Orphan Road

via LostCarPark

Well the cost estimates are out. As Hugeasscity had a little bird tell him it looks like everyone is leaning towards Alternative C. It is a good balance between vehicle capacity and making the waterfront a great place to be. As pointed out in previous entries these different alternatives are not mutually exclusive rather just a mixture of different elements, many of these elements can be applied to most or all of the alternatives.

In order to make any of the surface alternatives viable there must also be a significant investment in transit including streetcars, rapid trolleys (anyone know what that is?), and rapidride. For a comparison I'm picking what most people in this blog and STB would pick. So.... let build a viaduct replacement.

Hybrid B/C: Capital/Operating (cost in millions)

Central Waterfront: Couplet - 900
I-5: Medium - 346
Surface: Medium - 291
Streetcars: High - 641/26
Transit: High - 476/60
Policies and Management: High - 24/36

Capital Cost - 2,678
Operating Cost - 122
Already Committed Costs - 1,100
Total Cost - 3,778

Funding + 2,390
Balance = 1,388

Below are the minimum cost for the other alternatives. As you can see the surface option with all the transit goodies is a good amount more expensive that the surface option and falls mid-range in comparison to the underground/trenched alternatives. So if Hybrid B/C is to be built a compromise will probably have to be made. With Hybrid B/C the road improvement cost comes out to 2,346 million, roughly 400-900 million less than the elevated options. Although the elevated alternatives aren't where this region or its leaders want to go I think this will limit how many transit goodies can be added on top. If they all cost 2,778 million we could justify coming up with the extra money and spending it on transit. My guess is that both Rapidride and the streetcars will be scaled back with the streetcars taking a larger hit unless alternative funding (federal, LID, etc) can be found.

Elevated Alternatives Minimum Cost = 2,700 to 3,200.
Underground/Trenched Alternatives Minimum Cost = 3,000 to 4,600

A huge thing that wasn't factored in was tolls. Everyone is thinking about them. If tolling on I-90 and SR-520 start in 2010 and they improve traffic, which the models show they will, this region might move ahead with region wide tolling faster than expected... I think???

These are good ideas.

I think the streetcar needs to be put in proper context. It's one of those rare modern transit systems that gets running in advance of population growth. It was built to accommodate an South Lake Union residential and office population that isn't there yet.

Transit and population growth have a chicken-and-egg relationship. In building the streetcar, Nickels-Vulcan stepped in to break the deadlock by saying, in effect, "screw it, let's just put a chicken there and an egg will show up eventually." And they did, because they had the will and the money to do so. The population (the egg) is coming. It may take a bit longer because of the current housing slump, but it's coming.

However, the problem, if I can extend the metaphor, is that in the interim you have a somewhat useless chicken sitting there in downtown Seattle for all to see. And so people naturally ask, "why did our elected officials put that chicken there? And while we're at it, what other chickens are they talking about building? Do we really need them?"

This line of thinking naturally makes people chicken-averse, and as such, undermines support for the whole chicken-building enterprise known as "Sound Transit." And that's a problem. Voters see empty streetcars moving back and forth on Westlake, and wonder why we spent money on them (never mind that the money was minimal, mostly raised from private funds, and didn't involved ST at all).

Do I think this is a huge problem that's going to kill Proposition 1 in November? No, I don't. But it is worth considering when starting these kinds of projects.

After work the other day I walked over to the SLU trolley to meet family at the Center for Wooden Boats. If you know how to sail, I highly recommend renting a boat for an hour on a sunny day. The streetcar was just about to leave as I made it to the stop, so I hopped on expecting to pay onboard.

I knew I only had $1 in my wallet, and also knew that they only take credit cards at the kiosk outside the streetcar. However, I have $1.75 tickets in my wallet that I keep for use on the bus. Also I remembered that their website lists a good dozen forms of payment you can use on the streetcar*, so I wasn't worried.

But... apparently Metro cash tickets aren't on the list. This means that I owe the streetcar $1.75, and that I will have to start carrying a pocket full of quarters (6 for a round trip) if I ever want to ride it again. Man do I wish they'd start the Orca pass.

* "The following forms of payment are also accepted to ride the Seattle Streetcar; Metro Pass, Puget Pass, Flexpass, GO Pass, U-Pass, Visitor Pass, Regional Reduced Fare Permit (with monthly or annual sticker), and active Metro bus transfer slips."

The Idaho Statesman reports on possible ways to finance a streetcar in Boise:

"Bieter said as much as 50 percent of the estimated $40 million to $50 million price tag could come from a local improvement district - a special taxing district approved and paid for by landowners within a specific boundary.

