This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
Looks like someone made off with the credit card parking stations under the Viaduct. Obviously the public policy lesson to be drawn here is that elevated urban roadways are a threat to parking meter safety and thus should be torn down immediately.
This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
hugeasscity says that Option C is “the horse to beat.” Good to know. Option C is pretty fantastic from where I sit. Instead of trying to get 6 N/S lanes on Alaskan Way, they’ve routed Northbound traffic onto Western Avenue. I like taking Western Avenue when I’m leaving Pioneer Square and heading North. The challenge is that intersection right in front of Steinbrueck Park, where pedestrians are streaming back and forth between the park and the Market:
The solution? Tunnel under it! This has the advantage of opening up that whole area between the Park and the Market to pedestrians. Similarly, it would potentially make driving on Pike Place much less useful (Drivers would enter at 1st and Pike, and drive two blocks and have to loop back out at 1st and Virginia). This might make it possible to close Pike Place to vehicular traffic altogether (except maybe deliveries), which is an added bonus.
This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
While there’s certainly some good public art here in Seattle around and inspired by LINK, I think Phoenix has to take the cake. The Phoenix Symphony has commissioned a new piece of music, “March of the Metro,” in honor of the coming light-rail line there.
Hmm… when’s the last time someone commissioned music celebrating a new bus route? Advantage: Light Rail!!
In a post yesterday, I asserted that Seattle bus service is subsidized by King County instead of the opposite. But I didn’t exactly prove it which helped launch a very lively comments thread. With the help of Matt from Orphan Road and commenters here (AJ and Multimodal Man in particular), I was able to get some numbers which I’ll keep below the jump.
Here’s the conclusion: Seattle provides 42% of Metro’s revenue, and receives 58% of Metro’s service hours.
Is there anything wrong with this picture? No. Urban areas have good reasons to receive strong transit subsidies. We’re simply exploring this issue because two high-profile (and smart) blogs implied the opposite — that Seattle is subsidizing the rest of King County. I wanted to correct this misconception, since knowing where things stand from an analytical point of view is always a good thing. Read on for why these “subsidies” are a good thing, why Seattle vs. King County debates always come up, and the raw numbers.
In this part, we will look at how Amtrak Cascades is funded and what it would take to expand service and possible new service including two new stations that will be coming online in 2009. Those new to this series, check out Part One and Part Two
Continue reading “Amtrak Cascades Part Three: Funding and Expansion of Service”
If you haven’t made your reservations several weeks prior, you’re already too late.. Unless you want a sleeper on the Coast Starlight which is almost also all sold out…There are still SOME seats available on the 26th, 29th and the 30th. Those however WILL GO FAST!
Extra trains are the following
#511 SEA -> PDX 1330 -> 1745 becomes #514 PDX -> SEA 1900 -> 2315
#512 PDX -> SEA 1345 -> 1800 becomes #515 SEA -> PDX 1900 -> 2315
Turkey trains start on November 26 until November 30th
Equipment for the extra trains will be used for the Alki Tours Leavenworth Snow Train in December. There will be private cars on this train, which is a first as well. The trips are pretty much already sold out as well. You’ll find me on the Silver Lariat, December 20th.