photo by Surrealize

KUOW, our local NPR radio station, is conducting an informal poll in order to gather information on people’s perception of Sound Transit’s new light rail system.

Light rail has been a reality in Seattle for a half-year now. Does the light-rail line live up to its promise? What effect is it having on the communities it passes through?

Go here and make your voice heard.

(note: KUOW may contact you if they have questions.)

26 Replies to “KUOW Conducting Informal Light Rail Poll”

    1. Shouldn’t it be wordy though? If you’re doing a small sample for broadcast wouldn’t we rather have in-depth qualitative narratives instead of meaningless quantitative data?

    2. I’m at KUOW. Thanks for putting up our form! I don’t know if the form’s wordy. We don’t want a quick opinion but a serious assessment from users and neighbors.

      2. I didn’t fill it out because I didn’t want to “become part of the KUOW Public Insight Network” and there was no way to opt out.

      3. Yes, we do want to have some sort of source relationship with you which is explained here: http://www.kuow.org/publicinsight/. We feel a lot more confident putting people on the air if we know something about them, and the Public Insight Network allows us to have that level of detail. You could join and then immediately unsubscribe, though I would of course be crushed. I read everything that goes in and we really do make news out of it. You can see that in the link above.
        What you say in a form doesn’t go to air or land on our website. If we’re intrigued, we’ll ask if you’d like to be involved in a broadcast. Then you decide.

      4. I have unsubscribed from the Public Insight Network because I do not like to receive spam. If KUOW wants to keep me on file to contact me regarding specific topics, that’s another thing entirely.

      5. We contact our sources about specific topics no more than once a month -by email. We also reach out to people based on their personal experience or expertise by email or phone.

      6. I put up a response to, although maybe not as wordy as some others. Maybe interesting, though, from the perspective of a 14 year old who is interested in Public Transit? I got an automated email in reply, though. I wonder how many people responded to the survey so far.

  2. Love the Surrealize picture of the extra shiny LINK vehicles. In fact, looks like multiple vehicles…maybe an 8 car train set? Ah, a sneak peek into the future!! Blue sky look extra blue as well…could blue skys be in Seattle’s future?

    1. An 8-car consist would be insane. That’s over 743′ of train! By contrast, I believe the largest train length in the NYC subway system is 600′ (10×60′ or 8×75′).

      Though that brings up a question: what is meant by a Link “car”?

      1. A Link car is 95 feet long, with a driver’s cab at each end. It is articulated with three sections: two longer sections joined to a shorter center section in the middle.

      2. That’s what I meant by “car” as well, but the technical documentation from Kinkisharyo refers to that as a A-car, B-car, and C-car.

      4. Both of those systems serve far denser and more populous areas than greater Seattle.

    2. I believe it was just a 4-car train … here is a link to the full photo:

      http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3369/3605986857_7f34f0c50f_o.jpg

      the photog says:

      This is a photo of the new Seattle Link Light Rail public transportation system that is scheduled to start service on July 18th, 2009. The Light Rail will connect Downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac airport initially and will expand its coverage in the future. It is currently scheduled to open between Westlake and Tukwila on Saturday, July 18, 2009, with the remaining segment to Sea-Tac Airport scheduled to open by the end of 2009. The Light Rail is projected to carry more than 42,500 passengers daily by the year 2020.

      Shortly after taking this picture, I was surrounded by security guards who swarmed me from both sides. This was a test of the new service and they didn’t take kindly to just anyone snapping photos. So I whipped out my Flickr badge and explained how I could get them fame and glory on this little thing called the Internet. HA! Ok Ok, so I didn’t have a Flickr badge on me and actually packed up right quick. They briefly questioned me, asking why I was taking the photos and then escorted me off the premises as the testing of the service was about to begin again. They were actually very nice and understanding, just wanting to make sure that they were doing their job, protecting the city from the evil Flickr photogs :) Luckily I was able to fire off 2 quick sets and this is the result.

      1. The colors look like they’ve been touched up a bit. I figured that someone faked the picture a bit by adding trains and colors.

      3. If that’s high dynamic range, it still makes the train look unrealistic and cartoonish. It looks like a nice painting though!

    3. This photo was taken pre-revenue, likely about March or April of last year. We were parking several trains in the “Henderson Pocket Track” because the Beacon Hill tunnel was not open to us yet. It would have likely been 4 LRVs (Each ‘car’ is a LRV, a group of cars connected are a “Consist” or “Train”.)

      The trains are limited by software to 4 active LRVs, however 8 may be connected in a tow situation. (Would be interesting to watch, but 4 cars are longer than any of the platforms.)

  3. Is “informal”code for they aren’t going to translate it into other languages and mail hardcopy questionnaires to Rainier Valley resident and business owners?

    1. Why don’t you get right on that Sam. It can be your community service for the year.

  4. I’m sure the ‘light rail has been here for a half-year’ is referring to the completion of the route to the Airport. But for me, light rail has been around for almost a full year and I believe that is what they should be saying in their poll.

Comments are closed.