Also I think Link finally opening should provide a bit more support for transit in general. I know lots of people who didn’t support rail until they went to Portland and rode the MAX or the streetcar. Having a local example up and running is even better. This is also the pattern seen in most other areas that have built rail, once the initial line is up and running everyone is suddenly in favor of building more as quickly as possible.

Suspending Transit Now, although probably inevitable, is going to rub people the wrong way. It’ll be the second time the sales tax was raised to increase bus service, but instead the revenue was eaten by something else (rising fuel prices last year, the recession this year). Which does not raise confidence for future tax increases.

As for the 40/40/20 rule shifting service from Seattle to the Eastside when the cuts are restored, we don’t have to do it now. It doesn’t really matter until we have the money to restore the service, in two years or five. That leaves plenty of opportunities to get the rule repealed or elect a more reasonable county council in the meantime.

Although it may take longer because we seem to be in a Japanese-style recession. The Administration has done nothing to retire the toxic assets that caused this mess, or to break up the banks that are “too big to fail”. Instead it’s just putting a happy face on things and making some meager attempts at stimulus. So revenue and unemployment are likely to remain flat until the next zombie bank needs a rescue. The only thing that will really help is if gas reaches $5/gallon and stays there; that will presumably prod people to invest seriously in transit.

Because Rainier Avenue is too built up.

> I don’t understand the rationale. Someone please post that reasoning. Who would leave downtown Seattle for the airport via Rainier Valley?

Because Link is not meant to just be a fast way from downtown to the airport. It’s meant to facilitate trips between any two points on the line. Rainier to Sea-Tac, Rainier to UW, Capitol Hill to Northgate or Bellevue or Des Moines.

In an ideal world there would be both a local Link through Rainier and an express Link on the freeway (with stops only dowtown, Sea-Tac, and Tacoma). But we had to cajole voters for 55 years just to get any rail built, and a line needs to go through residential neighborhoods to get ridership. Imagine walking from MLK over Beacon Hill to Albro Place to catch a freeway train — nobody would do it.

This is one of the two myopias I’ve noticed in a lot of comments about Link. The other is a tendency to assume that everyone riding Link will be doing it to commute to/from work. (I probably won’t commute on it because I don’t have a normal daily commute, but I plan to use it for shopping, going to the downtown library, going to baseball games, etc.)

The first is myopic because it assumes that people going to the airport are always going from downtown. (Yes, it has a lot of hotels, but visitors to Seattle are not at all the only people who go to and from the airport. Locals travel too. And they work at the airport!) To take the 194 to the airport from Seattle, you basically have to get to downtown or the busway — there aren’t any stops in neighborhoods where people actually live (other than downtown/Pioneer Square/ID). 174’s not much better for that, and it’s slow. So those of us who aren’t already downtown have to either get downtown or to the busway with our luggage, or spend the money for a cab or Shuttle Express. This either adds substantial time or expense to the trip. I live on Beacon Hill and a cab to the airport is pricey, and Shuttle Express is expensive itself, and requires you to leave extra early.

With Link, a large portion of Southeast Seattle will now be able to go to the airport both quickly and cheaply compared to previous options. Now I’ll be able to get to SeaTac from my house in half an hour — including the walk to the station, two blocks away — for, what, $2.75? (I forget what the fare is going to be… but it’s cheap for an airport trip!) Thousands of people live in the area that Link will serve, and many of those people have need to get to SeaTac for flights — and also for work.

In the report the threshold for less than minimum in the west subarea is 15% fare recovery peak, 13% day and 7% night. Eastside averages are 15% peak, 11% day and 8% night. When you look at riders per revenue hour the eastside averages 30.6 peak; the west subarea manages 35.5 at night!The east side can’t justify the level of bus service it already has. This cockamamie idea of increasing using 40/40/20 is completely backwards.

I like the idea of the 28 being extended to go to 20th NE. It wouldn’t be that much more of a time thing, and I have never really understood why there isn’t service going across I-5 at 145th, as you have the freeway station and everything. There’s already space for a stop on the overpass going east, as that is where the 373 used to stop.

The only reason Sound Transit really operates bus service is to build express ridership for future rail.