Photo courtesy Antoni Slodkowski via Reuters.
Who says luxury hotel amenities are limited to spas and room service? This hotel in Tokyo has something for train and transit enthusiasts as well.
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I must say, the YourCapitolHill.com ads are starting to get annoying. I might have to re-enable Adblock on seattletransitblog.com
I’m sure they’ll happily take your donation instead to cover the bandwidth/server fees and pull the ad. Thanks for offering!
The problem with “free speech” is like the problem with “freeways”. They aren’t really “free”.
“Free speech” in the political realm is controlled by those who can afford to buy it.
Imagine the hue and cry by the trolls if this blog started tolling comments.
Comment on a tweet: @seatransitblog Just paid my first Washington state toll. What a novel concept! You pay for what you use. http://yfrog.com/2d6vajj
[start sarcastic response]
but but but, but why am I being taxed AND now I have to pay a toll to use a road?! The loonies in charge are anti-vehicle!
[end sarcastic response]
This tolling works quite well in certain areas. In PA, we have the PA Turn Pike – all maintenance costs for 76 and the NE Extension are fully covered by the tolls. There are also the tolls that people have to pay leaving NJ into Philly (Ben Franklin Bridge and the Walt Whitman Bridge, as two examples). If certain people on these boards really want their money to go to a particular area of transportation, tolling is the only way this will happen. Then you can exclude whomever you want that isn’t paying in to it. Exclude transit, exclude cyclists, and exclude pedestrians! I mean, people utilizing those methods of transportation aren’t actually people afterall.
Ok, pay for what you use.
So, shouldn’t we do away with the 1% limitation on property taxes in the state Constitution.
And we certainly shouldn’t vote for the property tax giveaway in 1098.
Right?
That reply as absolutely nothing to do with cyclist mike’s comment, but it’s great to hear that you think its ok to keep class sizes at my high school at around 35 students as long as a few rich people can keep the money they made after getting a far better education then I am getting.
35 people in a class. Pretty much exactly what I had back in the 70′s. You must be getting a pretty good education to already be aware of the issues that preceded you by generations. HS is preparation for college (at least since we’ve totally abandon shop classes, a real loss). Your college freshman biology class may have 600 students. Why is it so bad to have a HS class size of 35?
35 isn’t too bad for a high school class (this is coming from someone who went to a prep school where classes were capped at 15). But for college it’s just on the edge of the perfectly wrong size. It’s too big to get the requisite personalized attention to really extract value from that $40,000 a year, but far too small to be as efficient as those 200-student physics lectures.
My undergrad intro business classes were all in the 25 to 35 student range. The difference in class quality was notable even on that scale. My comp sci classes had 5 to 7 students, which was heavenly. We learned as a team in those classes.
It’s worth paying taxes to give everyone a shot at a decent education like that. Society reaps the rewards on that investment by producing intelligent and efficient adults.
Provocative article on the energy efficiency of bikes vs public transit (and various other things):
http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2010/09/tank-full-of-petrol-gasoline-if-you.html
Obviously I don’t agree with all the assumptions but interesting figures.
Interesting figures indeed. I can’t remember the last time I was on a bus with only 8 or 9 people on it (the chart shows the average number of people on a bus as 8.8). Anyone know how Metro fares compared to the US averages cited in that article?
Does anyone have an update on the Streetcar project at Westlake to turn it into a plaza?
Tim
I think it’s out to bid and “due to be completed by the end of the year. ”
http://blog.seattlepi.com/insouthlakeunion/archives/218540.asp
anyone have pics of the work the track shift work at edmonds the bnsf did a few weeks ago?
There are some pictures of the double-tracking work here: http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14911&page=71
Does that address your question?
there’s some pictures from the area that are great. thanks for link! i haven’t been north of seattle in a few months now that i work out of portland.
Are the pictures at the bottom of this page and the next few the pictures you’re looking for?
Nice, aw. When I’m going down my RSS feeds, I open the ones I want to read in a new tab, then go through them one by one. Apparently I waited too log to get to this page and didn’t refresh before posting…
Ahh… Bumbershoot weekend.
All you ever need to know about why RapidRide will suck!
Bottlenecked routing? Check.
Inadequate capacity for truly high demand? Sure.
Continued acceptance of cash payment, even at the supposed “stations?” What could possibly go wrong?
I was riding the bus home last night from work. The people who attend Bumbershoot must only ride the bus once a year, because they really didn’t seem to know how to pay, or how much to pay. I think it would be great for Metro or Sound Transit to charge more for people who pay cash than using an ORCA card. It sure took a long time at the bus stops picking up the Bumbershoot attendees.
Metro used to run Bumbershoot-specific shuttles out to a few park-and-rides, but that must have been stopped by the same rules that killed the Mariners and Seahawks shuttle buses.
It was indeed those same rules that killed off the shuttles.
They do run larger coaches on some routes, like 60′ on the 30. But yes it’s not nearly enough.
I know! I’m with you! RapidRide WILL suck. I mean, what’s with putting the name rapid in the name, anyway? It’s not going to be rapid. So what’s so rapid about RapidRide?
And how the hell am I supposed to feel European riding on bus?
Is there any hope that the new Seattle Streetcar lines (First Hill, First Ave, etc) will employ the new Skoda trams?
http://www.railpage.com.au/f-t11343804-s0.htm
Low floor, 100% accessible level boarding.
I’d like to give a big ol’ kudos to Metro this weekend. In years past, the Sunday and Monday of Labor Day Weekend they would use the single busses on routes as if they were normal Sunday/Holiday. Of course, with Bumbershoot, those busses would be so packed by their half-route, that they would pass by people at the bus stops. This year, they’ve finally used the articulated busses and they’ve been full, but not crowded/standing room only. Its been much nicer getting to work this weekend than in years past.
Hate to rain on your bumbershoot, mate, but most real cities would be running trains all day at weekday frequencies or higher to and from an event the size of Bumbershoot — plus dozens of additional back-to-back vehicles immediately after.
Running single 60′ vehicles on 30-minute headways, with cash-payers making routes run at half-speed, doesn’t really bowl me over.
The only thing worse might be Metro’s approach to July 4th, when a single half-hourly 26 coach is supposed to absorb 100,000 riders.
The other day as I was getting off the bus Downtown I heard a woman go up to the driver and ask “Where does the 599 stop?” I butted in “Oh, that’s they call the light rail in a couple places” but she ignored me and asked the driver again, and the driver, not knowing that Tripplanner calls Link “599″ asked where she was trying to go. She said Mount Baker and he told her she should take the light rail and she snapped “No, I know that goes there, but I want the 599!”
Tripplanner should really just call it Link.
I’m not at all surprised by Cascade Bicycle Club’s attitude. After all, they’re the NRA of bicycle nuts.
Redmond Mayor John Marchione comments are “very disappointing”:
Maybe “we’ll examine those options in a year or two” doesn’t cut it when you’re trying to start a business and there’s a concerted effort to tear up the tracks. Anybody think Microsoft would be told, “get back to me in a couple of years and we’ll talk.” Those pesky industrial areas always getting in the way of redevelopment. As the comments to the article pointed out there is a parallel bike trail the entire route and a largely unused gravel access road for much of it on the west side of the Slough. The businesses asking for the rail service are north of downtown and the excursion train will be steam. Come on, it’s not like this was just dropped out of the blue.
Pretty good article today:
“Cash-strapped Metro targets drivers’ pay”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012834601_metrodriver08m.html