By Frank on March 30, 2009
It’s still an early beta, it seems, but Walkscore’s transit map for Seattle is pretty awesome. Click on an address and it tells you how far you can travel from that address, via transit, in 45 minutes at any time of day.
Very cool.
Posted in Uncategorized
By serial catowner on March 29, 2009
State Senator Maragret Haugen, the bane of Sound Transit, apparently has a fare-free transit system in her own district:
“Soon after, Martha Rose came to the helm of Island Transit. More than 20 years later, she’s still there and the system continues to be proudly Fare-Free. In that time, she has had to withstand intense political pressure at both the state and local levels to convert Island Transit to the “norm”, but despite funding cuts and personal attacks, ridership and routes continue to grow.
At every level – inside staff, maintenance staff, operators, buses, solar-powered bus stops, and park and rides (every one of which includes covered bike parking), Island Transit’s system shines. The refreshing absence of advertising anywhere in the system definitely adds a large part to that shine, but ask anyone who works at or uses Island Transit why they support it so strongly and the overwhelming reason everyone gives is the simple fact that it is free to use.”
Truly, the Lord works in mysterious ways.
Posted in Uncategorized
By Frank on March 26, 2009
This is very disappointing, but this is REALLY freaking annoying. Are we really going to add three years or more to the East Link schedule for want of $24M? Really? Come on.
WIthout getting too dramatic, you should all read Goldy’s post on the future of Washington State. We really are at a crossroads here. The state is billions of dollars short of its budget. It’s constitutionally prohibited from (a) running a deficit, or (b) cutting education funding, which makes up 45% of the budget, in Goldy’s estimation. QED, very, VERY large cuts have to come from a very small pool of revenue.
Without fundamental underlying changes to the way revenues are collected in this state, we’re going to go off a cliff. Oh, we’ll still function all right, but we certainly won’t be the kind of state that attracts high-paying jobs and lots of investment. Goldy:
The highly regressive retail sales and excise taxes on which we rely for the bulk of our revenues are levied on an ever shrinking portion of our post-industrial, service and information based economy: the sale of material goods. Thus unless we raise taxes, or dramatically restructure our tax system to meet the reality of the twenty-first century, state and local government will continue to shrink as a portion of our total economy, and with it, the services taxpayers have come to expect and demand.
When the Senate budget is released next week we will have an opportunity to examine one vision of Washingtons future
a vision much closer to that of Alabama or Mississippi than the one we hold now. It is a vision that will surely make many Republicans happy.
This is bad, kids. It’s leadership time for Gregoire, Chopp, Brown, and the rest. Time to show your cards.
Posted in Uncategorized
By Matt the Engineer on March 22, 2009
I’ve been reading Suburban Nation (available at the library once I turn it back in), which has inspired me to come up with a few ideas for Seattle. One section discusses how to bring some of the successful features of malls to downtown. Malls always have anchor stores on opposite sides of the mall, requiring at least two walks through the mall past every store to see both anchors. However, cities put parking right at major destinations (arenas, convention center, etc.), completely ignoring this potential foot traffic.
Here’s the idea. With Link and Sounder we have less demand for parking at our stadiums. How about removing the North parking lot (which is single-level anyway) and put in small-footprint 5-story buildings complete with pedestrian-only streets? Instead of walking from Link or Sounder through a (boring and dangerous) parking lot, we could be walking past dozens of stores and restaurants. When there’s no game, this becomes transit oriented development and extra shopping for downtown.
On top, put offices or condos. Who wouldn’t want to live or work a block from transit?
(second image is my attempt at laying out what this would look like. ok, so I’m no architect, but it’s a start.)
Posted in sub-area equity
By serial catowner on March 20, 2009
Recently I got trashed on another area blog for suggesting that money for the tunnel was not, in fact, money in a general fund that was being unjustly withheld from schools and bus subsidies. Commenters there were sure the dedication of gas tax revenues should be changed, but strangely mum on other possible changes. No calls for a state income tax, cutting the military budget, or ending the ‘War on Drugs’ from that crowd.
In fact, some recent chit-chat on a bus seems to sum us up. A fellow rider let us know he thought DSHS was the biggest money-waster in the state. A little later I admired his shoes, wondered where I could get a pair. and learned the naval shipyard issues them to the employees. We’re so used to this that it took me a full day to see the irony.
Re-arranging the deck chairs won’t save this Titanic. We need to cut the war budget in half, end the drug wars, institute a state income tax, and ride the damn bus for free. A few other things that should be free, or nearly so, are sixteen years of quality education, health care, and room and board if you still can’t afford those after all that education and doctoring.
This is not the impossible dream. In fact, the most fundamental laws of economics, and all of human experience, show that really getting on that agenda would restore our prosperity for decades to come.
