Question: Richard Cohan gave up trying to fill out Sound Transit's survey asking regional taxpayers what to include in a possible new ballot measure. The format didn't allow him to say what he thought, he said.
For example, question 30 of the original online version asked respondents to choose between a "bigger light rail system" or a smaller rail system, more express bus service and Sounder rail system expansion. Another question, 31, asked respondents to choose between extending light rail to the Microsoft campus in Redmond, and expanded express bus service to the Eastside and light rail to Bellevue.
In those questions and four others, there was no space to supply other alternatives, and respondents couldn't skip prepared questions. Cohan started to fill out the survey online but stopped, annoyed that he was given no more options on the electronic form.
"It's a phony poll," he said. "I don't want them building any more light rail." He worries that Sound Transit will use some responses to justify projects residents don't want, but couldn't comment on.
Answer: Sound Transit got other complaints and changed the online survey. Now residents in the three-county service area can skip questions, and have more space in the online survey to add additional thoughts and possibilities -- something they could do in writing only on a hard copy, mailed version.
Spokesman Bruce Gray said Sound Transit received more than 450 telephone calls about the survey, 15 expressing concerns, and in response, "we have revised the Web tool so people can skip questions if they choose." Spaces for additional comments have been added.
Many of the questions are broad enough to capture anyone's view, he said. Questions 25, 35, 37 and 39 in the online version, for example, were added to let people elaborate on earlier answers. Question 41 asks for other issues the agency should consider as it contemplates another ballot measure.
Sound Transit and EMC Research designed the survey; EMC will be paid about $5,000 for conducting and presenting the results. Gray said the survey is "not a research instrument" but a public-involvement tool whose purpose is "not to measure public opinion in a scientific way, but rather to provide people with an easy, convenient way to get involved and tell our board... what they think about transit." Public meetings also will be scheduled, he said; the results will be made public this month.
Some detailed questions are aimed at helping the agency identify a smaller, more quickly delivered ballot measure than Proposition 1, he said. The agency wants responses to the 46-question survey by Sunday so its board can decide whether to attempt another ballot measure. Voters in November rejected a $30.8 billion Sound Transit expansion proposal. The board has discussed resubmitting a measure this year or in 2010.
Residents can take the survey through Sunday at soundtransit.org or by calling 866-511-1398 to request a paper copy. As of late last week more than 6,400 people had responded to the survey.
Question: Charles Smith thinks the left-turn arrows for eastbound traffic on South Cloverdale Street in South Park are in the wrong spot. A left-turn arrow makes more sense on 14th Avenue South, he said.
Driving east on Cloverdale, which ends just east of the light, there's little need for the turn light to northbound 14th because oncoming traffic doesn't interfere with a turn onto 14th, Smith said. But northbound drivers on 14th Avenue often have a long wait to turn left onto Cloverdale, and Smith said he's "waited two lights to make a left turn (there) and I've seen a bus wait for two lights."
The city should simply move the eastbound turn arrow from Cloverdale to the northbound lanes of 14th, he said. "It would solve (a problem at) a really bad intersection, the only bad intersection in South Park," Smith said. "I think they put the (turn) light up wrong."
Answer: The city likes the idea, but a change isn't imminent.
Wayne Wentz, Seattle's traffic management director, agrees the intersection would improve with a protected left turn for northbound vehicles turning left to Cloverdale. But "we face several obstacles to installing one. There is not enough space to build a left-turn pocket, and eliminating a through-lane would reduce traffic flow and safety. A left-turn arrow, without a corresponding left-turn lane, would not provide any real benefit."
He said the city considered a sequential phasing of lights, allowing one direction of traffic from one street to move and turn while traffic from three other directions waited. This is now allowed for east and west movements. But "while this would allow for a green arrow, studies have proven that the considerable delay that would be added to all users of the intersection would outweigh the benefit created." Wentz said the city looked into acquiring additional right-of-way to widen 14th, "but because existing buildings on the south side of Cloverdale are built very close to the street, this is not a promising option, either."
Question: Eric Gorsuch remembered an item in this column in November about the closure of the Broad Street ramp from southbound Aurora Avenue.
"The column stated the offramp should be open by the middle of January after the completion of utility work for the Gates Foundation. Well, by the next Getting There column it will be the First of March. How about an update?"
Answer: Good news from Wentz. The work is complete, and the ramp is open. He said the ramp, used by 1,750 vehicles on an average weekday, "was closed in order to upgrade city utilities to accommodate nearby development." The ramp did not reopen in mid-January as planned "because of redesign issues during construction," he said. "A private firm has been performing the utility upgrade and will pay additional fees for the time the area has been closed."
