Thanks! I’m sure it’s going to have need for sane comments today, if you check in later…
Yes! I’m glad you did this. Perfect forum for this discussion.
oops. I misspelled your name in my initial supportive comment. Sorry about that!
That’s fine, even I misspell my name sometimes. :)
Really? I mispell “smith” all the time… :P
I love the “running buses would not require more pay to drivers” argument.
It’s irrelevant since you’d need 7 60′ buses to equal one 4-car train. At peak hour headways of 4 minutes for trains, there’s no way buses can even handle that in highly travelled corridors.
The fact that people can’t see this pressing need for high capacity dedicated transit is staggering to me. 45,000 more people will be working in downtown Seattle and 8,000 more living down there. How will they get to and from there? How many buses will it take to get people down there during rush hour? I doubt they’ll all drive since it’s already difficult to get around via car.
How about we put the system in and address the access needs later? If Brad wants more park and rides, we’ll get there when we need to. It’s easy to take a step back and to check how congestion is flowing in the .5 and 1.5 mile walk/drive radii after the system is opened.
To add to your comment: at least 7 buses for a light rail train. New Flyer says 62 seated and 53 standees, for 115, for a DE60LF (hybrid, articulated, 60 foot low floor).
I believe New Flyer uses standing load of 4 people per square meter. At the same standing load, our trains (74 seated, 116 standing at 3 people per square meter) get 228 passengers – for about double, so I used 8 in the Crosscut piece.
Something in the long URL is breaking something in WordPress. Might want to complain to someone about that.
Can someone remind me again how influential is Crosscut? I’ve heard a lot of our politicians and high profile people read it. Why is that?
Anyway, congratulations on getting your article on Crosscut, Ben!
Uggg, people like Tom Heller makes me hate reading comments on the internet.
Ever since I found these blogs, I rarely read the P-I transportation “Sound Offs” anymore cause I can always expect the usual trolls who seem to have more free time than anyone else posting the same tired arguments over and over again. People then waste time arguing with these guys who don’t listen to constructive and rational posts. It’s a huge turn off to people who want to join in the conversation.
A pro-rail piece on Crosscut? Inconceivable.
Great piece, Ben.
Thanks! I’m sure it’s going to have need for sane comments today, if you check in later…
Yes! I’m glad you did this. Perfect forum for this discussion.
oops. I misspelled your name in my initial supportive comment. Sorry about that!
That’s fine, even I misspell my name sometimes. :)
Really? I mispell “smith” all the time… :P
I love the “running buses would not require more pay to drivers” argument.
It’s irrelevant since you’d need 7 60′ buses to equal one 4-car train. At peak hour headways of 4 minutes for trains, there’s no way buses can even handle that in highly travelled corridors.
The fact that people can’t see this pressing need for high capacity dedicated transit is staggering to me. 45,000 more people will be working in downtown Seattle and 8,000 more living down there. How will they get to and from there? How many buses will it take to get people down there during rush hour? I doubt they’ll all drive since it’s already difficult to get around via car.
How about we put the system in and address the access needs later? If Brad wants more park and rides, we’ll get there when we need to. It’s easy to take a step back and to check how congestion is flowing in the .5 and 1.5 mile walk/drive radii after the system is opened.
To add to your comment: at least 7 buses for a light rail train. New Flyer says 62 seated and 53 standees, for 115, for a DE60LF (hybrid, articulated, 60 foot low floor).
I believe New Flyer uses standing load of 4 people per square meter. At the same standing load, our trains (74 seated, 116 standing at 3 people per square meter) get 228 passengers – for about double, so I used 8 in the Crosscut piece.
The twenty year projections for adding residents to downtown have already been exceeded, as well. There was an article about this last month:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008003405_growth18m.html
Something in the long URL is breaking something in WordPress. Might want to complain to someone about that.
Can someone remind me again how influential is Crosscut? I’ve heard a lot of our politicians and high profile people read it. Why is that?
Anyway, congratulations on getting your article on Crosscut, Ben!
Uggg, people like Tom Heller makes me hate reading comments on the internet.
Ever since I found these blogs, I rarely read the P-I transportation “Sound Offs” anymore cause I can always expect the usual trolls who seem to have more free time than anyone else posting the same tired arguments over and over again. People then waste time arguing with these guys who don’t listen to constructive and rational posts. It’s a huge turn off to people who want to join in the conversation.
good point oran.