H/T: Oran.
Open Thread
It’s been a while. What’s on your mind?
News Round-Up: VMT Down
- According to the DJC and confirmed by Sound Transit, the Mountlake Terrace Station project has received nine bids, all under the engineer’s estimate. That’s one good thing about a terrible economy, especially for construction: projects are cheaper. The lowest bid was from a company called “Mid-Mountain Contractors”, who bid $17.7 million, the original estimate was $21.9 million.
- Streets blog notes that vehicle miles travelled (VMT) was down 3.6% nationwide in 2008 compared to 2007. That’s a huge decline, but even larger than that decline is the decline in congestion: about 30% nationwide and 24% in the Seattle area. You can see the actual DOT data here. I bet the majority of the fall has to do with the dramatic fall in employment, which explains why congestion has fallen faster than VMT: congestion is worst during commute trips, and commuters needs jobs to go to.
- On that same topic, Matt Yglesias believes the large reduction in congestion caused by a small reduction in trips shows that even a little congestion pricing can go a long way toward a reducing congestion. However, he goes one step farther and makes the claim that congestion pricing shouldn’t be something that drivers care more about than transit users:
I live in a walkable, transit-accessible neighborhood in a central city. I don’t own a car and get around on foot, on bike, on bus, or on Metro. Consequently, it doesn’t really bother me if other people have unnecessarily long commutes. Ultimately, neither drivers nor non-drivers benefit from bad policy that causes unnecessary traffic jams and inconvenience, but it’s regular car commuters who are paying the highest price.
I’m not sure that it’s completely correct to say that car commuters are paying the highest price. Both bus commuters and drivers are paying for congestion with their time, but congestion drives up the cost of bus service, meaning fewer buses.
- NPR’s Morning addition had a story about how Spain’s AVE high speed rail is faster than an airplane, and how Spain built the system so quickly. I wanted to write “The Trains in Spain are faster than a Plane”, but I the npr broadcaster beat me to it. (H/T to tresarboles).
This is an open thread.
Weekend Open Thread
This is new to me, but as Dan Savage likes to say, the internet is a race and you won.
As you might guess, this group is from South Seattle, although they’ve been picked up by a major record label. And apparently in a couple of weeks they’re playing at Neumo’s.
Lies My Weatherman Told Me
The snow is still on the ground. Selected Metro routes are running the adverse weather routes, with a few on the dreaded “unpublished reroute.”
Community Transit and Pierce Transit also have service changes. Nothing on the Sound Transit website at the moment, but you can check the website of the county where your ST bus originates to see its status. Of these, only the 522 and 582 are affected at the moment.
As ever, give yourself plenty of time to get there, don’t wait for a bus on a hillside, etc, etc.
Judging from a quick check of the 42 and 48, it would appear that onebusaway.org now can handle the printed adverse weather route, but not the unpublished ones. It may be best to just see where your bus actually is, which you can do at busview.org (which will require you to download a Java plug-in). Also make sure to enable pop-ups for that site. [UPDATE: Two commenters have pointed out that busview data is not GPS data and suffers from the same accuracy problems.]
Less than 6 months till light rail. Consider this your snow day open thread.
Tuesday’s Snowpocalypse Open Thread
Another day of terrible transportation news. The roads are icy, the airport is just sorting out things, and transit is not very reliable:
- Metro Service Status – Many routes suspended. Most others have re-routes. Expect tremendous delays throughout the system.
- Sound Transit Weather Alerts – Some routes canceled and nearly all re-routed. Sounder on a holiday schedule. Expect delays.
- Pierce Transit Snow Re-routes – All routes re-routed. Expect delays.
- Community Transit Rider Alerts – Many re-routes. Expect delays.
- Seattle Streetcar – Out of service due to frozen switches.
- Seattle City Streets – Filled with sledders.
- Seattle DOT and WashDOT are Twittering the latest.
The snow was cool until it made me miss Christmas with my family…
Monday Morning Snowpocalypse Open Thread
The snow keeps on coming to Seattle and life as normal just seems to halt entirely. Here’s your list of links:
- Metro Service Status – Many routes suspended. Most others have re-routes. Expect delays throughout the system.
- Sound Transit Weather Alerts – Routes 540, 555, 556, and 564 canceled. 560 not operating in West Seattle. Sounder on a holiday schedule. Expect delays.
- Pierce Transit Snow Re-routes – All routes re-routed. Expect delays.
- Community Transit Rider Alerts – Many re-routes. Expect delays.
- Seattle Streetcar – Shut down due to frozen switches. We’ll have word when service is back.
- Seattle DOT and WashDOT are Twittering the latest.
So, basically, expect delays. And a lot of walking on icy sidewalks. Aren’t things looking lovely, though?
Snow Day Open Thread
Important: Many Metro buses are operating on their adverse weather routes, meaning that schedules and services like mybus.org could report bad data. Be prepared to wait!
Also, walk to the top or bottom of the hill to catch a bus. Your bus may not be able to stop on a steep slope.
******
Seattle’s getting walloped, so I’m going to work from home.
I’ll bet the Sounder is packed today.
Good snow stories? Share them in the comments.
UPDATE: My Sounder prediction, above, is not at all supported by early reports. See the comments.
UPDATE: Both WSDOT and SDOT are twittering about the mayhem. – Eric
Image from SLOG.
Open Thread
When you get bored, skip ahead to about the 5:00 mark…
Via Andrew Sullivan.