Comments on: Opening Day Postmortem

By: Colin

Colin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:57:07 +0000

My point was in response to the comment about the “express” portion, which would help out on the Seattle-to-Tacoma trip via Link. I’m not saying expanding light rail in a lot of ways is not a good idea. I’m just saying the goal of connecting Central Link with Tacoma Link isn’t necessarily the holy grail of public transit. I’d much rather that connection never happen and we have a pair of hubs in Seattle and Tacoma that are connected over the longer distances via commuter rail. Link is a metro, not a commuter rail.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:01:12 +0000

The stairs in the Beacon Hill station are not public – they’re for emergency access only. The alarm goes off if you open the door into the stairwell.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:43:05 +0000

The operator on my train northbound had not pulled the shade, and the controls were clearly visible. We were going 56 mph. The speedometer goes to 65.

By: Opening Day Postmortem – Seattle Transit Blog | Seattle news on Twitter

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:42:28 +0000

[...] View original post here: Opening Day Postmortem – Seattle Transit Blog [...]

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:40:39 +0000

Like LINK, BAR is an acronym, in this case for Bar Access Route. I believe Sound Transit and Seattle Transportation provided this quite nicely with the sidewalk improvements along South Edmunds Street. If you’re too drunk to walk back along the BAR from Lottie’s Lounge, Columbia City Alehouse, etc. to the station, take the pedicab.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:36:51 +0000

Those light displays at University Street Station really hurt my head.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:08:17 +0000

I really hope we end up with street-level retail along Royal Brougham and 4th there. We’ll see, I can’t wait for the city to start filling in with all this new transportation capacity.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:04:59 +0000

Wait a minute. How about commuters going from Federal Way to Tacoma, or Sea-Tac to Tacoma? We definitely want the line extended, we just want HSR to connect the major points. If you’re going from Everett to the Port of Tacoma, I want you to be able to take a bullet train between Everett and Tacoma, and then hop a stop on Link.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:03:30 +0000

The Port nixed the International Boulevard route – I’m not actually clear about why yet, but it’s on my list of things to investigate. I don’t think it was Tukwila’s fault.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:00:19 +0000

Actually, amazingly enough, I saw that exhibit at the science center for the first time ever yesterday. I was at the Bite with some friends and wanted to go see the butterflies, as the ones at the zoo aren’t open this summer.

By: Streetsblog Los Angeles » How Much Do Bicyclists Really Slow Down Drivers?

Streetsblog Los Angeles » How Much Do Bicyclists Really Slow Down Drivers? — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:20:25 +0000

[...] good posts from around the network: Seattle Transit Blog has a postmortem on the first day of the city's new Link light-rail system. The Dirt reports on a [...]

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:48:52 +0000

There’s sure to be more vending carts along Royal Brougham during game days with more people coming by Link.

By: Oran Viriyincy

Oran Viriyincy — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:46:23 +0000

Yeah, I saw a Link map from 2000 that showed Link going down International Boulevard instead of I-5 with a station at 144th St (the proposed Tukwila Village) and at S 154th St near the present station location. It’s even more direct than the I-5 route.

It’s funny that on the city’s Tukwila Village page they claim that it’s within walking distance to the station. Sure it is a 12-minute walk to the station but they could’ve had a station right at their door steps. How dumb is that?

By: Jim Cusick

Jim Cusick — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:27:43 +0000

The display is the same type that’s at the north end of the University Station Mezzanine. They’re meant to ‘paint’ a picture on your retina by virtue of that split-second after-image.

I’ve always had a hard time seeing those pictures, because the trick is to NOT focus on any particular light bar, but to let your eyes scan back and forth, at the correct speed. Some people can see it real easy, and they’d really irritate me, because they’d be calling out “Oh, there’s a plane, there’s a car! There’s a …. whatever!”, and I still couldn’t pick it up.

They have one display like that at the Pacific Science Center, but they assist you with viewing it by hanging a small mirror at a proper viewing point, and you can spin the mirror, which creates the same effect.

Having the train move past the Beacon Hill displays makes it much easier to see the images.

Jim

By: Streetsblog San Francisco » How Much Do Bicyclists Really Slow Down Drivers?

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:10:33 +0000

[...] thoughts? Other good posts from around the network: Seattle Transit Blog has a postmortem on the first day of the city's new Link light-rail system. The Dirt reports on a [...]

By: downintacoma

downintacoma — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:42:48 +0000

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to ride this weekend, but I did see the crowds firsthand. I took advantage of the Sounder service to and from the Sounders match (something that I dearly hope becomes a regular thing), though. After the match, my friend and I descended down the south end of the stadium, and I caught a glimpse of Stadium station – wall-to-wall people clad in Sounders green. I couldn’t wait around too long, as we had to book it back to the Sounder platform for the return trip south, but I see a very bright future for Stadium station. (To that effect, I did some quick number crunching: 8 Seahawks games + 81 Mariners games + 14 Sounders games = 103 games minimum, excluding any other games at the stadiums.)

By: Mike F

Mike F — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:38:22 +0000

The Sound Transit History and Chronology says that in August 1997

“Sound Transit” chosen as popular name for RTA and its services
The RTA Board adopts “Sound Transit” as the popular name for the RTA, and approves the names of “Link”
for light rail services, “Sounder” for regional commuter rail service, and “Regional Express” for regional bus
services.

The board minutes from that era – it was still called the Regional Transit Authority at that point – would undoubtedly explain why Link was chosen. (I saw references in early documents to light rail “linking” Seattle to Tukwila, so that might have had something to do with it.)

By: downintacoma

downintacoma — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:15:20 +0000

I picked up on them from Oran’s video from thursday or friday. It was tough, though.

By: Streetsblog Capitol Hill » How Much Do Bicyclists Really Slow Down Drivers?

Streetsblog Capitol Hill » How Much Do Bicyclists Really Slow Down Drivers? — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:12:13 +0000

[...] good posts from around the network: Seattle Transit Blog has a postmortem on the first day of the city's new Link light-rail system. The Dirt reports on a [...]

By: Colin

Colin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:03:25 +0000

I can confirm that they were hitting 57 on the tracks just before slowing down to go up the hill to Tukwila.

By the way, if you stand in the very end (either end) of each car, you can look through the door to the cab and the speed will be displayed digitally right in the middle of the dash. I assume you wouldn’t be able to see it very well in the front of the front car, but the rest of them are easily visible. You can also see out the windshield (though the other car is right in front of you).