Month: October 2008

I want to clarify a bit what I was trying to say, and what I was not trying to say, in my last post.

1. It’s a bad thing Rapid Ride won’t materialize. I couldn’t state this any more strongly. We need as much transit as we can get; our buses are currently packed to the gills. Just because I prefer rail over BRT doesn’t mean I’m against BRT, I just prefer rail to BRT. In my last post, I was trying to point out that I think it’s a bit telling that we never seem to get that cheap BRT that we are promised by the anti-rail crowd. That doesn’t mean I would prefer these bus projects cancelled.
2. If we could get more bus service in any form, that would be a net good thing.I ride a bus to work every day and it’s great. It comes a few blocks from my house, and drops me off right in front of my office. In order to provide service like that, the bus has to stop a couple dozen times between my house and my office. That’s what buses do really well: providing local service. Rail can’t do that level of local service very well. It’s a good thing we aren’t asking it to.
3. Saying buses are cheaper than rail in the long run is a misleading argument.We’ve discussed this ad nauseam at this blog, see here, here, here and here. The two sentence version: Buses are suited for one sort of transit, rail for another. BRT is trying to get buses to do the type of service rail is best suited for, which never seems to really work. The most common anti-rail argument is that investment in rail is regrettable because we can get BRT to do the same thing for less money.
   But the very crux of the argument is dishonest, because no one has ever seen this BRT that can do what rail does. We’ve seen BRT that can’t do what rail does, Boston’s Silver Line and LA’s Orange Line. And we have seen BRT that costs almost as much as rail (see the Silver Line). But we’ve never seen BRT that can do what rail does.
4. I don’t think light rail is cheap, I think light rail is cheaper than the alternatives.Roads are very expensive. Adding one lane to I-405 from Lynnwood to Renton will have cost about $11 billion. Adding a lane to I-5 just in the city limits of Seattle would be more than $25 billion. The Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement will be about $4 billion or more, and the 520 bridge will be about the same. Each of those cost considerably more money per mile than light rail does, with the viaduct and 520 bridge each more than a billion dollars per mile. None of these will move as many people as light rail would.
   Light Rail is cheaper to operate per passenger miles than buses are, which is why you want riders going long distances to do so on rail. HOV-lane BRT around here is not going to work if I-985 passes. Even if I-985 fails, congestion and fuel will continue to eat into bus funding, making buses ever more expensive to operate per passenger mile. This is why buses are better suited for local access than rail, and rail is better suited for longer distances than buses are. Investment in light rail will pay off spectacularly, because we’ll be able to put buses that are used for long-haul service back to where they are effective, into shorter local service. Once riders get on rail, the become much cheaper per over the distance, we save money, and can improve service. Light rail isn’t cheap if you have no buses, and buses aren’t cheap if they are asked to do what rail should be doing.

I am very much pro-bus, which is why I take the bus to work everyday when I could drive, thank you very much. However, I do have a problem with the Doug MacDonald, et al. argument that, every thing being equal, buses can do what light rail can do cheaper. It’s a dishonest argument, and the first bit of proof that BRT is not cheap is provided by the fact that we don’t seem to be able to get any cheap BRT.

The only people I can imagine who would be happy that Rapid Ride might not arrive are the anti-everything set, who claim to be in support of BRT, but, of course, were against the vote that was supposed to fund Rapid Ride to begin with. They might be happy because they can continue to make the the argument that  BRT will be cheaper than rail, and instead of having an example to compare light rail to, they can continue to compare Link to BRT systems in far away places like Lima, Peru and Bogotá, Colombia. They know full well that BRT can’t do what light rail can, and they can remain against any form of transit that actually works.

According to the artist, Mike Ross, no one cares anymore, and no one is bothering to protest the jets. I’m glad that no one is protesting them, and I still like them quite a bit. Via here.

That is, “Seattle never misses a chance to miss a chance” on light rail. This article at Crosscut by Jon Talton is awesome. Talton breaks down the anti-light rail arguments one by one, and – in addition to the quote above stolen from that article – there’s this great quote: “The only thing keeping it from succeeding here are the myths propagated by foes”.

Nice, definitely read the whole thing.

I don’t have time to write a real post today, but these links should satisfy your transit fix:

• Erica Barnett went to yesterday’s debate betweenPro Prop 1 Mayor Nickels and Anti Prop 1 Kemper Freeman. It’s a rather long post, but here’s the one-sentence summary: ” Freeman was so outmatched by Nickels on charisma, statistics, and general coherence, however, that it seems almost unfair to call it a ‘debate.'”
• The city wants input on parking near light rail stations in the South End. The Rainier Valley Post has the details
• Rossi acknowledges he may not be able to go forward with his transportation plan. I am sure that plan is impossible, so at least Rossi is able to admit it as well.
• The Stranger also has a post about the artist for the Capitol Hill station and another with some nice photos of the art that will go into the station. I really love both sets of work.
• Nickels is voting ‘No’ on the parks levy, but urges people to vote ‘Yes’ on both the Pike Place Market Levy and Prop. 1. If you’re going to vote for only one tax increase, please vote yes on prop 1.
• Here’s a nice, succinct argument for Prop. 1
• The state is beginning work on SR-519 just south of the stadiums. The work is aimed at continuing to improve ferry and freight traffic to the harbor.

The City of Seattle’s gradual introduction of “Business Access and Transit” (BAT) lanes throughout the city is one of the more under-reported and commendable trends.  The North Seattle Herald reports that NE 45th St is now up for consideration using Bridging the Gap funds, on the Westbound side between 7th Ave and University Way.

There are a ton of buses (including many from Community Transit) that use this stretch, so this kind of investment could have a very big impact on the overall performance of the system.  If Proposition 1 passes and these lanes are ultimately approved, it’ll serve as the backbone of a feeder system into the Brooklyn light rail station.

I haven’t found an obvious outlet for citizen comments on this, but the BTG Citizen Oversight Committee might be a good place to start.

Capitol Hill Seattle when to the, well, Capitol Hill station 90% open house. There are a few slides of the presentation, and the obvious question: what happens to all the dirt that gets removed for the underground station?