Month: January 2008

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Seattlest says the Greyhound bus station in downtown Seattle is going away, replaced by a shiny hotel tower.

Every time I heard about a new high-end development going in around the Stewart Ave area, I thought to myself “who’s going to spend $1M to live next door to the Greyhound station?”

Well, that takes care of that!

What would be a good location for a new Bus station? Obviously I-5 access is essential, as is proximity to downtown. Assuming that there’ll be no room in the Stewart triangle area they’re getting booted from, SoDo/Pioneer Square is an obvious alternative.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

I just made a few changes to the way comments are displayed on the site, to make it work like other blogs.

1. Oldest comments are now on top, newest on the bottom.

2. You no longer need to give your comment a “subject.”

I’m contemplating ways to remove the registration requirement (and not get inundated with spam). I’m also wondering about “threaded” comments. Feedback is welcome, as always in the comments or via the contact form.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

I’m disappointed to learn that it’s not illegal to keep your headlights off in the rain. Several other states have laws on the books like this, wherein you have to keep your headlights on any time your windshield wipers are on.

It’s genuinely unsafe — I’ve had several near-misses in rainy conditions with cars who don’t have their headlights on.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

State Sen. Cheryl Pflug has a rather incoherent and semi-unhinged rant the the Seattle Times arguing for … well, it’s not exactly clear. She’s mad at the Governor for a bunch of stuff, the Democratic majority, too.

While I grant that the Ferry system has a lot to answer for, her argument really runs off the rails when it turns to a new 520 bridge:

Now the governor wants to take money from the viaduct and give it to 520. She wants to build a smaller version of the bridge — six lanes rather than the eight we really need. Her hurry-up plan will not relieve congestion or provide for future transit options.

Worse, in 2008, the governor and majority will propose to fund the 520 floating bridge through tolls — penalizing people for driving cars. They point to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as an example that has worked well. The public knows better.

With the Narrows Bridge, drivers do not have alternative routes. There are many alternatives to driving over 520. Some say regional tolling is a way to avoid the congestion caused by drivers trying to avoid toll roads. But regional tolling brings other problems.

Sure, there are alternatives to 520. Like I-90. Which is exactly why the Gov proposed tolling that, too. And I’m sorry, but the line “penalizing people for driving cars” has to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever read. What, does Sen. Pflug really think that the State should be rewarding people for driving? “Sweet ride, here’s a check!” Sorry Senator, but even eight lanes across 520 won’t be enough to handle the demand caused by that policy.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Neat post at Autopia comparing transit fares in major cities between 1952 and today. Seattle’s still a pretty good deal.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Nice article by Seattle NYT correspondent William Yardley on the increase in construction costs and how it’s affecting public projects around the country:

Costs have jumped for projects as varied as levee construction in New Orleans, Everglades restoration in Florida and huge sewer system upgrades in Atlanta. The reconstruction of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, a $234 million project, has been fast-tracked for completion by December, and state officials say it is too soon to know whether it will come in on budget.

The impact has been felt in different regions at different times, and not every project has been high-profile. In Oregon, high costs have forced the State Department of Transportation to slow the rate at which it upgrades roads and bridges. In Seattle, school building projects were put on a fast track this fall because of fears of cost overruns.

The article focuses on the increase in costs of bulding materials and labor, due to a global construction boom. I have to wonder how much the falling dollar also plays into the equation.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

That was fast.

Two weeks ago, I linked to a KOMO story about the lack of parking at the Auburn Sounder station.

Today, the City of Auburn announced the availability of 85 more stops, the News-Tribune is reporting.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

While we await true real-time bus information at all our Seattle bus stops, consider the lazy option, instead of getting frustrated because the 48 or the 7 is taking forever.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

I’m generally opposed to the idea of privately-run infrastructure, for a myriad of reasons, but this New York Times story on Pennsylvania’s tolling of I-80 suggests that there may be one benefit to such an approach that I’d thusfar overlooked:

The push to charge tolls along I-80 followed legislators’ rejection of Mr. Rendell’s proposal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to private investors, an approach taken in Illinois, Indiana and Virginia. Lawmakers were wary that the investors might raise tolls too quickly.

The governor continues to support that idea, though, because the proceeds could be used for more than highway repairs alone. Under the bill passed last July, as well as federal rules, revenue from tolls on I-80 can be spent only on that Interstate.

There’s been a lot of talk around here, most recently between Josh Feit and Will @ HA as to how much of a regional toll could be used for transit. I think they were talking past each other a bit, but the central question is relevant: how much will people tolerate their tolls being used for other purposes?

Gov. Rendell’s strategy seems like an interesting end-around. You lease the highway to a private company, and the revenues go into some general fund — or some general transportation fund, better — and so you’ve got some insulation. The challenge, of course, is to make sure that it gets spent wisely, and that the private company doesn’t pull a Halliburton and rip us all off. But it does have the advantage of getting around whatever State laws might restrict the funds.