Comments on: Seattle Street Car Maps

By: Chetan

Chetan — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:44:52 +0000

If we spend money that is anywhere near the amount we spend for cars, we could easily rebuild this system.

By: cjh

cjh — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:24:19 +0000

Actually, look at the station distribution. It and LINK have the same problem – outside of the downtown business core, the stations are spread out far too much. Forty blocks between stations is about fifteen blocks too many. Not that it (and LINK) isn’t better than the nothing we’ve got now but uh, it’s a suburban system even in urbanized areas. I certainly hope there is some planning and land acquisition in line with future station additions.

By: The Other Benefits of Light Rail - Mass Transit Now - Yes on Proposition 1 to bring mass transit to Puget Sound

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:08:31 +0000

[...] by leesroberts (via The Seattle Transit Blog), the map above shows the Seattle streetcar system in 1933 overlayed on a current map of [...]

By: Fixed Guideway Transit and Land Use Patterns, a.k.a. A Good Reason to Vote Yes for Proposition 1 | hugeasscity

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:34:46 +0000

[...] 1933 Seattle streetcar system overlayed on current urban villages, by leesroberts, via STB [...]

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:53:53 +0000

One can imagine how very different Madison Park would be if the Madison Street Cable had continued and become even half the tourist attraction that the cable cars have become in San Francisco. Cactus and Bing’s in Mad Park? Nope post cards and t-shirts and hordes of people every 20 minutes all over the place in our neighborhood all summer long.
And wouldn’t it be nice if (once Metro can buy another 200 electric buses) the #11 were electrified (along with the 8, 27, and the 48 south of the Roosevelt LINK station)?

By: Erik

Erik — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:59:49 +0000

Correction: The Madison Line was, IIRC, a cable car, not an electric streetcar.

Of course back then the 520 bridge was a Ferryboat from the end of the Madison cable car to Kirkland.

By: Oran

Oran — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:15:49 +0000

Oh noes! where did all those comments come from? Now I really look like a spammer. Sorry.

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:40:26 +0000

There’s no question that the destruction of half of the old Spokane Street Bridge spelt the end of any hope for electric transit to/from West Seattle in what remained of the 20th century. Long delayed and much discussed plans for a “freeway” style bridge went into high gear and after 5 years, voila! The WS high bridge opened in 1983. It would seem possible to hang bus wires over the curb lanes, but it is most unlikely that’ll ever happen. Now is the time to plan a reasonable way to get rail to West Seattle from where LINK branches off to Beacon Hill south to Spokane street and west from there sometime in the next quarter century – ’cause that viaduct ain’t never gonna get rebuilt!

By: EvergreenRailfan

EvergreenRailfan — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:00:27 +0000

SO the 15 and 18 would have been re-electrified if that plan had gone through. Very interesting. I wonder if the events of June 11, 1978 had anything to do with the eventual decision to not go forward with that, in addition to the cost of the bus tunnel?

As for one point AJ had, I was thinking, besides the streetcar boxes, start teaching certain tricks motorists in Melbourne have learned to avoid streetcars. The Hook Turn is one of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_turn#Melbourne_usage_details

By: Kaleci

Kaleci — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:12:22 +0000

Yes, this map still shows the last streetcar line (8th Ave NW). This should narrow down the date on the map. I noticed that some of the bus numbers are still letters, which was used as bus routes when the streetcars were in full swing.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:50:47 +0000

We can’t fund this with 0.5%. The ST long range plan looks a lot like this, but they can’t promise things for ST3.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:49:42 +0000

There’s a book in the Seattle Room at the SPL downtown that shows the streetcar profits versus the same lines losing money on trackless trolleys.

By: Brian in Seattle

Brian in Seattle — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:22:33 +0000

Yeah, 405 was some 2 lane highway back than, much like 167 used to be and other major highways today. Although the numbering system was all different than, I think 405 used to be called 1A or something like that.

By: runnerodb83

runnerodb83 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:34:13 +0000

I’ve seen this one before, but never noticed while there is a 3rd bridge showing, more than half the major freeways today are piecemeal.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:36:47 +0000

We had the density to warrant grade separation back in the 60s. I don’t think we’re much more dense now.

By: AJ

AJ — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:27:52 +0000

Why are we not proposing this now? I’m certain that if we got more people in line with this idea, ST3 would be as easy as pie to pass with this working on the wayside.

Arrhghghghghghg.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:22:55 +0000

I think looking for buildings more than 80 years old and more than 1 story, together, will give you the best overlay match.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:21:42 +0000

There’s a 1967 planning map that I think Forward Thrust was based on – it’s on Andy Filer’s flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/afiler/488657396/sizes/o/in/set-72157600188531870/

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:18:28 +0000

Yes, you’re quite right – this is the first time I’ve looked at the post. The top one is a trolley bus map. The 1933 streetcar map is the most complete.

By: Beacon Hill Blog » Archive » “Beacon Hill est omnis divisa in partes tres…”

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:16:10 +0000

[...] Look at any old Seattle neighborhood that was built-up before the 1930s, particularly along one of the old streetcar routes, and see how every half mile or so there is a small clump of old commercial buildings, now mostly [...]