Latest Comments

  • Jonathan Dubman on Open Thread: RapidRide H Destinations[Having some issues getting comments to submit]
  • WL on A single downtown tunnel is completely possible and provides the best outcomes@ A Joy and @ Ross I think it's a bit getting off topic on definitions of capacity. Either way the question is if the new tunnel's capacity is actually useful for xyz specific route. I mean one can widen a freeway to say 10 lanes, but if the oncoming lanes are only 2 lanes it didn't actually do anything. You have to address each 'bottleneck' and for transit it is more than just number of lanes. 1) the new tunnel will not increase frequency/capacity for trains heading to or coming from RV (rainier valley) since that is capped at...
  • Cam Solomon on Open Thread: RapidRide H Destinations"You could, of course, ask the bus driver or one of the other passengers “Is this the bus to Burien?”. This should not be necessary if you want an easy-to-use system. I did exactly this BTW. 5 seconds after boarding. He chuckled and said "Nope. But don't feel bad, it happens multiple times a day. Next stop, Renton!"
  • Sam on A single downtown tunnel is completely possible and provides the best outcomesIt does seem like the definition of the word capacity is being played around with a little bit. Capacity is capacity. The capacity of one quart is one quart. Saying if we double its size, we double its capacity, is semantics.
  • A Joy on A single downtown tunnel is completely possible and provides the best outcomesI do not agree one bit. Capacity is an objective potential independent of easily and/or inevitably changed variables. Factors like the number of drivers and trains or the RV mess should not be considered when determining capacity. And I live in Seatac, taking Link frequently. I am intimately familiar with the issues in the RV. But that will have to be addressed regardless of tunnels and other lines. It is inevitable that something will be done about it. Why bring it up then? It's like complaining about a speed bump the city knows will have to be removed. It will...
  • Ross Bleakney on Open Thread: RapidRide H DestinationsYou’ve never contacted an elected official? And yet you’re always posting here? I don’t want to be too harsh with you, but this is crazy! Agreed. Also there’s Matt Driscoll at the Tacoma News Tribune…. best journalist in the Puget Sound. Just remember he’s Pierce County focused and slant your email that way. I believe he might want to here more about this “single tunnel” idea from some “amateur train experts” Any chance you could reach out to him? I find that the more local the contact, the more likely you are to succeed. (Same with contacting your representative.) If...
  • Tlsgwm on Open Thread: RapidRide H DestinationsThanks for the reminder. Juggling some things now so I can watch the meeting this afternoon. Fwiw, I tried the Howard Beale approach the other day from my rooftop*, after a fellow commenter here on this blog suggested shouting from such a perch, but I was quickly drowned out by one of the test flights from Paine Field flying over my house. Seriously though, sometimes I literally feel like doing that when it comes to this issue of the ST3 second tunnel, even as ineffective as it would be just for the irony of it all. *I was actually on...
  • Ross Bleakney on Open Thread: RapidRide H Destinations I mean it’s a light rail system so it’s trying to combine urban stops with suburban stops. It will always have the problem of both of too little and too many stops since it’s trying to do everything. Yes, exactly, like similar systems in the United States. I would write "similar systems in the rest of the world", but the rest of the world doesn't build things like this. It just doesn't. It may leverage existing rail lines, and combine them with new urban lines (S-Bahn). Or, more often, it just runs existing rail lines directly into the heart...
  • asdf2 on Open Thread: RapidRide H DestinationsAn express bus may be faster, but the limited set of trips it can serve limits ridership and therefore frequency. The stops in the Rainier Valley, by adding ridership help justify the 10 minute service all day long, which an express bus from downtown to SeaTac certainly would not get. Also, the train has sneaky ways to make up a lot of time difference that aren't immediately obvious. For instance, it loads and unloads passengers with luggage much faster than a bus can. Plus, it avoids the traffic congestion at the airport and the stoplights downtown. Continuing past downtown for...
