I admit that the distance between the Columbia City station and downtown Columbia City concerns me. It’s four blocks from the station to Rainier, and then another couple blocks to the main part of CC. I have heard that the street there has had the sidewalks improved, but it does not strike me as a friendly route in the evenings. We are hoping to be able to take Link to CC in the evenings to the Columbia City Cinema, or restaurants, but that route still is a problem, I think. Some added lighting along the route between the station and Rainier would probably help. More eyes and activity on the street would help too, but that’s a pretty low-density strip at the moment (I don’t know the current zoning, but it’s mostly single-family housing there if I recall correctly).

Honestly, I’m all for totally ignoring public input. Build the damn thing, and people will adapt. That’s how great systems like the Chicago El and the NYC Subway system was built. Seattle’s not going to get any less dense, and people are going to use this thing, despite what the dingbats say.

People want to have access to things—services, locations, facilities. They want to stop at the health club, pick up some groceries, drop by a friend’s, and still get home from work at a reasonable hour. Most of North America has sought to provide this access through better mobility; the West End (of Vancouver) has provided it through greater proximity.

He left a comment at Sightline: “Here’s an even more concise way to say it (credit to Richard Register): The shortest distance between two points is achieved by moving the points closer together.”

In the Rainier Valley things are more spread out, so places may be 2 or 3 miles away rather than 1 mile as they are on Capitol Hill. Thus people would need to take the bus more for daily errands. This may be where the pressure is coming from.

http://seattletransitblog.com/2009/02/27/link-station-spacing/

Link’s station spacing resembles that of SF’s BART, which is used for intercity travel while the MUNI is used for moving about the city of SF itself. On a much grander scale, Paris has its RER network to connect the city with the suburbs and the metro for travelling within Paris. Link is a regional system, hence the name “Link” in the first place – its designed to Link the region’s cities together.

We’ll either need feeder system of streetcars or better, a couple ‘Seattle only’ lines of grade separated transit with stations placed at walkable distances. I believe this will happen eventually, but the initial regional Link needs to be done first. We’re focusing on the commuters for right now and we’ll get to the life riders with much better service later.

It’s the difference between a transit system that’s planned for work trips, and a transit system that’s designed to really allow people to live car-free.

Sound Transit’s mission isn’t really to connect neighborhoods in Seattle, but to connect cities to each other. Other modes need to step in to move you ever more locally.

In terms of “walking a few blocks” for transit, I’d add this. Most people around the Puget Sound use public transportation for commuting to work or school. Those riders will happily walk a few blocks twice a day. They don’t have to drive on the freeways, pay for parking, etc. etc. They drive to their nearest bus stop or park and ride, get on a bus, and everything is fantastic. They might have a transfer along the way, but generally it’s a smooth process.

In the Rainier Valley though, it doesn’t work this way. People here are making multiple round trips per day. It’s a lot of stop and go action all day long. Walking a few blocks. No big deal. Walking a few blocks each way, many times a day adds huge amounts of time to commuting. For a driver, a simple run to Safeway or QFC is a few minutes. For someone by bus, it’s significantly longer. Add to that, picking up the kids from day care, taking them to baseball practice, and then getting home? “A few blocks” over the course of the day becomes miles, and time lost in hours.

Frequency needs to be based on community needs. It’s simply *not* a one size fits all.

I remember meeting the guys who were in charge, “the experts”. They might have been experts, but it certainly wasn’t on commuting patterns of Rainier Valley bus riders.

As time goes on and more lines are built, I’d think rail would form a spine for north/south travel and busses would form a ‘rib cage’ to bring people from the east and west to the stations. Within Seattle, that’s really how the streetcar network should be designed. This push for one-seat rides are part of the reason why our bus system is so unintuitive and needlessly complex.