That said, Bernie, you’re seeing the trees and missing the forest. The meteor is coming and we’re the dinosaurs.

They say that over the next 30 years a million people will be added to our population. One way or ‘tother, a lot of those people are going to end up in the Bel-Red corridor. When the dust settles, ten or twelve blocks difference in the alignment of the LINK won’t even be noticeable.

I spent 15 years in Bellevue, old and new, most of it walking and bicycling, like you did before you got a car and there was nothing on tv. When I go back today, I get lost. The built environment has completely overwhelmed the natural landforms and what went before.

These comments are a great place to winnow the chaff from the grain of your arguments. I for one will pay more attention now that I know you live out there. As the Platypus of Platitudes, I will close by saying, ‘don’t sweat the little stuff’ and ‘keep your powder dry’.

ST won’t have to pay a dime for the center roadway. Just watch. :)

Kemper Freeman’s views on light rail are the same as the Publisher of the Seattle Times. Does Frank Blethen ever wonder why his paper is on the ropes? FRank has been consistently out of step with the rest of the community.

STB covered the Bellevue preferred alternative back in February. The route jumps back and forth from elevated to grade and wanders through a milk run in the Bel-Red corridor simple to kowtow to big developers interests. There is no reason for any stations here. Bellevue is not in need of a stimulus to reinvigorate a neighborhood the way the Ranier Valley is.

Look, by the time East Link makes it to Overlake U-Link will be operational and the new 520 will have inside HOV lanes all the way to Montlake. Overlake to downtown will be faster via bus and transfer at UW. In fact if you’re remotely fit you can beat the train to downtown Seattle on a bike. Two stations in Bel-Red instead of Redmond is ludicrous.

building at-grade can make people feel more connected to the neighborhood and the visibility can help draw people to transit when they are stuck in traffic in their car being passed by a train.

This isn’t a streetcar we’re talking about; although that would be a much better solution to serve the planned future development. It’s also not running up the middle of whats already a major arterial. That would have been Bel-Red Road. I can’t see anybody believing that a double track mainline through their neighborhood makes them feel more connected. The phrase “from the other side of the tracks” comes to mind. As far as people waiting in cars being passed by the train driving up ridership might be true if the route followed Bel-Red Road and probably would be true if it followed SR520 alternative but with the proposed alignment it can’t happen.

http://www.ci.bellevue.wa.us/pdf/Transportation/cob_pref_letter_on_east_link.pdf

and a map of the redevelopment plans for Bel-Red

http://www.ci.bellevue.wa.us/pdf/PCD/Bel-Red_Preliminary_Perferred_Alternative.pdf

If Bel-Red gets redeveloped according to the city’s TOD goals the Bel-Red stations could end up being the most valuable stations on the entire line. The city, in it’s briefing to ST, has implied that they would absorb some of the cost of the alignment by building it concurrently with a new NE 16th St.

Second, cut it out. You’ve been responded to. Don’t pretend you haven’t been. Yes, Bellevue will see at-grade alignments unless they pony up money to buy a tunnel. Northgate to Downtown Seattle is not POSSIBLE to build at-grade because of the train frequencies that will run through that corridor.

Jogging back to SR520 and then using 24th is going to require a large elevated section because of the steep hill from 140th up to 148th and the fact they are crossing 148th elevated (instead of staying along 520 and following the underpass route Redmond wants to preserve for a slip ramp to 152nd (bleck!). If they were really to follow an at grade alignment they would have stayed on Bel-Red road. BTW, I’ve looked in the preliminary proposals where that was an option and at the DEIS where it wasn’t studied and still have never found out why that alignment was never presented in the DEIS for the public to comment on.

“How come they’re having serious problems in Portland?” They’re not. The news sensationalizes accidents involving the train. If the train wasn’t there, they’d be car accidents with other cars, or hitting phone poles, or buses.

And this brings me to the real problem. People don’t understand how to reduce risk. Let’s say we just didn’t build the train – which was our other choice, and I’m going to keep reminding you of that until you get it. A lot of people would run into each other in cars and a lot of people would die. That’s something cars do.

Building the train reduces that risk, because it means all these people who ride the train suddenly aren’t at risk of being in an injury accident. As well, because we rebuilt the street around the train to higher safety standards, vehicle on vehicle accidents will probably reduce as well.

Now, I want to see the way you discuss this rise to that level. If you keep parroting the same comments, you’re quickly going to be moderated, because it gets really annoying. If you stop, learn from the information people are graciously providing you, and figure out how to move forward, I’m happy to keep conversing with you.

Bellevue’s got better cost per passenger than north of Northgate or south of S. 200th

Based on the initial estimate maybe. We’re still at the DEIS phase. It’s been after final route selection and the actual engineering gets done that we can expect a 30-100% escalation in cost. In another week we’ll find out more about Bellevue’s Billion Dollar Baby. In November (or did they switch it back to December) what the flap over air rights brings. I think there’s some in the legislature that don’t care who or how the money can be spent but simple want to see a $1-2B figure on the assumption that it will kill the project. At this point I don’t think ST has a dime in the budget for it although they do have a bullet point along the lines of make WSDOT whole for the use of the center roadway.