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.
SCL rate hikes: Seattle City Light is proposing rate hikes of about 4.5% per year for 2023 and 2034 ($).
Improvement grants: Portland's Trimet is getting a lot of state funding for improvement, how should it spend it?
Car bill: With a climate bill loss, advocates turn to other solutions for...
In The Netherlands, the box bike (bakfiets) has regained popularity across demographics as a way of moving kids and goods. New technology has also helped it become a more obvious choice in picking it alongside everyday bikes. Jason Slaughter explains their vast utility, their reasonable costs, and why they...
Miniature microcars are rare in North America, but they're common in Amsterdam and The Netherlands. Jason Slaughter looks into how these cars are more city-friendly and utilitarian than their larger, heavier counterparts.
Freight rail companies usually don't like to play ball with passenger rail operators in North America and that has severe impacts on the quality and demand for service across the country. That's increasingly got Amtrak pushing back on them. But is there a way that they can coexist and...
This Transpo Notes roundup touches on a mix of transit stories, including:
New digital advertising screens appearing at Link stations;Security incident trends on Sound Transit;Sound Transit's draft for a realistic 2023 service plan; andSound Transit's disparate impact and disproportionate burden policy revisions.
New Link station digital advertising screens now arriving
https://twitter.com/typewriteralley/status/1554863502669410305?s=20&t=dLlme0oQZQCQlOjH9yq1KA
Link riders...
Los Angeles was a city built on good transit bones, but somewhere along the way went off the rails with cars and suburbanization. Ray Delahanty looks at the good bones that still remain of the bygone streetcar era and shows how these areas supported by new rail transit are...
This Transpo Notes roundup touches on a mix of transit and bike stories, including:
A delayed bus layover project and bike lanes in South Lake Union;A state ferry crashed in West Seattle last week; andSetting priorities for West Seattle and Ballard Link studies.
Bus layover project in South Lake Union delayed, along...
Rendering better streets: A Twitter user is using the professional version of DALL-E to render better streets in cities.
New WMATA leader: Washington, D.C.'s transit agency has a new leader taking up the mantle to get it back in order ($).
Loos for people: Public access to restrooms is an important...