By Matt the Engineer on January 4, 2012
I’ve just returned from an Indonesian vacation. My trip started and ended in Jakarta, and I had a chance to try out their transit system. I love big cities. I’ve visited many of them, and I had yet to find one I didn’t have some love for. I hated Jakarta. Jakarta is a city of [...]
Posted in BRT
By Matt the Engineer on November 10, 2011
Seattle is covered in broken, dangerous sidewalks. I always assumed our sidewalks were terrible for the same reason that our roads are terrible – because WA is too anti-tax to fund anything properly. But today I found out that homeowners and businesses are actually required to maintain their own sidewalks. Not just rake and shovel [...]
Posted in taxes
By Matt the Engineer on November 7, 2011
The Occupy Seattle protesters get it. I love that in yesterday’s Bank Transfer Day protests where they blocked traffic at a downtown intersection, they let buses pass through. Sure, almost everyone affected by the backup are in the 99%. But likely nobody in the 1% were on those buses. the police (who were cool as [...]
Posted in bus, downtown
By Matt the Engineer on October 8, 2011
There’s an idea going around (read the comments here) that a logical extension of Link in Seattle would be to just make a turn West at Brooklyn Station, and serve Wallingford, Phinney or Fremont, and Ballard. This is a great idea, and a way of serving some high-demand routes with our new rail infrastructure. However, [...]
Posted in ballard, LINK | Tagged gondola
By Matt the Engineer on October 5, 2011
…and it’s far too late anyway. But what if instead of light rail over I-90, we just connected downtown Bellevue and downtown Seattle via gondola? The two are just 6 miles apart. Yes, that’s huge for gondola distances. And over some deep water. But I feel like crunching some numbers, so humor me. Speed We’d [...]
Posted in East Link
By Matt the Engineer on September 29, 2011
FYI: There’s a mini-ferry running between South Lake Union and the University District (near Agua Verde). The trip is $5 and takes 20 to 25 minutes. They leave UW on the hour and SLU on the half hour, every day from 8am to 6:30pm, with an extra three hours on Fridays and Saturdays. The boat [...]
Posted in ferry, southlakeunion, UW
By Matt the Engineer on September 28, 2011
One issue that comes up frequently when discussing “towers” compared to shorter buildings is cost. Yes, taller buildings cost more. But not much more. And what you spend on construction can come back in saved real estate costs (since you can build more units with the same land). Here’s some typical cost data from the [...]
Posted in cost analysis, density
By Matt the Engineer on September 15, 2011
I happen to own a copy of Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of Great American Cities. I was several wonderful chapters in when I lost it, and only recently found it again (it was zipped away in the pocket of my suitcase). As I work through the other 4 books I’ve started, it has sat [...]
Posted in density, Urban Planning
By Matt the Engineer on September 5, 2011
Just to highlight Seattle’s struggling bicycle infrastructure, I thought I’d describe my bicycle experience today. My wife and I took our 2yr old son on a ride from Gasworks Park to the Lake Forest Park Farmer’s Market. The ride started off great – the Burke Gilman Trail was packed with bikers, joggers, and rollerbladers. But [...]
Posted in bicycle safety, bicycles
By Matt the Engineer on August 26, 2011
You turn on a shower. Your hot water heater takes water that’s the same temperature as the ground (roughly 50F, depending on the season) and heats it up to around 120F. The water runs in pipes through your walls (losing some of this heat to the outside), then you mix it with some cold water to [...]
Posted in infrastructure, king county, smart growth, sounder, walkable, zoning
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