Week of Feb. 9, 2009

Road Division ‘smartens up’ streets north of Kirkland

Dan Plute monitors the cameras at the Road Division's traffic control center.

And, there’s more in store for 2009 as the King County Road Services Division kicks off planning and design on additional ITS projects near Redmond, Kent/Auburn, Issaquah, and White Center.

First up, are projects for two streets in the Juanita area. Overall, the work includes interconnecting traffic signals at 10 intersections on 100th Avenue Northeast and Juanita-Woodinville Way Northeast/Northeast 160th Street. These projects will also connect to the existing ITS system on Northeast 124th Street in Totem Lake to provide a network of traffic coordination in unincorporated areas of King County on either side of Interstate 405 north of Kirkland.

“Over the past decade, we’ve seen a huge decrease in funding for new road construction,” said Linda Dougherty, director of the King County Road Services Division. “That’s why technology is playing an increasingly important role in our ability to unlock gridlock and keep people and goods moving.”

The $2.23 million package of projects in Juanita includes the installation of fiber optic links and real-time traffic cameras that feed data to the Road Division’s traffic control center, allowing engineers to synchronize traffic signals and remotely operate those signals when necessary to relieve congestion. It also lets the county share traffic data with other agencies to keep traffic flowing across jurisdictional borders.

The Juanita projects will be connected to existing transportation communication hub in Totem Lake, which save more than $800,000 on the new projects.

Dougherty said that signal synchronization and other ITS elements can achieve significant reductions in travel time and fuel consumption, which also improves air quality, traffic safety, and eases stress for motorists. The Roads Division’s before-and-after studies on existing ITS corridors shows reduced travel times between 20 percent and 45 percent in the peak direction of travel.

The Road Division has several other new ITS projects in the pipeline, including:

• Finalizing the design for the South 277th Street project between Kent and Auburn. Construction should begin in the fall;
• Starting design on Avondale Road Phase I, with a projected construction start of winter 2009-2010;
• Beginning design for a 2010 project for 16th Avenue Southwest in White Center;
• Upgrading signal equipment and adding cameras on Issaquah-Hobart Road at the May Valley and Cedar Grove Road intersections, along with a new variable message sign south of Cedar Grove Road; and
• Installing seven new cameras at various locations in unincorporated King County. These cameras will be used by King County signal operations engineers, roads maintenance, and linked to the MyCommute website for public use.

REMINDER: Reduced weekday schedule for Metro on Monday Metro Transit will be operating with a reduced weekday schedule next Monday, Feb. 16 for the Presidents Day holiday. That means some commuter-oriented routes will be canceled that day, and there will be individual trips canceled on other routes. Many routes will have no changes. This is the same reduced schedule that was used recently on Jan. 19. It features more bus service than on weekends, but somewhat less than normal weekdays with some route or individual trip cancellations. This schedule will be used on at least 10 days in 2009. The routes that are not operating on Feb. 16 are: 2 Express, 7 Express, 9, 32, 34, 45, 46, 53, 76, 77, 79, 114, 126, 133, 152, 157, 161, 162, 167, 170, 175, 191, 192, 196, 197, 201, 205, 206, 207, 208, 210, 217, 219, 237, 243, 247, 250, 256, 260, 261, 265, 266, 268, 272, 277, 291, 304, 308, 316, 355, 372, 373, 885, 886, 888, 889, 890, 891, 892, 912, 925, 952, 981, 982, 984, 986, 987, 988, 989, 994, 995 & Group Health Express. For routes with trip cancellations, please refer to the regular weekday schedule for your bus route – either online or in the paper timetables – and look for the trips marked with an "H" or read the Special Service information. Metro customer offices will be closed on Feb. 16 for the holiday, and also this Friday, Feb. 13 which is one of ten King County cost-saving furlough days. Visit Metro Online for more information, or call the Customer Information Office at (206) 553-3000. 2008 was another record for transit use For the third straight year, Metro Transit experienced record ridership in 2008. The preliminary 2008 ridership numbers show an unprecedented 20 percent increase in King County Metro ridership since 2005.  Estimates show 118 million trips were taken on Metro buses in 2008 – a seven percent increase over 2007. Growth was partly fueled by service expansion made possible by “Transit Now” – a 10-year initiative funded by a one-tenth of one percent sales tax increase to expand the Metro system by up to 20 percent to meet growing demand. Use of Metro commuter vans reached a record 3.1 million trips in 2008 including: • 2,789,480 commute trips in Metro vanpools, a 21 percent increase over 2007; • 377,798 commuter trips in Metro Vanshare vans, a 29 percent increase over 2007. Metro park-and-ride lot usage was also up in 2008. More than 18,000 commuters took the bus from Metro park-and-ride lots each weekday – a 3.5 percent increase from 2007.

Spot auction this Wednesday The next King County Spot Bid auction will take place Wednesday, Feb. 11 and features 50 lots of surplus office equipment, furniture, and file cabinets. The auction is managed by the Fleet Administration Division, and includes both King County surplus and items from other government agencies. Previews are on auction day only, from 10 a.m. until the start of the bidding process at noon. The auction will take place at Fleet’s warehouse at 707 S. Orcas St., Seattle. For information, photos and driving directions, visit the auction website.

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