What is ST 2040: Expanding Washington's Public Transit With Biden's Clean Energy Plan

The climate crisis is an accelerating problem – President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Accords, temperatures are rising, and disasters are worsening in both frequency and impact. Much of the US west coast spent weeks of 2020 trapped inside not just due to COVID-19 but due to toxic clouds of smoke from wildfires. The orange skies above San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and elsewhere were an ominous sign of the climate crisis's increasing impacts and drive home the urgency of the moment. We need to act quickly to address this massive challenge—and one of the most important ways we can do this is by developing sustainable, zero-emissions public transportation in high-density areas.

Cars are the largest carbon emissions source in Washington State and account for more emissions in Washington State than all other sources of carbon emissions combined. Getting cars off the road by building sustainable, zero-emissions public transportation as part of a Washington State Green New Deal is crucial to addressing the climate crisis. Republicans have zero interest in combatting climate change; however, if Vice President Joe Biden wins the presidency and implements his $2 trillion plan to build modern sustainable infrastructure and an equitable clean energy future, we have an opportunity for change. We can build Washington State's public transit system and the new green economy by leveraging the Biden climate plan's commitment to investing in sustainable transportation.

Biden wants to implement federal investments with strong labor protections to help fund the development of zero-emission public transportation for every American city with 100,000 residents or more. Washington State has nine eligible cities, with a 10th (Federal Way) close behind at approximately 97,000 residents. Even with no major growth in the 2020 census, at least nine cities in Washington meet the size requirement for these federal investments, and of those cities, six (plus Federal Way) are in Snohomish, King, or Pierce county. They are already linked or planning to be connected through the Sound Transit system.

Spokane and Spokane Valley in eastern Washington should also use these funds to further develop and link their transportation systems, as should Vancouver, Washington, which is well placed to further integrate with Portland, Oregon’s strong regional transit system. Other projects, like regional high-speed rail, are also vital to explore. However, capital investment in HSR requires fixing our state's tax system and the possibilities for transit in the Puget Sound region can be achieved now.  With the largest concentration of population and eligible cities, plus the anticipated addition of 1.8 million new residents by 2050, the Puget Sound Region should be primary area of focus for new transit investment in Washington State.

The Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, otherwise known as Sound Transit, is the regional public transit agency that serves all six of the burgeoning Seattle metropolitan area cities that should leverage transit funding from the Biden administration. Sound Transit was created in 1993 by King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties to build a regional rapid transit system. It operates the Link light rail system in Seattle and Tacoma, regional Sounder commuter rail, and the Sound Transit Express bus service.

With the approval of the $54 billion Sound Transit 3(ST3) expansion in 2016, Sound Transit began developing the most ambitious transit expansion in the United States. Sound Transit 3 is the largest current public works project in the United States, with more than alone. The system expansion plans to include over 70 stations and 116 miles by 2041, with five lines across all three counties.

However, the sad truth is that the Sound Transit effort is an effort to catch up to other cities, not prepare us for the future. Seattle voters rejected mass transit investment at the ballot box in 1958, 1970, and even more recently. This short-sightedness has left our region playing catchup on mass transit.

We need to go further than the investments we've already made in ST3—by leveraging the Biden administration's public transit funding to implement a version of the sustainable Sound Transit 2040(ST 2040) plan proposed by Futurewise Board Member Andrew Grant Houston. ST 2040 builds off the first three Sound Transit ballot measures' success by creating a fully-fledged Link light rail system for the Central Puget Sound Region.

Sound Transit 2040:

• Connects job centers and as many cities in the three counties as possible

• Leaves the system open outside of Seattle to allow local communities to influence the specifics of implementation

• Ensures every Seattleite is within one mile of a light rail station

• Creates a massive transit system that can be built in 20 years while preparing us for tremendous regional growth

A map of the proposed ST 2040 plan light rail stations

We can leverage investments in each of the six(or more) cities that meet the Biden climate plans population requirements to build out this system, along with further state and local investment. Together, those 6 cities account for more than half of the population of Sound Transit’s total jurisdiction and if you include Federal Way, over 60%. They also represent over 20% of Washington State’s total population and the core of the state’s financial muscle home to companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, REI, and many more.

With the concentrated impact of transit investment in this key corridor, Washington State should be part of the funding package for this investment to meet our climate goals and develop the green economy. However, even without state investment we can use the Biden climate investments in concert with local tax capacity including:

• A tax on major carbon emitters in the Puget Sound region

  • Ideally, such a carbon tax would be done at the state level, however, we should also explore options at a local level if state-level proves untenable.

• A property tax increase(ST3 did 25 cents for each $1,000 of assessed valuation)

• A motor vehicle excise tax(ST3 did $80 annually per $10,000 of vehicle value)

As we move to implement a version of the ST 2040 plan and utilize the funding available in a Biden administration, we can also enhance micromobility and other non-traditional transit options by further investing in the innovation fund established under ST3. The fund for ideas that improve access, mobility, or increase ridership. With a major increase in transit capacity and the addition of micromobility devices such as e-bikes and scooters as a sustainable and efficient way to get folks around town, we can enable residents of the entire region to choose not to drive.

We also need to expand the Seattle system, in particular, to prepare the city for massive urban growth and enable Seattle, as the jobs and housing center for the region, to develop sustainably while adding hundreds of thousands of new residents. As part of the ST 2040 plan, Andrew also built out a Seattle specific (SST 2040) piece of the project that focuses on our region's largest metropolitan center.

The Seattle Sound Transit 2040 plan:

• Ensuring every Seattleite is within 10 minutes or .5 miles of some form of frequent transit

• Building off of the 1 mile stops provided through the broader ST 2040 plan

• Using streetcars to stitch together Link stations while also serving as a way to bring the focus back on a road as a destination as opposed to one that would otherwise split neighborhoods in half

• Using and building off Seattle's excellent bus system to provide unique cross-city connections and reach the city's furthest reaches.

A map of the proposed SST 2040 transit plan additions

The negative health and economic impacts caused by sedentary lifestyles, suburban sprawl, and long commutes are well known. With this plan, we don’t have to live with them. Instead, we can build a world where we can all get where we need to go quickly, cheaply, and with zero emissions.

To paraphrase Andrew, one of the challenges with proposing mass transit is that it can be extremely difficult for citizens (who ultimately pay for these systems) to see the full picture on something that may not be coming for years. With these maps, our region has a vision for what is possible. We can use the funds available to us under a Biden administration or full-scale green new deal plan to create the sustainable green future we all want.

However, this vision gets much harder without the kind of federal investment available under a Biden presidential administration. With the effects of climate change worsening, we need to rapidly build the green economy and drastically reduce our climate emissions, to do this, we need Joe Biden to win. Through significant investment in sustainable public transportation in concert with enabling micromobility options, investment in sustainable housing development, and building green industry, the Puget Sound Region and Washington State can lead the transition to a sustainable green economy and future for all.