  • Ross Bleakney on A single downtown tunnel is completely possible and provides the best outcomesBringing up the very peculiarities I was referring to does not help your claim to not be obfuscating anything. These peculiarities, as you call them, are the heart of the issue! It is not obfuscation to mention headways when discussing capacity. It is essential. It is like talking about flour when baking bread. Let me ask you a simple question: I wrote that capacity is the combination of headways, tracks and the number of riders per train. Do you agree, or not? If not, please explain why, because everything I wrote is based on this.
  • Ross Bleakney on A single downtown tunnel is completely possible and provides the best outcomesI should add that this is another classic example of how people conflate freeways with mass transit systems. Imagine you don't care about anything else, and want to increase the car capacity of a freeway lane where the speed limit is 70 MPH. What do you do? You add lanes. There is no alternative. You can't increase the speed limit. You can't expect the cars to run closer to each other. The only thing to do is add lanes. This mindset is so common, it may explain the desire for a new tunnel. Someone probably mentioned capacity, and the first...
  • A Joy on A single downtown tunnel is completely possible and provides the best outcomes"I am not trying to obfuscate anything. Here, I’ll make it simple: Imagine two cities.... ...Capacity is the combination of headways, tracks and the number of riders per train." It's simple. Here, let me create a forced artificial example to prove how simple it is. "Want to run the trains from Rainier Valley more often? Adding a new downtown tunnel won’t help." Bringing up the very peculiarities I was referring to does not help your claim to not be obfuscating anything. This is why I have asked you not to respond to my posts, and offered to do the same...
  • WL on Open Thread: RapidRide H Destinations@tacomee > I think I speak for much of Tacoma when I say the most exciting parts of the the light rail system are trips to downtown Seattle and the airport. If you’re going to Mexico for week with a carry-on, the bus is currently the best way to go. > What I’ve always thought about Sound Transit rail is the system will get clogged with too many stops I mean it's a light rail system so it's trying to combine urban stops with suburban stops. It will always have the problem of both of too little and too many...
  • tacomee on Open Thread: RapidRide H DestinationsZach B. I have 20 year old connections in Low Germany, (Hamburg area) and it's absolutely unfair to compare anything in the USA to how Germany does things. It's not about the police, or laws, or tenant protections, or social housing, or socialized medicine. It's about Germans being way different than Americans. Germany is a country the size of Montana where the Germans killed off most the non-German people 70 years ago. Socialism thrives in small monocultures where everybody is the same. The USA has a different set of problems and strengths because we're way bigger and much more diverse....
  • Ross Bleakney on A single downtown tunnel is completely possible and provides the best outcomesI can’t believe we are going to have this semantics argument. More tracks mean more capacity. It is a simple issue of physics. I am not trying to obfuscate anything. Here, I'll make it simple: Imagine two cities. Each city has the same size trains running through it. The first city has a single set of tracks. The trains can run every minute. The other city has two sets of tracks. Each set can only run every ten minutes. Which city can more capacity? According to your logic, it is the second city, because it has more tracks. But this...
  • tacomee on Open Thread: RapidRide H DestinationsZach B. I think I speak for much of Tacoma when I say the most exciting parts of the the light rail system are trips to downtown Seattle and the airport. If you're going to Mexico for week with a carry-on, the bus is currently the best way to go. What I've always thought about Sound Transit rail is the system will get clogged with too many stops (remember, TOD is one hell of a drug!) and the train trip to SeaTac will be longer than the bus trip.
  • tacomee on Open Thread: RapidRide H Destinationsasdf2, You've never contacted an elected official? And yet you're always posting here? I don't want to be too harsh with you, but this is crazy! You need to start emailing and writing letters to your elected pols because it makes a (small?) difference. Posting here? Not so much. All the levels of government have a website with the addresses and emails you'll need. I find it best to just be as straight and direct as possible.... but I often use the little smiley emoji at the end to signal I'm not really mad, just being direct. Also there's Matt...
