Congestion, Residential Dev Standards, LivabilityDRA Seattletraffic, seattletraffic, congestion, CB119398Comment

DRA Call to Action on Level Of Service Standards

Congestion, Residential Dev Standards, LivabilityDRA Seattletraffic, seattletraffic, congestion, CB119398Comment
DRA Call to Action on Level Of Service Standards

Why is Seattle trying to relax transportation Level of Service (LOS) standards?

Historically, Transportation Concurrency described a state of traffic equilibrium measured by a Level of Service (LOS) standard. LOS was based on the ratio of traffic volume to surrounding street capacity. Proposed developments generating vehicle trips that exceeded a functioning ratio would require remediation or a waiver in order to be approved.

As downtown density exploded and street capacity remained the same, the LOS standard became unattainable. Rather than address its development approach and tower designs, the City is proposing legislation to change course and focus on LOS as it relates to one traffic element—reducing the percentage of Single Occupancy Vehicles (SOVs) on the road.

Reducing SOVs is a great goal but it’s only one source of congestion. The old standard measured tower traffic impacts on specific blocks and intersections; the replacement standard will measure general SOV use across a broad area of Downtown, Lake Union and West Capitol Hill.

The proposed legislation also exempts new downtown towers from traffic mitigation measures. This is based on an unsupported assumption that because tower occupants are close to multimodal transit options like buses, bike lanes and covered sidewalks, they will prefer to use these options. Should we count on that?

What you can do:

Write to the Seattle Planning, Land Use and Zoning (PLUZ) Committee meeting this Wednesday, December 5, 2018. Address emails to Committee Chair, Rob Johnson at rob.johnson@seattle.gov and reference CB 119398, the ordinance to relax the transportation LOS standards.

1) State your concern that the proposed LOS standards will lead to more congestion and less safety and quality of life on Seattle streets.

2) Request all downtown towers be accountable for their transportation impacts.

3) Insist tower developers are required to quantify and pursue incentives and infrastructure solutions to mitigate transportation impacts, including:

  • Produce full Traffic Impact Assessments (TIAs) detailing impacts on surrounding arterials at peak hours,

  • Consider reducing the number of parking stalls in new towers,

  • Provide the full code-required internal loading and waste collection space to keep service trucks from parking and blocking public right-of-ways.

fairness and justice, Congestion, Residential Dev StandardsDRA Seattletraffic, seattle, seattletraffic, congestion, constructionComment

DOCK MANAGEMENT PLAN…that dog won’t hunt!

The Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections (SDCI) commonly uses the term Dock Management Plan as a “cure-all” for inadequate loading and waste facilities in proposed downtown high-rise projects, but the City of Seattle has no practical experience with their operation ,due either to the newness or incompleteness of the projects involved.

fairness and justice, Congestion, Residential Dev StandardsDRA Seattletraffic, seattle, seattletraffic, congestion, constructionComment
DOCK MANAGEMENT PLAN…that dog won’t hunt!
Congestion, LivabilityDRA SeattleSOVs, seattle, traffice, seattletraffic, congestion, livabilityComment

Public losing right to challenge urban tower transportation impacts; Write now asking Council to vote NO on CB119398

CB119398 may be well intentioned, but it is dangerously incomplete. While smaller projects outside the urban core will need to mitigate their traffic impacts, new downtown towers are exempt. The bill eliminates Director’s Rule 2009-5 that says if a tower’s projected vehicle trips exceed street capacity at key intersections, it is required to address its adverse impacts.

Congestion, LivabilityDRA SeattleSOVs, seattle, traffice, seattletraffic, congestion, livabilityComment
Public losing right to challenge urban tower transportation impacts; Write now asking Council to vote NO on CB119398
Congestion, Residential Dev Standards, fairness and justiceDRA SeattleTower spacing, seattle, seattletraffic, traffic, CB119398Comment

Please amend CB119398 and bring reality to City policy.

City Council is scheduled to vote on CB119398 this coming Monday, January 14, at 2 PM. Exempting downtown towers from transportation mitigations required for smaller developments outside the city core is the biggest adverse impact and mystery in CB119398. While we understand and applaud the goal of bringing alternative transportation options to the SOV into greater usage, Transportation Performance [i.e. travel time] should be our primary measure of success or failure, not just a fuzzy feel good SOV reduction standard.

Congestion, Residential Dev Standards, fairness and justiceDRA SeattleTower spacing, seattle, seattletraffic, traffic, CB119398Comment
Please amend CB119398 and bring reality to City policy.