Bus Transportation in Boulder is driven bottom up, not top down

Kind of a cheesy overview of the transit system in Boulder, CO.
Via Seattle Transit Blog: http://seattletransitblog.com/2008/10/22/now-this-is-how-bus-transit-should-be-done/

Jim Ellis on Proposition !

An Op-Ed by Jim Ellis and Aubrey Davis in the PI:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/383104_proponepro14.html

via Seattle Transit Blog

Mass Transit now add

More lies from the Prop 1 No Campaign

Seattle Transit Blog has a good summation of a summation article in the PI about Cost to expand light rail under debate.

Now my summation: The No campaign is using a questionable way to count the amount of taxes collected for Proposition 1 in order to scare people into thinking that Proposition 1 is TOO expensive.

Rather then go into detail on why, I'll leave you to find the information on the blog posting here

It boils down to... if you are interested in seeing some REAL long term strategy for dealing with traffic in this area then Proposition 1 is the way to make that happen.

Be Warned

Sound Transit announced its 15 year plan. Take a look <a href="http://seattletransitblog.com/2008/07/10/the-15-year-plan-that-will-knock-your-socks-off/">here</a>.

This posting serves as fair warning, that if this makes it on the ballot and the citizens in the Sound Transit voting district vote this down.... I'm seriously going to consider moving to Vancouver.

People know we need transit! They KNOW we need solutions that will serve this area for generations, not just for the next decade. They KNOW that the trend of living in the suburbs (which are getting further away from the city centers) and working in the city is not a good permanent solution.  This connects Northgate to the already underway UW light rail. It connects the east side (Bellevue first, then Redmond) to the nearly complete mainline. This eventually punches rail all the way down to FEDERAL WAY (I honestly didn't expect to see this on the ballot this year) which is WAY close to Tacoma.

You could live in a denser urban setting in Northgate (or federal way) and be commuting to Redmond with little or no troubles.

This is a great plan... and if it comes up for voting... unless you are strongly opposed (not even on the fence) about supporting transit, then you should probably vote for it.

DO IT OR I'LL PUNCH YOU IN THE WIENER!

Why rail makes sense over BRT

Seattle Transit Blog has up an article laying out why rail makes the most sense for our major transit corridors over BRT technology. Check out the article here: Why BRT Doesn't Make Sense It is a good article and it lays out well the issues surrounding the debate between Light Rail and BRT buses in Seattle.

So I like transit! So What?

Imagine if you will driving to your local metropolitan area (Seattle for me) and hopping on a train that can whisk you ac cross the land incredibly fast. like 150MPH fast. For what seems like a trivial ($30 or so) amount you could live in a city like Portland, and work in a city like Seattle... with something like an hour's commute! http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/map.htm It is an intoxicating idea, I'll admit. In the California 800 mile track system is estimated to cost around $40Billion. Which is a lot of money, admittedly. However I think there is good reason to consider broadening such a project into something national. I'll give 3 reasons, though these are just the ones I can think of right now... I'm sure there are more that I haven't though of.

1. A national project would show a commitment by the U.S. to fundamentally change the way we consume energy.

   A serious change in the thought process and consumption patterns of Americans is needed in order to show to the world that we are serious about addressing the ways in which we impact the environment. A national mass transit solution that has been working well for Europe is one step towards that commitment.

2. A great opportunity to boost the economy

   Like all large public works projects such an undertaking would allow the US to employ a large number of skilled people, and foster an era of research into high speed rail related fields. We did this before with the Highway system in this country, why can't we do it again?

3. We deserve it

   We spend $620B or so on defense alone in this country. We nearly spend more on our defense then the rest of the world combined http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States. That is a lot of cash that we are spending... and I can't exactly figure out what our justification is for such a high limit... "defense" just is not cutting it. I would really like to see at least some of that money re-directed into some large public works projects around the country. Things that will impact many citizens and improve quality of life.
Why don't we have options like this in our country? Are we not dense enough (people/sq mile) to make this a good solution? Do we have other alternatives (airports & cars). Do we need to keep spending so much on war and defense? Or can we re-direct some of our spending into something that will more directly benefit citizens? *UPDATE* 5/21/08 While $40 B is a lot of money, be assured... it is not so much when you consider the amount it would cost to expand critical road infrastructure. According to the folks over at The Seattle Transit Blog the cost to add 1 lane of highway to I5 through Seattle would run roughly $25B. Compare that to an 800 mile high speed train track and cost is a drop in the bucket. The issue... we were not planning on spending $25B to expand I5... but it is good information to have when you are talking to people who want us to vote down any ST transit proposals that we put on the ballot this November

Update on Sound Transit Projects

The Seattle Transit Blog has a piece up with updates on various ST projects. See the full article here Sound Transit is aiming for a JUNE 2009 opening though it may very well be July 2009. Either way, it will be a Summer launch. Very exciting, they even have some information about the University Link portion of the Light Rail project. As well as some info on the Sounder Station that is opening up in Mukilteo. Fun things in our future.

Seattle Transit

I know I'm not an official Seattle citizen anymore... but at heart I very much remain so. That coupled with my work means that I follow a lot of what is going on in and around King County relating to transportation.
I found this post from Seattle Transit Blog to be of particular interest:
Ironically the parts I like the best are not so much about Seattle area transit, but rather housing. From the article:
One thing I want to point out: a property tax levy is not more progressive than a sales tax. There seems to be this common misconception that renters don't pay property taxes, and it's only those who own homes who do. Think about this: if costs of garbage pick-up increased dramatically, would your landlord charge you for that, provide fewer garbage cans (or something), or just agree to pay the difference out of the kindness of his heart? He'd raise rent because he needs to make money. The same thing for property taxes. If property taxes go up, your landlord's property taxes go up, and he passes that onto you in a rent increase. The reason that property tax increases aren't more progressive is that the poor spend the largest percentage of their income on housing. Affordable housing is hard to find.
Housing is a big problem in Seattle, despite being partially protected from the housing market downturn there is an ever increasing disparity between housing that is affordable and housing that is accessible.
What does anyone else think?