- Red Monorail train stalls yesterday and again today. Among those stranded yesterday was Robert Baker, who drove the train on opening day of the 1962 World’s Fair.
And here is a thrilling video of today’s rescue:
- Port of Seattle suspends construction on massive new rental car lot. We’ve mentioned this project in the past.
- Just tear it down already: Drivers complain about viaduct replacement options not providing enough open road for their gas guzzlers, slog rightfully tells them to tough it out. So, how do we deal with the traffic problem? Both plans include money for a West Seattle BRT line, and new 1st ave streetcar.
- Driver injured in collision with Amtrak Cascades train, after apparently turning under the crossing arm. Really?
- To the white house in style: President and Vice President Elects Obama and Biden will take the train to the Inauguration, holding events along the way.
- Metro is preparing for next round of snow, hoping to avoid ending up in any more hilarious youtube videos. You can see a list of active bus reroutes here, and general information about adverse weather here. Remember that many buses, such as the 71 (scroll to the bottom), have a predefined snow reroute. Update: Andrew posted more information about all this. If you have to drive tomorrow, please do be careful.
14 Replies to “News Roundup”
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What could be better than watching Metro buses struggling in the snow? Add the Benny Hill theme:
http://james.nerdiphythesoul.com/bennyhillifier/?id=8kMkYhc4F2g
hahaha that is hilarious
While I in principle agree that drivers who are whining about losing their highway should “tough it out” (since none of the options feature a Seneca or Columbia Street exit and none of them will impact traffic significantly more than any of the others and we should all be taking the bus anyway), it grates on me that so few of the people making this call live in the impacted neighborhoods and are willing to make sacrifices.
Having people who live in Capitol Hill or the U District or Kirkland talk about how we should “tear down the wall” is not as meaningful as it would be to hear from people who live in West Seattle or Ballard or Vashon or Magnolia. It’s much less obnoxious to hear a neighbor who is also going to have to adapt say they support the surface-transit option than to have fucking Dan Savage say so.
Well FWIW I don’t really understand why those in Ballard are whining about loosing the viaduct. When I lived there I never used it to access downtown. If I was headed South of downtown I might get on 99 down in the Stadium area. I used the viaduct more when I was in Wallingford, but even then only to head South of downtown.
In fact the only people I really feel pain for are those in West Seattle. I’d say most of the time I’ve used the viaductin the 20 years I’ve lived here I’ve been heading to/from West Seattle.
Nickels lives in West Seattle.
That Metro/Benny Hill mashup made me laugh more than it should have. I feel bad for some of those drivers though. I’ve heard tales from drivers of being stuck in the cold on a broken down bus for ten to twelve hours because there just weren’t enough shop trucks and supervisors to handle it all. I don’t know if it has happened this time, but I know every time we get a snow storm this seems to happen to at least some extent.
BTW the difficulty the Port is having selling bonds for the rental car facility makes me wonder if Sound Transit (or any other local agency) might have trouble selling bonds when they need to as well.
In a snow storm a dozen years back or so, I lived on Madison at about 25th. A Metro bus couldn’t make it up the hill and my wife and I invited him in for coffee and the bathroom. He had been there for hours by then with no help, and technically he probably wasn’t supposed to leave the bus there to come to our house. But what? Someone’s going to steal it? He gladly took us up on our offer.
You’re a good man. I would do the same, though I am absolutely sure my lady would not be happy with me.
That bit about Obama traveling to the inauguration by train is very old-school and evocative of the 19th century. I mean that as a compliment.
It depends on what he takes. Acela = 20th century, Private Car = 19th century =P
If they magically imported a TGV set = 21st century =D
The Port should bag the whole rental car facility – at least in that location. They should put it next to the Tukwila light rail station to leverage the use of Link. Instead, they want to put it in no-man’s land between the Tukwila Link station and the airport and then buy a bunch of buses and pay drivers to shuttle passengers back and forth. It’s a dumb plan.
I live in West Seattle and think that a tear-down would work. WITH dedicated lanes, a huge uptick (huge!) in mass transit service and options. Otherwise, yes it will be gridlock. I don’t see dedicated lanes for transit being added. I don’t see a huge outpouring of transit infrastructure to help residents get in and out of West Seattle. Sure, throw a few more buses at us and add a year round foot ferry rather than just a fair-weather ferry. That is a drop in the bucket. Anyone ever tried getting around when just one lane on the bridge is shut down? Anyone? Anyone ever experienced what it was like after the earthquake? Anyone? The viaduct does need to be torn down. What we are really getting ticked off about is the fact that our concerns are perceived as whining. Yeah? Come over and live it for a while. Then give us OPTIONS.
West Seattle needs at the very least a real BRT service with HOV lanes all the way from the junction to at least Jackson and signal priority at any intersections.
Though I must say the biggest FUBAR in getting to/from West Seattle is on the Spokane Street Viaduct. The configuration of exits and entrances there ensures a major choke point as people jockey for their lane or attempt to merge. I think this is in the project pipeline to be fixed.
Still I don’t think transit will be too impacted by the surface option as the buses already use the surface streets downtown.
I also agree there probably need to be more transit lanes through Downtown Seattle.