The city would not go through Valley Regional Transit to implement or operate the streetcar, Bieter said. That means no federal funding, though, because any federal transportation dollars must go through that group or Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho, the federally designated metropolitan transportation planning organization for the Treasure Valley."

We have something like 137 days left of Bush, but the evil he did will live after him. It may be that the best approach is to build our own transit, and demand that the Federal budget actually be reduced so we don't need to send all our money to Washington DC.

Either that, or use some of those aircraft carriers we bought as ferries.

I wish the Seattle Streetcar Alliance well in their efforts to expand our nascent Streetcar network. I'm not sure whether it will succeed, but I think the approach is right-on, to create a coalition that forces the relevant municipalities into action.

This stands in stark contrast to the approach of the Monorail folks, who created an entirely separate municipality, one that didn't require any local pols to put any skin in the game. This made it easier for Sims, Nickels, et. al. to walk away when support started to slip.

Report to council on the 4 most promising lines for Streetcar network expansion.

I recently read a story (which may be apocryphal) about a landlord for an office building who was receiving complaints from his tenants that the elevators in the building were too slow. The landlord couldn't afford to replace the elevators, but he wanted to keep his tenants happy.

His solution? Install mirrors in the lobby on every floor next to the elevators, so people could admire themselves while waiting for the elevators.

Complaints dropped to zero, even though the speed of the elevator had not changed.

The thought occurred to me while reading the streetcar report (thanks to oran in the STB comments for the link). The travel times are about the same as the equivalent bus routes (sub the #3 or #4 for the Central Line, for example). But the perception of time aboard a streetcar is very different. The starts and stops are smoother; the travel is more level; the vehicles themselves are wider and roomier.

People often dismiss those differences as less important or even trivial. But they're clearly not. Many people prefere to sit in their cars in traffic, where they can control their environment -- the radio station, the smell of the vehicle, the noise, etc. -- rather than take the bus, even if the bus takes less time. This is perfectly rational. Obviously a streetcar, like a bus, puts you in an environment with other people, but if it can improve the experience in other ways (smoother, quieter, more spacious), it can also change your perception of time.

Ann Butler has the scoop on the plan for 5 new streetcar lines that SDOT willl propose to Council tomorrow. It's a bit different from the various plans we've bandied about here, but it shares some commonalities, including the route to Ballard via Westlake-Fremont-Leary.

None of the routes will mimic the Monorail's Green Line from Ballard to West Seattle, for various reasons that Butler mentions. Funding is, of course, still up in the air.

I'm very curious how successful the Streetcar will be on crowded, narrow streets with lots of on-street parking, like 1st Avenue in Belltown, Eastlake Ave E, and Broadway. It's a very different proposition than the relatively quiet Westlake Ave.

If for no other reason, the current end of the Waterfront Streetcar will be remembered for the stunning pile of absurdities that have accumulated to do it in.

The beginning of this story is reported now as the need of the Sculpture Park for the land the carbarn stood on- when in fact, the arty types simply objected to the appearance of the carbarn. Let that soak in a minute- people who buy 'modern art' complaining about the appearance of the carbarn.

When this story broke, business types a few miles north offered space for the carbarn and money to extend the tracks, to the new labs and businesses near Interbay. This was turned down. Apparently the Waterfront Trolley "no longer fit into the city's transportation plan". That's right, the same city that works overtime to attract cruise ships can't see the role of a heritage trolley line running past the point where the passengers get off the cruise ships (not to mention the ferries).

So, what is the plan? That's right- there isn't any. They don't know if the Viaduct will be rebuilt or replaced with a "surface option", and they intend to "service the transportation grid around the viaduct". Nickels said they would even be looking at streetcars as a way to carry the load during viaduct construction.

Gee, Mayor Nickels, you mean a streetcar like the one that used to be part of the transportation grid around the viaduct?

This is all doubletalk, and the reason they're trying to snow us is that they're ashamed of their real motives and their lack of ability to think or plan constructively for the future. Don't expect a happy ending from this crowd- in spite of their cocktail party appreciation of art, they simply don't get the big picture.

Looks like the plan to put a new maintenance barn in Pioneer Square has been scrapped, which makes sense, since any new solution would have to be mothballed during viaduct construction anyway.

Let's all now focus our energy on some modern streetcars that can serve the western edge of the city more effectively. With the waterfront under construction, car-restricted 3rd Avenue seems like a logical N-S route for such a line.