Light rail’s push to Federal Way gives students, workers front

Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s transportation issues to explore the policies and politics that determine how we get around and how billions of dollars in public money are spent.

Unless you were looking for it, Highline College used to be kind of hard to find, even when it was right next to you.

Drivers on Highway 99 were hard-pressed to see the entrance for the community college — one of the state’s largest, with more than 14,600 full- and part-time students. An alley tucked between a Baskin-Robbins and an empty lot with the occasional food truck was the only way in from the busy road.

Not anymore, thanks to the region’s growing light rail and its new Kent Des Moines Station directly across 99, which, not coincidentally, was almost called Highline Sta