All posts by Matt Gangemi

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

In a recent STB post, John asked why we don’t just raise fares in Seattle, since that’s where the money is. I’d argue that Seattle is already subsidizing the rest of King County’s bus service to a large extent.

A few notes from 2007 ridership data:

West area revenue: $55.6M
East area revenue: $10M
South area revenue: $19.8M

West area fare/expense: 25.7%
East area fare/expense: 14.4%
South area fare/expense: 19.6%

Ordering routes by fare recovery looks almost like the original bus route list back when streetcars were removed, with four Seattle routes actually making over 50% farebox recovery. The average farebox recovery for the West side off peak is 24% – that’s almost as high as the system-wide peak recovery (25%).

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Just a quick observation. Prop 1 doesn’t even rate on the PI’s election results, which only lists statewide and national election data.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

What will determine if a city will rebound quickly after the economic downturn? According to Forbes:

The best cities in which to invest are those that are considered gateways to international investment, have vital downtowns where people can forgo cars, and don’t have a glut of condos or office space.

(emphasis added)

Do we know any cities like that? New York? San Francisco? D.C.? Those are all on the list, but Seattle came in at #1.

What would make us even stronger, if this is the criteria? More good transit, of course. But I’d argue we should take walkability to the next level: close down a street or two downtown, allow food vendors onto our streets, and start connecting our neighborhoods together with traffic-free connections.

(hat tip to the ever-gloomy Seattle Bubble blog that even tries to find bad news in this story)

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Public service announcement: Unless you live in King or Pierce counties, you have to mail your ballot in – there are no polling places. If you’ve lost your ballot, contact your county election department.

King county will join the 37 other counties in voting only by mail next year, but for now there are still polling places.

Oh, and a full 18% of Washington ballots are postmarked too late. Make sure it’s in the mail before pickup on Tuesday (perhaps drop it at the post office just to be sure).

We now return to your regular blogging, already in progress.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

I’ve now heard two people threaten to leave Seattle if ST2 doesn’t pass. I certainly understand the frustration, but is this a logical choice?

Despite the popular sentiment about what a given project would do for your commute, using personal benefits as a factor in transportation planning seems like a terrible way to decide things. Let’s assume you live in Lynnwood, right next to the possible future station. The station won’t be available to you until 2023. That’s 15 years out. I don’t know about you but I’m not sure where I’ll be living in 5 years, let alone 15. I’m sure you don’t know where you’ll be working in 15 years. And even if you don’t move and don’t change jobs, you’ll be living your life for 15 years in a way that would otherwise cause you to move?

The reason I’m a supporter of ST2 has nothing to do with my life. If I wanted only to experience a good transit system, I’d move to New York or the other Washington. Why I support ST2 has more to do with a beneficent feeling about how a city should work. We know we’re running out of oil. We know that it’s a waste of human life for millions of people to sit in gridlocked freeways. We know that cities with fewer cars are more enjoyable places to live and work. We know that efficient transportation systems increase quality of life.

I live here because I like Seattle. I’m voting for ST2 because as much as I like Seattle, it could be better.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

I like to think of the climate change problem in terms of a sick but fat and happy man alone in the woods. He’s sick because he’s in a cabin with a large supply of arsenic laced Ho-Hos (oil), and a much larger supply of Twinkies (coal) with even more arsenic. On one particular day he both realizes that he’s almost out of Ho-Hos, his favorite food, but more importantly that the reason he’s getting sick is that both sources of food are poison. But without food he’ll starve.

Here’s the question: If eating a quarter of the Twinkies will kill him, how much more of the delicious snacks should he eat?

The answer, of course, is he should get off his lazy butt and learn to hunt and farm.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

No wonder the Starlate Express has such a terrible on-time record. The clock at the start of the line has been right only twice a day since the 1990s.

In what I hope is the end of a train-neglecting era, the King Street Station clock has been fixed.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Three men, apparently traveling to a restaurant for lunch:
A: “I always take this because the shuttle is so slow.”
B: “Yeah, it takes forever with traffic lights. I can walk faster than that thing.”
C: “We could have walked…”
A: “This is much faster than walking.”
B: “I wish we had a real subway, like Munich.”
(discussion continues about “real” subways around the world)

I really wanted to turn around and ask what they meant by “real” subway. A train? We’ll get there soon. Having more than 5 stops downtown? Ditto.

I used the bus tunnel three times today. We have a subway, and it works. I’m connected to the International district, Pioneer Square, and the stadiums all without usually having to wait for more than 2-3 minutes. There’s no traffic and it’s much faster than any other mode of transportation. The bus tunnel took quite a bit of foresight to build, and Link would be a lot more difficult and expensive without it.

As an aside, today is the first time I’ve seen the Westlake Center station (I hate shopping). It’s beautiful, and provides a nice rain-free path between Nordstrom’s and Macy’s. Actually, soon it will provide a rain-free path between the airport and Seattle Center as well.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

The Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton. She had cities figured out when she wrote this back in 1942.

You’ll notice the correct progression of efficient transportation. Buses turn into streetcars, then turn into light rail. Finally subway systems are built as buildings get taller and taller.

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

I consider the amount of well thought out long-term infrastructure a society builds to be a direct measure of its past residents’ humanity. One does not decide to spend tax money on a 20-year subway project to get to work faster. He knows he is spending his hard-earned money to better his city, to change the environment of others that perhaps haven’t been born yet but whom he knows will live easier lives because of his actions.

I appreciate those that built our city’s water supply, the Denny regrade, our system of boulevards and parks, our bus tunnel, our nation’s intercontinental railroad, our power grid, our nuclear power plants, and even our freeway system. These projects could not have been easy or cheap, and those that voted for these plans knew they would not directly benefit for years, if ever.

Lately it feels as if we’re looking for quick solutions. Widening roads to fix traffic problems, “clean coal” to generate power, buses to save fuel. What we really need are large long-term projects: improved power grids, high-speed rail, subways, green power on a massive scale. Modern shallow politics focuses on direct voter benefits to pass laws and win elections. Have we misplaced our humanity?