Mercer Island Transit Interchange

I think that Sound Transit's plan looks great. When you choose to live on Mercer Island, you choose to live next to a major transportation corridor -- there's no way around it. If you must raise taxes on Island residents, please use the money to fund more important endeavors such as Youth and Family Services and/or Parks and Recreation, rather than actively working to impede the development of important public transit infrastructure.

It is ridiculous to pursue litigation against Sound Transit.

The real issue is that the original proposal for a layover on 80th with loading and unloading facilities there made the most sense. But we are now precluded from the most logical siting due to a half-baked settlement agreement, whose seeming sole purpose was to extort money out of ST to increase commuter parking spaces.

It is embarrassing how Mercer Island's Council and community more generally has represented itself in these proceedings with ST whether it was delaying the project for years due to the Express Lanes litigation to now undermining regional transit over misplaced concerns for bus facilities. Our community will benefit enormously from Light Rail and would benefit additionally from regular bus service to the entire East Side.

It's past time our island gets beyond myopic parochial concerns about buses and their impact on air pollution or increased congestion. Neither will be significantly altered due to any proposal. The facility exists above I-90. All this false equivocating is just painting a veneer of reasonableness on a more ugly truth. There is a vocal minority on this island who equate buses and transit with an 'other' kind of community that 'we are not.' It's exclusionary, entitled, and arrogant. It is a shame to see our council bow to misplaced and unsubstantiated concerns once more. Quit wasting our money on litigation and actually act in our community and region's interests.

I do not support the utility tax increase to fund this lawsuit against Metro. While it may be true that the Settlement agreement is being breached, I don't see how the plan for the bus intercept could be improved. The current plan seems like the best solution and even if Islanders believe that there are no benefits to Island residents, public transit is still beneficial to many others. I worry that this lawsuit is just Mercer Island trying to stay within its bubble and prevent outsiders from coming through. We should put aside our misinformed common sense that people not from our community are bad, and try to accept steps toward more public transit.

Growing up on Mercer Island, public transit was invaluable. As a teen taking classes in Seattle and participating in sports in Seattle, public transit was the only reason I had those opportunities.

Improving public transit is good for our community, our environment, and our kids.

Really disgusting to see my neighbors argue that bringing in the light rail will increase traffic and reduce air quality. It's very clear to us all that a vocal contingent of this island are fabricating excuses to keep the island isolated because they are afraid of the people of Seattle. I will repeat again, it is disgusting and as your children grow up they will be embarrassed to say where they are from and disappointed in your fearful, hateful values.

And paying 50 dollars a year in additional taxes to sue your own government in order to keep a vital service to our community? Sad.

Thank you, Council, for taking the necessary steps to keep this project within the parameters established and agreed upon in 2017. It is extremely disappointing that Sound Transit has made no attempt to address the plethora of questions and concerns related to their recent 60% design. Despite informing our community that they would publish the public comments related to their plans, Sound Transit did not do so. Sound Transit continues to ignore (and hide) the concerns of the public and intends to proceed unilaterally, regardless of the negative impacts of their expanded plans. It is unfortunate that we must enter into litigation, but it is the only recourse with all other options exhausted and Sound Transit's refusal to act in good faith. I fully support and appreciate the Council's unanimous approach here. Thank you!

This is an unacceptable situation. I fully support going forward with litigation and using the utility tax increase to pay for the litigation.

Entitlement = Mercer Island
Detached from reality = Mercer Island
Void of diversity = Mercer Island
Paucity of purpose and finds consumption and car ownership the equivalent of why they exist = Mercer Island

If MI residents paid a special tax to pay for the prior lawsuit that established the “settlement” agreement that SoundTransit in now proposing to violate, what’s the use in suing them again, with an additional special rotation on residents? Why would the buses have to come onto the Island - why not stop at South Bellevue to get riders to the train?

Increasing the size and scope of the bus interchange on Mercer Island is problematic for several reasons. The are already significant foot, bicycle, and car safety issues. Traffic congestion, and alternative traffic routes are not an option as the island is very small and already fully developed. Air quality will deteriorate significantly in close proximity to multiple senior housing facilities with diesel buses using the area for staging. An aside- the notion that the buses will be turned off while sitting on the side of the road is faulty, to run air conditioning or heating, the motor needs to be running. In Seattle, this means at least 6 months of the year the buses will be idling while staging. Road based surface water runoff will create additional pollution and deteriorate water quality within hundreds of yards of Lake Washington.
Finally, a very real additional factor in my comments is Sound Transits track record. Sound Transit has not been a partner either with Mercer Island, or with other entities that have come in contact with Sound Transit. The story is a broken record of autocratic control, broken promises, and no accountability. If anyone from Sound Transit is reading this, understand that past actions impact future credibility. There is no going back on this in ten years and having no recourse is not an option. Sound Transit's promises are tainted by Sound Transit's lengthy track record and for these reasons, I support litigation.

Thanks for the update. Sad situation but I support going forward with litigation and using the utility tax increase to pay for the litigation.

As part of the Metro Vision 2040, it says that it will take 51 minutes for a 15.5 mile trip to take light rail from Issaquah to Seattle. That is not fast at all. It would be quicker for Metro/ST to put Rapid Bus Transit buses which would go non-stop from Issaquah to Seattle which would take 30 minutes, and have commuters then transfer to light rail to Mercer Island for a total trip time of 40 minutes, 11 minutes quicker than had they taken light rail. And Metro have the same concerns as myself and that is that people would rather drive to Mercer Island, park in our Park and Ride, and then take light rail into Seattle. There would not even be a need for a roundabout.

