby neighborhoods,...
In September, Ray Delahanty of CityNerd made a visit to his hometown, Seattle, to ride Link light rail and share some takeaways from the Northgate station area. Delahanty found Link to be highly competitive travel time wise with driving to points south, but real challenges with its Northgate station,...
Sound Transit is moving ahead with a search for new executive talent and in coming months will hire three people with megaproject experience in transportation projects to guide the Sound Transit 2 and 3 capital programs. The agency is also advancing a slate of other operational improvements prescribed by...
Near-term Link expansions will further strain limited resources for service capacity, forcing more crowding and lower frequencies that could last years. Can that be mitigated?
Rider demand outstripping service levels could well be a fact of life on Link once Lynnwood Link opens and for a long time after, as...
Sound Transit plans to deliver the first phases of two passenger-facing technologies late this fall. A new digital assistant tool will launch on mobile and web apps to provide users access to regional trip planning and service alerts. The agency will also be launching a pilot accessible wayfinding tool...
These days Montréal is getting a lot of attention for its urbanism compared to its big city Canadian and American counterparts. The city recently rolled out a first phase of its new regional rapid transit line, REM, but the city already boasts a deep subway network. For decades, Montréal...
The County's cringeworthy move suggests more attention is needed on boosting service and electric trolleys.
King County Metro will roll out new light yellow paint jobs to differentiate its new battery-electric buses from the rest of its fleet of older hybrid diesel buses and electric trolleys. The yellow branding wraps...
Fares on Link are poised to increase, but Sound Transit is evaluating two different fare structures. The agency should be considering a third.
Sound Transit is moving forward with alternative changes to Link fares in response to light rail expansions on the horizon and the fact that agency policy ordinarily...