Check out this graphic from ST comparing light rail systems around the country with what will get built here if Prop. 1 passes this autumn. A couple of these systems are very old, Philadelphia’s system is the original streetcar system and the Green Line in Boston is a full 110 years old. But comparing the modern systems to what Link will be is pretty interesting I think.
Monorail Follies
Broken, to the point of requiring a rescue, and working again in less than 24 hours.
That refurbishment can’t come soon enough.
Picture from the Seattle Times.
Worldwide Gas Prices
Via Andrew Sullivan, this interactive map reminds us of how inexpensive gasoline is in the United States relative to most other rich countries.
I have my issues with the European economic and social model, but this data is a useful reminder that high gas prices need not lead to a collapse in the standard of living, given reasonably forward-thinking policy on transportation and energy.
On the other hand, note that roads in Europe can be quite congested, so it’s also spurious to suggest that our highways will become overgrown with weeds even if gas were to hit $10 or so. Instead, we’ll see subtle shifts in housing patterns, more fuel-efficient cars, and more reliance on transit. If governments do the right thing and respond to these changes in demand, we’ll have a pretty smooth transition. If not, a large number of us won’t be enabled to make the sensible decision, and will be crushed by high housing and transportation prices. What’s more, these policy choices are made at federal, state, and local levels, so there are all kinds of things individual citizen activists can do to steer things in the right direction, such as fighting highly vocal opponents of transit and high-density development.
Image from progressiveexchange.com.
Photos of NYC Subway Last Stops
The New York Times has a cool feature about the last stations at the end of each subway line. It’s pretty cool to look at, and the accompaning article is pretty cute too.
News Stands
All this talk about the City’s last news stand has me thinking what can make news stands work in San Francisco (the image above is from SF), but all but non-existant here? Is is the quality of the newspapers? The lack of foot-traffic? The lack of transit? I think so.
I really think that the Seattle Times and PI’s futures would be brighter with more transit riders: how many people and reading and driving: virtually none. In San Francisco there are even free daily papers, something unimaginable here in Seattle.
‘No’ Campaign Delibrately Misleading on Sierra Club Support
Erica Barnett at the Stranger pointed out that the No on Prop. 1 Campaign’s website says they have Sierra Club support, since the Sierra Club was against the RTID portion of last year’s Prop. 1. This hugely is misleading, because the Sierra Club is in fact fighting for this year’s ballot measure. Barnett notes that the link on the ‘No’ campaign’s site to the Sierra Club was being redirected to the Yes Campaigns awesome site, masstransitnow.org.
Well now the ‘No’ campaign has brought a cache of Sierra’s “NoonRTID.org” site from last year, put it on there own site – though making it look just like the Sierra Club’s own site – and are linking to that with the Sierra Club link. So dodgy. These people are delibrately misleading voters.
Vanishing Parking Lots
This tongue-in-cheek Stranger Article from Dominic Holden about the city’s vanishing parking lots is hillarious. But this fact is pretty interesting:
All across Seattle, cherished opens spaces offer residents a bucolic respite—places where hearts, minds, and spirits can soar. But Seattle’s parking lots are threatened. Seattle—formerly home to several square miles of pristine asphalt—has been losing its parking lots at an alarming rate. Bryan Stevens, spokesman for the city’s Department of Planning and Development (DPD), says that in 2006, Seattle was home to approximately 670 pay parking lots. But in 2007, only 530 were left. At this rate of eradication, every pay lot in Seattle will be gone within four years.
The last line depends on whether the trend is the absolute shrink (140 lots per year) or a percentage shrink (20% per year), because with the later will have parking lots forever, just very few. Anyway enough nerdness.
Seattle Center Plans
The City Council has unaminously approved the Century 21 committee’s 20 year, $567 million Seattle Center Plan. The transit portion of the plan is from the Seattle Times article on the Seattle Center proposal.
Memorial Stadium. The city and Seattle Public Schools are negotiating an agreement for the future of the 1948 stadium. To create more open, usable space, the city wants to tear down the concrete walls and move the sports field to the eastern side of the current stadium. Those changes would expand the International Fountain area by 4 acres. A 1,300-space parking garage would be built underneath the stadium, and delivery trucks, school buses and Metro buses would access the campus through the garage. This would also allow the existing parking garages on Mercer Street to be razed, and their sites could be redeveloped.
I can’t imagine how this transit-enters-garage system will not be a disaster. Can you imagine the scene there during an event? Hundreds of cars pouring in-and-out of the Center’s garage with the buses stuck behind them, and a ton of miserable riders just hoping desperately to get off as soon as possible before the 2020-version of Beck’s show ends. Other than that, the plan is okay, but I hope they can preserve the more charming parts of the Center in the way I can still remember them: the Center House, the Fountain and the Ampitheatre (my first four live performances as a musician were there).
What do you think? Have you ever been on a bus that entered a parking garage?
Traffic Mess this evening on 520
… Or why I want ST2 to pass and Eastlink to get built. My bus goes right through that nasty black part. So much for HOV-lane BRT.
Anti Prop. 1 Group not a Legal Campaign
Erica Barnett points out that No to Proposition 1, the anti-Sound Transit expansion group that is campaigning against Prop. 1, is not a legal campaign because they have not filed with the Public Disclosure Commission.
Read the whole thing.