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.
Sound Transit has incrementally been improving its station wayfinding strategies. In 2019, the agency adopted Asian-style station exit and directory signs and then improved them in 2021. Prior to that, the agency had improved platform signage to simplify and clarify information. And when Link expands next, the agency will...
Lynnwood Link will operate at reduced frequencies, as would an Eastside-only East Link starter line.
Sound Transit shared its early service plan concepts for 2024 earlier this month. By and large, those concepts are complicated by operations staffing shortages and Link expansion delays and constraints. The agency, however, is planning...
A group of outside experts in March told Sound Transit that its culture and operational structure must change to successfully deliver its planned rapid transit expansions. Many agency boardmembers voiced support for the group's recommendations, but in a board meeting last month agency staff appeared resistant to one of...
Real-time arrival information may be coming to Link light rail in the next month or so, sorta. Sound Transit has begun testing of a new system at Link stations as a first step to wider implementation of digital information technology to all rail stations and vehicles.
Known as the...
Sound Transit is taking a beat to rethink Sounder South capital expansion investments and plan targeted investments that could benefit existing Sounder and Amtrak services in the Tacoma area. The effort could mean bigger investments in Sounder S Line service with additional weekday trips and even the introduction of...
The much-delayed Stride bus rapid transit program continues to get more delayed. Generally speaking, the three projects -- dubbed the S1, S2, and S3 Stride lines -- are trending one to two years behind the 2021 realigned schedule and three to four years behind the original Sound Transit 3...
A contract modification for more escalator and elevator maintenance services was approved by the Sound Transit Board of Directors in April, following a briefing and scrutiny in an agency committee earlier in the month. It will continue to improve the agency's response to outages, but it won't fully ameliorate...
The timing of Sound Transit 2 Link light rail and streetcar extension openings is still very much in flux. Sound Transit had hoped to see 2023 as a banner year of openings. However, the agency has been mired in a series of construction challenges and delays that have meant...