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.
CityNerd stacks up the top ten affordable underrated American city metros for walkability, transit, and livability. Sorry, Seattle and Tacoma, but you didn’t sneak into the top ten.
This week's Transpo Notes roundup touches on the status of Sound Transit's new real-time arrival and digital ad signs, Amtrak Cascades' northern service, Pierce Transit's Stream bus rapid transit project, Sound Transit in-person board meetings, Community Transit's new microtransit service and real-time arrival signs, and Sound Transit's system access...
Business parks are a common feature across the globe, but they tend to be especially depressing and inaccessible places in North America. They don’t have to be, Not Just Bikes explains. Cities across Puget Sound should take note.
CityNerd takes a look at how American transit systems lost ridership during the pandemic and the pros and cons of fare-free systems. Wenatchee’s Link Transit system makes the list.
City Beautiful dives into the topic of transit-oriented development (TOD) in North America. Dave Amos makes a special visit to Orenco Station, a New Urbanist community built in Greater Portland along a MAX line, to highlight what TOD can achieve. Amos also takes a broader look with examples elsewhere...
Security theater: New York City's mayor wants to roll out security theater on the subway with metal detectors.
Streamlining affordable housing: Victoria has eliminated the need for public hearings for affordable housing rezones.
Faregates and fares: Vancouver is spending another $200 million on fare system and faregate upgrades.
Expanding options?: Light rail...
CityNerd dives into the convoluted and admittedly depressing topic of car crashes. In the video, CityNerd looks into the disturbing pedestrian fatality trends, implications of larger vehicles, and even some odd ways in how crash data is set up for blame.
This week's Transpo Notes roundup looks into Link light rail project timeline shifts due to labor disputes, restarts of the RapidRide R and K Lines, Sound Transit fare policy changes and extensions, King County Metro considering a cashless fare system, the opening of SeaTac Airport's International Arrivals Facility, and...