By Frank on February 23, 2008
As per usual, Joe Turner at the TNT has a wonderfully comprehensive breakdown on the state of play of various road projects around the sound, and how they’re faring in this legislative session. The stuff on 520 isn’t new, we basically knew that the state had $2B or so of the $4.4B price tag allocated, and that’s indeed what the project is going to get.
But Turner also quotes some legislators who think that many of the Prop. 1 highway projects — the Cross-Base Highway, SR 509 extension, SR 167 extension — may be DOA altogether:
That’s bad news for a lot of other projects across the state, said Rep. Doug Ericksen, the Republican deputy minority leader from Ferndale.
“If those projects are delayed after 2013, I would not take that to the bank and I wouldn’t promise your constituents (the projects will be built),” Ericksen said during Friday’s debate on the House floor.
Ericksen could be posturing, but it’s clear that priorities have shifted post-Prop. 1. Only the most essential projects are getting the green light.
More interestingly, the Governor says we’ll know more about the Viaduct in December 2008. Not too long ago it was supposed to be early this year.
I sure hope she’s not just stalling until after the election. Democrats nationally and locally have gotten it into their deluded heads that after November, when the Governor’s re-elected, and The Chosen One is in the White House, there will be much rejoicing throught the land and all the liberal pony plans will sail through the legislature and all the Repulbicans will crawl back into their caves or move to Canada.
Sorry folks, it ain’t gonna happen.
Posted in bicycle safety, legislation
By Frank on February 22, 2008
This P-I article starts off by giving the impression that the 520 bridge issue is settled, that all groups have come to consensus. But as you read further down, you start to realize that lots of key groups — the Laurelhurst community, fish and wildlife, UW — are opposed to some or all of the proposed solution.
While the Governor seems to approve, I’ll reserve judgement until I see a price tag on this thing, which seems to have all manner of lids and tunnels and other expensive gee-gaws.
And, of course, I fully expect Ron Sims to forcefully oppose this plan, since it contains even more of “landscaped lids” in high-income neighborhoods that led him to withdraw his support of Proposition 1.
Finally, it just occured to me that I’m probably going to lose one of my favorite Seattle driving shortcuts, which is to jump on 520 Eastbound for one exit and get off at Montlake, when I’m headed to either University Village or Drinking Liberally at the Montlake Ale House. See? I’m sacrificing something, too, here!
Posted in real time bus information
By Frank on February 22, 2008
I’m pretty keen on the idea of Metro partnering with companies to improve service and connections. Part of me is is bothered by the fact that private corporations are helping to dictate transit routes (taken to its logical conclusion, its the end of public transit), but the realist in me knows that these companies are smart, and they know that effective public transit is key to having productive employees and a productive city.
Posted in alternative commute
By serial catowner on February 21, 2008
In the year 1800, land more than three miles from water transport was worth almost nothing. By the year 1900 that had changed for most of the US, less so for Puget Sound.
The reason lies in the geography of our water, a dividing body of water it has often been easier to go across than around. Even the railroad used a barge to Port Townsend instead of going around. In 1880 it was quicker to row a boat to Bainbridge than to go to Issaquah from Seattle, and going to Issaquah then meant a trip up Lake Washington, up the Sammamish Slough, and up Lake Sammamish to the town of Issaquah.
Development in most of the region, then, went almost directly from water transport to truck and car. Even today, if you know what to look for, you can see where the roads or driveways were extended to reach communities or houses formerly served by water.
Of course, during the intervening years the entire region and economy has changed. It is rare today to see tugs pulling rafts of logs and the fish runs have been decimated by the impact of the roads and development. Nobody is building ships on Lake Washington, and if it weren’t for the NOAA base you could weld shut the Montlake and University Bridges and put paid to that era of history.
But people still like to live n the water, take vacations on it, and take boat rides across it. Puget Sound still exists as a feature that draws us together more than it separates us, and regional transportation planning will take that into account.
Posted in Uncategorized
By Frank on February 20, 2008
Ed Friedrich, at the Kitsap Sun‘s new Commute blog, notes a shift:
When David Moseley was introduced as the new ferries director, Gov. Chris Gregoire and Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond talked about bringing Washington State Ferries more under the Department of Transportation instead of lettling it hang out like it’s own agency. I’ve noticed a subtle change in the press releases they send me. They no longer call it Washington State Ferries. It’s now the Washington State Department of Transportation Ferries Division. And Moseley isn’t Washington State Ferries director or CEO. he’s the deputy of the Washington State Department of Transportation Ferries Division.
Changes like this in big organizations are significant. I think it’s a good thing.
