Looks like the link rail station will take over the Express Lane entrances downtown. A nice design that leverages the current configuration:
Daily Journal of Commerce has more drawings. Anyone got a subscription?
In MI Reporter’s summary of the Sound Transit hearing, sounds like there was a lot of bellyaching: “Others, too, asked about the center lanes with concerns about fire and emergency access, disruption and noise during construction and access to the park and ride and transit during the day.”
The truth is that nothing I’ve heard about the current plans address that fact that you can’t park at the MI Park and Ride. But since we’re not getting Light Rail til the ’20s we’ve got some time to stew on it.
People are worried about noise during construction? This thing is in the middle of the freeway. That actually made me laugh.
Agree about the P&R situation. I doubt 5% of the cars in there are from MI. And it will get much worse with the transit station.
One more comment on the station design. I looks nice, but it would be cheaper to simplify the western access point. The vast majority of people will use the eastern access point since it is closest to the buses and P&R. The west side could be just a simple uncovered stairway.
Good point on the western access point, Dave.
And on the P&R situation: we’ve got to get this taken care of at some point. The way it stands, Mercer Island effectively has no public transit option during commuting hours. The little bus that circles the Island is neither frequent nor reliable enough to do the job (I tried it).