The 6 year Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) includes SP123, “North Mercer Way Park and Ride Frontage Improvements”, which I strongly oppose for the following reasons:
1. It is too expensive. It is the largest TIP at $1,284,107, which is 70% of all REET projected for 2024.
2. It is very low priority. It cannot be considered either mandatory or necessary. REET can alternately be used for the General Fund or to accelerate more important Capital Improvement Plans, such as replacement of about 200 undersized and deteriorated water main projects.
3. It is a detriment to safety by mixing bicycle traffic with pedestrians. Bicyclists should be required to dismount south of the parking garage.
4. It is redundant to the bike trail on the north side of the parking garage.
5. It precludes better solutions for Mercer Islanders and bus riders from the east and southeast. Mercer Islanders and Eastside bus commuters are better served when busses arriving from the east continue on to Seattle, either without stopping on Mercer Island, or by using the existing bus bay without forced transfer to light rail. The roundabout is certain to cause major traffic jams on NMW and trip delays. The bus bay on the north side of NMW should at least be retained for local buses and private car, Uber, Lyft, and taxis drop offs. Layovers/idling should be prohibited.
6. Forced bus transfers are not customer friendly. Eastside riders will not like to make an extra transfer that takes longer.

Considering the slavish support for Sound Transit's schemes for Mercer Island exhibited by our past mayors and city council majorities, including several of those on our current city council, I find the letter to Sound Transit laughable. The ideological priority of our city council majority has been and, I suspect will continue to be, to sacrifice our community to the broader leftist regionalist, county and state government priorities which do NOT care about our neighborhoods, our town center or our ability to access our island via SOV. Do NOT listen to what the city council majority and the mayor say; Watch what this city council majority and mayor actually do. They want the ST hub, expanded urban density, higher population growth, neighborhood upzoning, short-platting and all the negative consequences for our city of pursuing those objectives.

One approach to the problem of loud motorcycles and cars racing on EMW, WMW, NMW and ICW might be to pass an ordinance similar to Seattle’s which “allows officers to issue tickets if exhausts can be clearly heard by a person of normal hearing at a distance of 75 feet or more from the vehicle itself.” (https://www.heraldnet.com/news/noisy-vehicles-drawing-ire-from-at-least-one-reader/). Enforcing the ordinance might also generate some revenue for the city.

I wanted to raise the issue of the increase in speeding motorcycles and high-end cars coming to the island and using EMW, WMW, NMW, and ICW as a race track. This dangerous and reckless activity will make any increase in commuter traffic that much more dangerous. There needs to be a solution to this problem. The only suggestion given to residents has been to call the police to report this activity. This is not an effective intervention. Declaring the access roads to residential neighborhoods for resident traffic only is one possible solution. I’m sure the creative minds of this community could come up with even better options but something has to change before people are injured.

Along with the problems listed in the comments below, we should also consider the the opportunities the increased foot traffic could offer MI businesses. There has been a lot of discussion in other forums about how to increase traffic to and support of island businesses. Attracting even a small percentage of this ST foot traffic to island businesses could offer a significant boost and deserves exploration.

I agree with the last comment even though I don't access I-90 from Island Crest Way. An argument could be made that it would benefit regional public transit to keep Mercer Island single occupant vehicles from interfering with the bus/rail interface by allowing all motorist to access I-90 west bound via the ICW entrance. Perhaps that argument would allow the entrance to go back to it's original use by all motor vehicles. It was easy to understand why MI could not use the express lanes to Seattle since it would have had been impossible to enforce but why the west bound entrance from ICW could only be used by HOV at the expense of pedestrians at the Park and Ride was not clear to me. Perhaps it was an example of state and federal officials being S**ts.

Frankly, I would be open to just about any option for busses if I could just get on the freeway going west. Since the MAIN onramp for westbound I90 was converted to carpool only, I have to go through 6 additional stoplights to get on the freeway or use WMW, which adds significant time to my commute. As far as I'm concerned, regaining access to that onramp is the single most important thing for the council to be working on.

An 80th Ave SE-Sunset Highway configuration should be considered, with buses circulating clockwise around the station.

It seems superior in most ways:
- less congestion: fewer pedestrians crossing NMW, buses don't need to turn left onto it
- safer, as pedestrians dropped off on same side of the street as lightrail
- no need to build a roundabout at 77th/NMW
- keeps buses away from residential neighborhood to north
- drops off pedestrians closer to town center businesses

Noise, aesthetics, impact on greenspace all still concerns - but they're concerns with any plan.

I know there are lots of potential drawbacks of the Bus Intercept, but we should also consider benefits.

I see two potential benefits with the intercept:
1. increased foot traffic that could conveniently patronize Mercer Island businesses, without consuming our parking!
2. if it were done one stop east, we might not be able to get on the trains because they'd already be overcrowded. ST will have to ensure there's plenty of room for boarding at MI.

Obviously, I think we should push back on ST to mitigate the traffic, noise, and aesthetic impacts of this. But we should also look to maximize win-wins where we can find them. A configuration that makes it convenient for transit passengers to do some quick shopping or meet a MI friend for a drink could be a benefit!