Posted Sat, Dec 29, 8:43 a.m. Inappropriate

Portlandville - an interstate perspective on the Light Rail vs. Seattle Streetcar debate: Twas down in Portland for Christmas, a city reliably provides a good experience. As Goldilocks would say before encountering the three bears - not too big, not too small, but just right.

I haven't ridden the Seattle Streetcar yet, one of 60 built or being planned upon the Portland model. I did however make a point of checking Portland's 3+ mile line on my visit. ($25 Million a mile - 2005 dollars)

Costs compared to upgraded Bus routes, so called 'Bus Rapid Transit' are an issue there. One small benefit to a Streetcar though, as a visitor, was that the system was easy to figure out.

The vehicles are designed to run on MAX track. The cars are lower powered and narrower - which makes their use on the MAX line unlikely - a design flaw, IMO. The platforms are low, but not level, so they do still have wheelchair ramps. I witnessed a stroller being brought onto the vehicle with the greatest of ease and imagine an athletic wheelchair rider could manage it.

Stops are 'sponsored' by local R.E. developments and businesses reducing the total public cost.

I'd give this line a thumbs up, but cost is still an issue. By comparison the bike lane aside Hwy 16 in central Tacoma was built at a cost of 350,000 per mile, as an add-on to that recent Freeway project.

With 60 Cities already showing an interest in this subject one would think that the engineering of a low floor, electric powered, RUBBER WHEELEED BUS would be feasible. Sure, you might need to take special effort to insure the grade was smooth enough to handle the lower clearance, but that is easier than relocating utilities and laying rail. In addition rubber tired vehicles can stop much faster than steel wheeled one's - a major plus in a pedestrian environment.

Perhaps the biggest current question from all this for the Metropolitan Puget Sound is how streetcars are balanced with the slightly heavier 'light rail'. With the recent defeat of Proposition One, in part due its questionably feasible regional connections, the future of light rail is up in the air locally. I suggest that we consider the expansion of local service, along the lines of the Tacoma LINK, built more along the lines of a streetcar.

The routing of these lines should be done so as to be consistent and compatible with the already completed regional planning. In this way distributed local service can be delivered on a financially fair basis to areas that merit it based on existing density.

This is perhaps nowhere more important than in Downtown Bellevue. A current issue is whether to establish Sounder like service from Renton to that City. Opponents would argue the train tracks aren't in the right place. It is true that they don't run through the downtown core, but the periphery area they do run through is very much worthy of rapid transit - filled with 3-4 story office buildings, including Bellevue City Hall, located just across 405.

The construction of some sort of circulator system would be a part of a good implementation of Sounder rail in Bellevue and a neccesity in evaluating the cost/benefit of retaining that existing infrastructure. Why not do Belleuve as a 'streetcar' system like the Downtown Tacoma LINK? In this way the highest priority (and benefit) sections of the line could be built first. Expansions could occur as merited by bus traffic statistics and private support. It might well be that expansions to Redmond via Microsoft would take higher priority over those across the lake. (FWIW I favor a 520 crossing of Lake Washington, via the UW and Husky Stadium.)

The engineering required to provide that short and long term benefit is not all that difficult - it's already been done in Tacoma. Engineering decisions like those in Portland only have the effect of increasing future costs and reducing future flexibility.