Month: November 2007

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Via the NYT’s City Room blog, a video of the new LED route signs inside the New York City subways:

Good stuff. As I’ve often said, I think transit agencies sometimes undervalue stuff like this. A good information system makes the whole idea of riding transit more approachable to newcomers, and it costs close to nothing compared to, say, building a mile of light rail or highway.

You can read more about the FIND panels here.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

I’m just now getting around to Mayor Nickels’ appearance on the P-I‘s Opinion Leaders podcast.

It gets interesting (for our purposes!) when he gets a question about the Viaduct. He notes that he’s been meeting with Ron Sims and Gov. Gregoire, that they’re approaching a consensus, and they have people working together on a solution. In his response, he touches on the following:

• Taking advantage of the underutilized street grid, especially 6th Avenue
• Moving the Alaskan Way Streetcar to 1st Avenue, to potentially connect it to Ballard and West Seattle
• Making I-5 more of a through-way and not a downtown street
• Not advocating for a tunnel or an elevated highway
• Some concerns about freight mobility

He also mentions the Embarcadero in San Francisco, a well-known example of an elevated freeway being replaced with a surface street, and notes approvingly the I-5 closure this summer in Seattle, which he said showed that traffic patterns are flexible.

Now, he didn’t commit to anything, but it sure sounds like hizzoner has all but embraced the so-called surface/transit alternative, that Sims is on board, too, and together they’re trying to convince the Governor to see the light. Good stuff.

I’m skeptical about a streetcar having enough capacity to serve the Ballard-Downtown-West-Seattle corridor, but at least he’s thinking along the right lines: no new elevated highway.

Anyway, he said we’ll hear more after the new year. Keep your eyes open.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

See here:

Contrary to popular opinion, since the mid 1990s, we have seen an explosion in rail demand and service, primarily focused among commuter and short to medium intercity routes. From 1995 to 2005, commuter rail usage grew over 20 percent, from 352 to 423 million passenger trips. Over the same period, 421 miles of new commuter and light rail track has been built.

And yet, here in the Northwest, many continue to view rail as some kind of exotic boondoggle, despite the fact that the rest of America is interested in building more and more of it. Buses are not an acceptable alternative.

The article goes on to argue for a dedicated national rail funding source, and the dismantling of Amtrak’s long-distance coastal routes in favor of targeted investment in high-speed 100- to 500-mile routes, something I’ve long favored.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Everything’s okay at the airports today:

Eager to avoid crushing lines and frustrating delays, many travelers did not wait until yesterday to fly to their Thanksgiving Day destinations. Instead, they left Tuesday, which has become one of the busiest travel days of the year, or even earlier.

Anyone have a bad experience? Sounds like everything’s moving along swimmingly.