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.
Dave Amos at City Beautiful looks at how American and European zoning differs and how that has led to very different spatial outcomes. There are similar histories in how zoning was devised, but many of the approaches were quite divergent. What is clear is that European zoning is far...
This week's Transpo Notes is a roundup of safety audit recommendations for King County Metro, King Street Station improvements for Sounder, RapidRide H Line delay, Sound Transit's I-405 bus rapid transit inline freeway stations, and the groundbreaking of the Swift Orange Line.
Metro safety audit issues new recommendations and highlights...
Build housing: Previous contributor to The Urbanist Ron Davis says that the only way to solve homelessness is to build more homes.
TOD WMATA: Washington, D.C. wants to develop TOD around stations to spur ridership.
Burien keeps on: Despite a lawsuit, Burien remains committed to building a permanent supportive housing project.
Ditch...
With pandemic and explosion in work from home, many have started to question what the future of transit is, especially as the promise of electric and autonomous cars marches forward. Reece Martin at RM Transit says that transit will be even more relevant in the future. He explains...
Many transit agencies in the United States provide only lifeline transit or overly fixate on commuter services. But good public transportation is frequent and key to building successful ridership communities. Reece Martin extolls the many virtues of frequent transit in this video.
CityNerd ranks the ten best markets in North America and one of Seattle’s makes the list. But could it be better?
This week’s Transpo Notes roundup covers recommended federal funding that could accelerate Sound Transit 3 (ST3) projects, the King County Water Taxi's summer sailing schedule, King County Metro's launch of new battery-electric buses, the new Tacoma Link streetcar, and revised on-street paid parking rates in Seattle.
Recommended federal funding may...
At RM Transit, Reece Martin takes a dive into Montréal’s planned elevated metro line. The line will use elevated segments that fit neatly into neighborhoods and bring positive attributes to communities beyond just the transit function. For modern elevated rail in North America, Montréal could be setting the bar...