  • Ross Bleakney on Open Thread: RapidRide H DestinationsImagine you don’t know Seattle at all, and you are trying to take a bus to Burien. Your buddy you are staying with who lives above Logan say’s “It’s Easy. Just take the bridge to the elevator and hop on the 560.” Next thing you know you are in Renton. You could, of course, ask the bus driver or one of the other passengers "Is this the bus to Burien?". Seems like a very reasonable thing to do as you leave an airport, or wait for a bus.
  • Sam on Open Thread: RapidRide H DestinationsDid the bus driver do the right thing by not immediately letting the victim off the bus? One man stabs another man on a Las Vegas bus. Victim asks bus driver to be let off the bus. The bus driver does not stop and open the doors for another four minutes. The victim is stabbed again. The driver said he kept the doors closed for the safety of the victim and the other passengers. The bus company also said the safest thing to do was to not open the doors and let anyone off. The victim died from the stabbing....
  • WL on Open Thread: RapidRide H DestinationsA brief fyi for people, today at 1:30 to 5:00pm is the meeting when the Sound Transit board will consider the alternatives. > On March 9, Sound Transit’s System Expansion Committee made a recommendation regarding the preferred alternative for the Ballard Link Extension. The Committee’s recommendation will be considered by the full Sound Transit Board when it meets on March 23. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/WASOUND/bulletins/34fe230 For better or worse it is not a 'final action' though will be pretty close to one.
  • Mike Orr on Open Thread: RapidRide H DestinationsThe most effective way to reach politicians beyond in-person meeting is snail mail, because it stands out as unusual and something you really care about. The county website probably has a page listing the councilmembers, with her office address, an online contact form, and maybe an email. It might also have an email address to write to all the councilmembers at once.
  • Tlsgwm on Open Thread: RapidRide H DestinationsThere's no amount of "value engineering" that will right this fiscal ship. The following are ST's current estimates in its latest TIP and fall 2023 financial plan: Project #T400047 - WEST SEATTLE LINK EXTENSION Scope: Plan, design and construct a 4.7 mile extension of light rail from Downtown Seattle to the Alaska Junction West Seattle neighborhood via elevated, at grade and tunnel alignments. Includes stations in SODO, Delridge, Avalon and Alaska Junction. Financial Plan Project Estimate (2022 $000's) Voter-Approved Cost Estimate $2,219,438 Prior Year Cost Estimate $3,857,987 Current Year Cost Estimate $3,836,734 Project #T400046 - BALLARD LINK EXTENSION Scope: Extension...
  • Zach B on Open Thread: RapidRide H DestinationsIn Denver, I've gotten the deer in headlights expression when I've brought up the need for sound barriers at highway stops and warming/cooling shelters on light rail platforms. You can tell they've never ridden the train other than for the photo op. Which makes it more sad and depressing in retrospect.
  • Tlsgwm on Open Thread: RapidRide H Destinations@Cam S "The politicians just aren’t knowledgeable enough. I watched Sound Transit present to City of Tacoma Tuesday, barely even apologizing for over a year of delay on T-Link, and now 5 years and counting for TDLE." If I was one of the constituents who has been paying into the Pierce Co Subarea coffers for all these years and witnessed this reaction from my local leaders, I think my head would've exploded. The whole Hilltop extension of T-Link has been a royal mess for such a relatively easy capital project. You've mentioned the delays but don't forget about the fact...
  • Zach B on Open Thread: RapidRide H Destinations"Of course there is a solution….. more home ownership. As long as the percent of renters vs. homeowners keeps going up in Seattle, the City is headed for more political and and economical instability." Europe has generally good tenant rights and some countries like Germany have high rental rates in terms of rental/home ownership. People can point to Berlin as the problem child in Germany from its tenant rights they've implemented in recent years, but Berlin has always been an outlier to Germany overall in my view. For me, I don't see political and economic instability coming from high rental...