Posted in ifyoubuildit
By Frank on February 20, 2008
The next time someone tells you that zoning for density is some kind of “social engineering,” you could do a lot worse then to repeat this Ezra Klein post word for word:
There’s often a tendency to assume that the status quo is the most “natural” way for things to be, and that rejiggering the relevant subsidies is somehow more artificial and presumptuous. But the current system was built atop a massive structure of subsidies and tax breaks. The mortgage tax deduction advantaged bigger homes; funding schools through inequitable property taxes encouraged families to move out of cities where the property taxes were low and into richer suburbs where the schools would be wealthy; putting billions into costly and little-used roads made far-flung developments appear cheap to those who only saw the finished product; underfunding public transportation heavily influenced development patterns, and so on and so forth. And that doesn’t even get into the racial unrest, social dysfunction, and crime levels that helped drive white flight — and thus sprawl — in the 60s and 70s. Indeed, there’s nothing natural about our current settlement patterns, and no reason preserving them should be seen as a nod to expressed preference rather than, as it actually is, a status quo bias in favor of the current subsidies and their associated winners. Nobody’s saying we should make suburbs illegal. But we don’t have to abide by public policy that makes them look far cheaper and more economical than they are.
It really is that simple.
Posted in soundtransit
By Frank on February 19, 2008
Brian at WATB (hmm… not sure that’s the best acronym…) has been doing some great analysis of the state ferry system of late, epecially this latest post, which lays out some ambitious ideas for improving each of the individual runs. Given the sorry state of ferry funding, I wouldn’t count on any of these changes happening before light rail gets to Issaquah (which is to say, this century), but they’re still great ideas, worthy of the “nation’s largest passenger ferry system.”
That said, at some point, maybe within the next 50 years, it occurs to me that we’ll have all but built out to the urban growth boundary in the Seattle metro area. At that point, there might be no alternative but to develop the peninsula… and the ferries.
Posted in ifyoubuildit
By Frank on February 19, 2008
Josh Feit shares some bad news:
A smart environmental bill sponsored by liberal House Rep. Geoff Simpson (D-47) that would add consideration of a development’s carbon footprint to the list of prerequisites it must meet when trying to pass muster with the Growth Management Act (GMA) is bogging down.
While the bill met last week’s deadline to get out of committee and make it to the final stop before a floor vote, the Rules Committee, environmental advocates are now worried that House leadership is going to let it die there.
The powerful BIAW (Building Industry Association of Washington) is reportedly putting pressure on House members in swing districts to put the kibosh on the bill or water it down so that local GMA counsels don’t have the actual authority to make global warming an issue.
I’ve been blogging mostly about the Senate version, but this is the same bill. It deserves our support.
Posted in soundtransit
By serial catowner on February 19, 2008
Brian Bundridge recently put up an interesting post about our state ferries, and quite enthusiastically ends with the hope for more and bigger ferries.
Unfortunately, I fear he has underestimated the need for any link in a transportation system to be proportionally sized to the other links. For example, a larger boat needs deeper slips, better on-off ramps, larger holding areas for traffic, larger roads to carry away boatloads of cars, and more larger roads further out to handle more traffic. Moving traffic is a flow problem, not a mechanical problem.
Some projects currently planned or underway to handle this traffic include the Bremerton Subway (about $40 million) and the Belfair Bypass (current estimate about $37 million). Anyone traveling around here regularly could think of a *few* other places that could use some work, if moving cars is the goal.
But should that be the goal? Is it realistic to draw up a $400 million spending plan for big ferries and more roads when oil is looking to roost permanently over $100/bbl?
In a word, no. Spend some fraction of that amount putting in scheduled bus service in areas now served only by dial-a-ride, force the shipyard to put worker parking south of Gorst, work with the casinos to build passenger ferry patronage, and run passenger ferries at the same speed as car ferries with no premium charge for foot passengers. (A single-hulled 100-foot passenger ferry running at unity, i.e., ten knots, will take a half hour Bainbridge-Seattle, or an hour Bremerton-Seattle- using about ten gallons an hour of fuel. And no wake.)
It’s time to stop building roads and car ferries, and start thinking.
Posted in land use, smart growth, survey, Urban Planning
By Frank on February 18, 2008
Neat idea percolating in the Bay Area:
Bay Area TransitCamp is an offshoot of similar events held in Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia. Organizers are active in what has come to be known as the 2.0 community in which people mix creativity, technology and a desire to spread information to a broader audience through blogs, Web design and social-networking sites.
At Bay Area TransitCamp, there will be a heavy emphasis on how to make better use of technology – such as the Internet, text messaging and mobile phones – to make it easier to navigate the region’s many transit systems.
The transit agencies’ existing Web sites, they said, are generally cumbersome and hard to navigate.
Here’s the web site. Time for something similar in Seattle?
Posted in taxes
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