News Roundup: Distracted Driving Edition

January 11, 2010 at 7:56 am

21 Responses to News Roundup: Distracted Driving Edition

Karl says:


As a Tacoma resident, and a transit user and supporter, I think that the additional link stop that is proposed (only two blocks away from another stop) is pretty silly. I would be happy to here the perspective from the STB contingent.

Michael says:


In addition, I think Sound Transit needs to add a Link stop at Graham and MLK Way as well. However I think the Graham station would probably cost in the range of $10m and not the $100,000 this small station would cost.

Ben Schiendelman says:


I’m guessing more like $30-40m.

Really, more than that. You can’t just slow down the airport users.

Brian Bundridge says:


Typically, most LRT stations only cost $2 to 8 million dollars for a surface station and $10-20 million for elevated stations. I would love to have a station there at Graham and at South 133rd to serve the industrial district there. Not to mention AMR, BECU, and several other medium sized companies and server farms there. It would make the most sense as well to build a new park and ride here if there are going to be any built along the line that is next to a freeway/highway.

Ben Schiendelman says:


It’s a streetcar. I don’t see a problem with it.

alexjonlin says:


It sounds like an alright idea, and costing very little for a pretty good benefit for people around there. Maybe in conjunction with this they could move the Convention Center station across the street to the south so it’s actually right in front of the Convention Center?

NJL says:


It will make transferring between Tacoma Link and the busses on Commerce easier, which has been a frustration of mine in the past.

Gordon Werner says:


shouldn’t be a real issue if you are referring to Tacoma Link (like the Seattle Streetcar) …

Karl says:


Yes, i was referring to Tacoma Link, my apologies.

Tim Whittome says:


I like it – I say go for it, not that I have much impact. I’d like to see Tacoma help to extend Link all the way to the lovely Stadium High School at the top of the hill there – at least to the Stadium District and to Wright Park.

alexjonlin says:


I heard that when they reconstruct Stadium Way in the next couple years they will include streetcar tracks, so we’ll be getting service to the Stadium District pretty soon! Then there’s also ST2 money to pay partly for further extension to Tacoma General.

Tim Whittome says:


Yes, I heard that too – it badly needs some work done on it to make it both safer for children walking along it and more aesethetically pleasing. I hope they do something with the brambles and jungle facing Commencement Bay on the east side of Stadium Way.

Wesley says:


Try looking at http://www.distracted.gov

I dont think that was listed in any of the hyperlinks above. It is a government campaign to inspire fear among us…

http://www.twitter.com/wesleyzhao

Tim says:


If PAYD insurance catches on in the future, does that mean I could get exempted from the gas tax and instead pay VMT?

Nathan says:


…doesn’t a gas tax roughly equate to an efficiency-adjusted VMT?

Tim Whittome says:


I noted in the above Governor Gregoire’s remarks on the tunnel to replace the viaduct and obviously I am engaged to her way of thinking on the subject.

By the way, related to the tunnel, but there was an interesting piece in the Daily Journal of Commerce this past week on Metro putting out to bid for a new Central/Atlantic base, Read it – it is quite interesting. Nice design and ‘Green’ features etc.

Tim Whittome says:


Sorry I should have said that this relates to the AWV project because Metro will have to shuffle its buses around various bases as work continues on both the viaduct replacement and that huge maze of bridges crossing 4th Ave South and between Quest and Safeco Fields.

Blue Swan says:


Low density can work…it can be green…it can provide many more jobs, lower cost rents, lower crime, more healthful living.

People should not just associate low density with sprawl.

You should read my proposals for “Agraria”:

http://you-read-it-here-first.com/viewtopic.php?t=3227&highlight=agraria&sid=07e34689f4efe87cc4865c985d12f74c

alexjonlin says:


This low density is most definitely sprawl, as if everyone did this, you would need vastly more land than we currently take up, and to get that land you would need to sprawl outwards into currently untouched territory. If you did have enough land, this would be fine as long as you wanted a subsistence-farming based society without any further human employment. But for all other types of employment than agriculture, you need dense cities where everyone can work together.


For a fun book critiquing suburban sprawl, I recommend James Howard Kunstler’s “The Geography of Nowhere”.