Month: January 2008

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Well, this is certainly disappointing. I sure wish we’d voted for Prop 1 last fall, but I’m willing to let bygones be bygones. If I can get over not having a monorail up and running by now, I can get over the fact that Sound Transit will have to significantly scale back its ambitions.

So we’re looking at either something like this (pdf) or this (also pdf).

Obviously getting to Overlake is critical. But we also have our own transit needs here inside the city of Seattle. Maybe it would be better focus attention on a system within the city, especially on the Ballard-West Seattle side. You know, like a streetcar. Except one that ran on its own right-of-way, not in the street.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

As frustrating as this region can be sometimes with its transportation sclerosis, our transit agencies still manage to put a smile on my face every once in a while.

Case in point: Sound Transit selected an artist to do the Capitol Hill station art whose recent work includes this beautiful piece at Burning Man.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

The Seattle Times editorial board is generally opposed to taxes. People who use Zipcar/Flexcar are specifically opposed to the extra-high taxes they pay to use that service. So, naturally, the two agree that taxes on car sharing services are bad.

(Mike from CIS reports on the bill after spending the day in Olympia)

I’m generally supportive of the view that the state should incentivize car sharing. But I gotta say, I find the exorbinant taxes we levy on people who don’t vote — 9.7% on car rentals, a staggering 15.6% on hotels, etc. — kinda annoying. I can’t say I blame the legislature too much. It’s hard to raise revenue, and apparently Tim Eyman neverrents a car or stays in a hotel in Seattle, so that’s what gets taxed. And the revenues do fund worthy local institutions, after all.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

A press release on KC Metro’s website says:

By 2006, passengers will be able to easily transfer from one system to another without digging in their pockets for extra fares and tickets. It will just take a wave of a “smart card” embedded with a microchip that automatically calculates any fare due. The cards can be reloaded and used indefinitely, and will eliminate the current system of more than 300 types of tickets, passes and tokens.

Well, as you can see, it’s 2008 and the fabled ORCA card is not here yet (and is probably a year or more away). What happened?

Well, KIRO says that the problem could be the contractor, ERG. ERG was recently fired by the city of Sydney, Australia, for completely failing to deliver a smart card for that city, after 5 years of delays.

ERG has pushed back hard, countersuing the city and arguing that it was bureaucratic disinterest and incompetence that doomed the project. The company also designed Hong Kong’s Octopus Card, which by all accounts is incredible successful, so I wouldn’t be so quick to put all the blame on them.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Larry Lange reports on some proposed changes to Route 17 in Ballard. Some residents are opposed:

They’ve sent out notices of the meeting, arguing that the change will mean fewer buses on 32nd during the day and evenings, and seeking Metro statistics to justify the proposal. The notices question how making service less usable in their neighborhood is compatible with combating global warming.

They question why Metro is scaling back service on 32nd when voters in 2006 approved a major Metro expansion. Dublin says Ballard is growing, as shown in its burgeoning number of apartments and condominiums, and Metro just reported a record-setting growth in ridership overall.

“To me it is kind of a red flag when you’re getting ridership like this, to be cutting back in this neighborhood,” he said.

Obviously locals will fight any proposed change, whether it’s for increased density or decreased bus service. That’s not in and of itself a bad thing, and it’s something public servants have to weigh with every decision. This is why we have these public comment periods.

But the group’s thinking here is not very logical. With respect to global warming, one has to ask the inverse question: how effective is it to have a bus that gets 3.5mpg rolling up and down 32nd Ave with one or two passengers? I’m definitely in favor of using effects on global warming as a metric for land-use planning, but there has to be some sense to it.

Finally, I’ll just add a note to anti-bus people who complain every time they see nearly-empty bus trolling down the street, that this is an example of how difficult it is to reduce service on some of these routes.