Don't leave Kenmore and Lake Forest Park out of Sound Transit planning
Monday, June 15, 2015
 |
| Change is coming to your neighborhood |
Speed. Reliability. Capacity. These three transportation principles will be essential as the Puget Sound Region grows by a million people over the next 25 years. This growth will put more demands on major corridors like SR 522, and Kenmore and Lake Forest Park wants to be included as Sound Transit plans for and funds new transit infrastructure.
In November 2016, Sound Transit is planning on asking voters whether they want to fund more transit projects in the Puget Sound region. This initiative is known as “Sound Transit 3” (ST3), and Sound Transit has begun a public process to solicit public input on which projects should be part of the ST3 plan. This input process will end on July 8.
On Wednesday, June 17 at 7pm, the City of Kenmore will host a community meeting to discuss Sound Transit's future transportation projects. The event will take place at Kenmore City Hall, 18120 68th Ave NE, Kenmore 98028, and includes a presentation and discussion portion.
Lake Forest Park
With the north segment of light rail coming to Lynnwood in 2023, Lake Forest Park will have two stations across its western border – 145th Street and 185th Street. The most important issue for LFP residents is to have good access. With an estimate of thousands of passenger boarding per station per day and each station having 500 vehicle garages, it is essential that the system has good access by way of high capacity transit running through the city and good parking facilities in each Northshore city including Lake Forest Park.
Kenmore
Kenmore residents are concerned that Sound Transit has no plans to construct any transportation improvements along SR 522. The City is concerned that without additional improvements to coincide with the new light rail transit station planned at NE 145th St and Interstate 5 in Shoreline, traffic will increase on SR 522 and on NE 145th St, decreasing speed and reliability for those that rely on Interstate 5/Lake City Way for their commute.
For more information on Sound Transit and their ST3 package, visit the Sound Transit ST3 webpage.
Posts
5 comments:
ST has already issued its FEIS on the light rail stations and now they want to meet with Kenmore and Lake Forest Park? The train has already left the station (pardon the terrible pun).
Umm, unless my math is incorrect, that 145th station is about 27 blocks away from the city limits on 145th and the 185th station about 18 blocks away from 25th (the general north/south border for a western section of LFP).
So where to put the so called parking and linking systems? Absent demolishing houses in non-sensitive areas, no room for parking and the mall won't entertain a P&R (especially with it's proximity next to a salmon bearing stream). Ballinger/SR 104 is not going to get widened.
One has to wonder about the thinking of ST.
anonymous, the stations stay of I5, this discussion on ST3 is improved transit from the north lake to the stations. Getting people on buses before 145th is a good way to minimize corridor congestion. Getting garages or parking lots on 522 will help consolidate the ridership. Getting ST522 rerouted from downtown to the 145th station and out to Aurora and north to a park&ride will help. It links light rail with UW Bothell/Cascadia, also a good thing.
This idea that light rail users from kenmore, bothell, and lfp are going to board at the 145th station is a joke! They will DRIVE to mlt via ballinger or 185th via Perkins or avoid a transfer and just stay on the buses that go along 522 on their way to destinations.
There is no improved transit for LFP riders. You can't add a bus lane for northbound transit routes between the lane elimination at 145th and the expansion just before 170th. You don't have the land space in the heart of LFP to build park and ride lots. Ballinger won't be expanded in width. Both highways become bottlenecks in traffic collisions (like last Sunday). The 145th corridor can't be expanded and is already congested. Then you add south Sno county development which is funneling even more vehicles on to these ST routes. The reality is that ST can claim all they want about trying to improve ridership to the rail stations but reality will tech them otherwise.
If this region, and ST, were serious about mass transit corridors, why not take back the Burke Gilman Trail and make it a light rail line? Seems that would have greater ridership and use. It was a rail line before. Oh, that's right. Lots of folks in Seattle and LFP would pull a NIMBY because light rail would harm property values and land use.
Post a Comment