I’ll be the first to admit, I love the 2 Line. As a longtime resident of the Eastside, I find the windows of the light rail cars have made familiar sights look new. The line feels like a catalyst for an exciting future Eastside. Yet, there’s been one understated aspect I can’t help but notice: The 2 Line serves those who, arguably, need it the least.
The 2 Line will eventually connect Downtown Seattle with the Eastside, where tracks run through Bellevue and end in Redmond. Given the region’s traffic crisis, Sound Transit planning has focused on “providing greater capacity and reliability and improving travel time for people” since the beginning of this project. However, I found little mention of ensuring equitable access. A 2023 Service & Fare Equity analysis found that the proportion of low-income individuals in the 2 Line service area is 11.9%, about half the 20.9% regional average.
On the surface, this is neither surprising nor inherently negative. The area surrounding Bellevue and Redmond is quite affluent, and the 2 Line will serve workers commuting between these cities. The growing population living in the service region will benefit from convenient access to work, groceries, parks and more.
However, the scarcity of low-income people in the service area is a concern from a few perspectives.
From an economic viewpoint, job forecasts indicate low-income occupations such as sales and food service will grow at higher rates and create more job openings than high-income tech occupations. Given that low-income residents are the most likely to use public transit, there’s clear economic motivation to serve this growing population that will better utilize public transit.
From a traffic viewpoint, a 2024 report found traffic has rebounded to 89% of pre-pandemic levels. Surveys find noncommuting trips, three-quarters of which are made by solo drivers, and which outnumber commute trips, to be the culprit. With low-income people more likely to utilize public transit for all trips, prioritizing this group would reduce traffic.
But establishing how serving a broad range of ridership could benefit Sound Transit and alleviate some congestion obscures the true promise of public transit: to serve those who have no alternative means of transportation — those for whom a car-free lifestyle is less a choice and more a necessity. Increasing access to public transit isn’t just beneficial to all; it’s another way of saying, “you belong here.”
So how can we make that statement clearer with the 2 Line?
By making bus, bike and pedestrian access to the stations viable through more affordable housing built nearby. However, with only 23 affordable and available units for every 100 low-income renters, according to King County, we are in crisis. A countywide goal was set to build 44,000 affordable housing units from 2018-2024, but only 4,983 units were built by 2022.
Transit-oriented development around the 2 Line isn’t lessening the crisis, either. For instance, of the 5,000 units of housing built near the Downtown Redmond station, only 122 of them were made permanently affordable as of 2022. Our alarming shortage of affordable housing sends a very clear message to low-income people, and it’s not, “You belong here.”
Currently, the 2 Line tells a tale of public transit that benefits affluent workers who can afford to live close by while excluding many of the people who need it most. However, it’s still a tale in the making. Efforts to build affordable housing and improve access to the 2 Line have increased recently. Take the transit-oriented development project near the Spring Street Station in Bellevue, which will result in 234 units of affordable housing plus market-rate housing and office space, and the establishment of the Bellevue Office of Housing, for example. But these are only Band-Aids for these issues. Long-term, continued support of affordable housing and improved access to transit is what will solve them.
It’s time we make it clear to ourselves, our neighbors and our leaders that this region is a place where everyone deserves to travel and call home — affordably.