Or, we can resign ourslves to the drip-drip-drip of budget shortfalls and downsized services. But one thing should be obvious- you can’t fund transit with a tax on gasoline. Those horses aren’t pulling in tandem.
Posted in Uncategorized
By Matt the Engineer on March 16, 2009
Walking home from the grocery store the other day, it started to rain. Right then I saw an empty bus ride past me. I didn’t think of flagging it down and riding it home. Why? Because that would have cost me $2, and a 6-block trip isn’t worth $2 to me, even in the rain.
Does this situation seem strange to anyone else? A bus paid for mostly with sales taxes (not fares) driving by empty when it could have saved a citizen several minutes and some comfort?
The problem, as I see it, is the fare model. We have a flat fare for simplicity, and we’ve chosen $2 as a rate that will attract the average rider and keep them out of their car. But that makes short-distance bus trips a bad buy while giving long-distance trips a great value.
I propose that once we have ORCA we should consider distance-based fares. Four blocks costs, say, $0.10. Four miles would be around $1. 12 miles would be $3. This not only encourages bus use for those that live close to their workplace, but also encourages using the bus for something other than commuting.
Posted in policy
By serial catowner on March 15, 2009
Every now and then, looking at the cars around me, I wonder how this will all turn out. With falling house prices the real estate bubble has become obvious, but the car bubble remains almost unremarked.
How does this work? A person buys a Cadillac SUV, an act I regard as equivalent to piling $50,000 on the ground and setting it afire. Then, every month, they merrily burn a few hundred dollar bills putting gas in the thing.
How does this not affect our economy? There is no excess value created by the driver of a recreational pickup truck or SUV. In fact, considering the observed behaviors of cell-phone chatters, new cars are arguably an ateriosclerosis of our transportation arteries.
John Maynard Keynes said you could make the economy go by burying gold and paying people to dig it up, but that was before we realized what the carbon was doing to our atmosphere. I’ve formed no conclusions but, if you think about what you see around you, you may, like me, be flabbergasted- and wonder how this will all turn out.
Posted in Uncategorized
By Frank on March 12, 2009
Brendan Kiley writes, eloquently:
But there is a small, beautiful compromise in the viaductduring its construction, in 1953, three inches of the guardrail on the southbound side were cut away to accommodate a brick building standing at Bell and Western. Those few inches of brick, gently pushing into the viaduct, are preciousa cease-fire zone between the libertines and the scolds, a place where Seattle stops arguing with itself.
I hadn’t noticed this before. But there it is, plain as day:
View Larger Map
Neat.
Posted in Eastside
By Frank on March 8, 2009
My commute patterns shifted a bit last month, with the result that I’m now riding from downtown to the UW two nights a week, using the bus tunnel and riding the 71/2/3/4 express to get there. This being the week that we break ground on University Link, it seemed like an appropriate time to reflect on the route, and some thoughts about the tunnel generally that have crossed my mind while riding:
(1) First of all, the tunnel rocks. Can we just take a minute and think about the awesomeness of a grade-separated, transit-only right-of-way through downtown? Infrastructure investments like this pay dividends for generations to come. Nicely done, 1980s Seattle.
(2) While the express trip from downtown to the UW is pretty snappy, it’s hampered by (a) the need to wind its way across Roosevelt Ave, and (b) the fact that the I-5 express lanes only run Northbound for part of the day. Obviously, light rail will make this better.
(3) Capacity is a problem. By rush hour, the express buses to the U-District are so packed they often can’t take on any more passengers at Westlake. They’re running as frequently as possible; the only real solution is higher-capacity transit. It can’t come soon enough.
(4) The lack of cell phone coverage (well, AT&T anyway) in the tunnel is frustrating. I’ve gotten so addicted to One Bus Away, that I feel naked and helpless waiting for a bus without cell phone reception. It should be pretty straightforward to post real-time bus arrival information in the tunnel. It would be nice to see that once the buses get true on-board GPS.
(5) It takes a while to get from the street down to the platform, at least at University Street and Westlake. I feel like I need to think more than I should, plot my route. There should be clearer signage and a more direct path down to the platforms. Obviously it would be easier if the platform was in the center and the buses came up alongside, but that’s not really possible given the location of the driver (one more disadvantage of BRT!).
Anyway — just some thoughts. I’m sure there will be more between now and 2016.
Posted in Uncategorized
By Frank on March 3, 2009
Thousands of years from now, anthropologists will excavate the new, giant Microsoft garage, and assume that it must have been some kind of temple or burial chamber of some kind. After all, why else would a civilization build such an immense, underground structure out in the hinterlands, miles from the city center.
And, of course, it is a temple of sorts — to the internal combustion engine.
Posted in Uncategorized
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