Crosscut articles of the past 10 days with the most clicks.
Crosscut articles of the past 10 days with the most reader comments.
Crosscut blog posts of the past 10 days with the most clicks.
Posted Tue, Sep 22, 6 a.m.
Just putting tolls on the Evergreen Point Bridge is not going to cut it. Instead, the region needs to apply tolls all along the 520 corridor and broadly across our highway system. Here's an encouraging progress report.
READ MORE 8 COMMENTS
Posted Wed, Apr 29, 6 a.m.
A short history of Lake Washington, as told to our author by one very long fish
READ MORE 1 COMMENTS
Posted Fri, Apr 24, 6 a.m.
Seattle used to create civic visionaries who reshaped the urban landscape. Now our civic visionaries have poor math skills.
READ MORE 12 COMMENTS
Posted Mon, Feb 23, 6 a.m.
Walling off migration is not possible. But there are ways to downsize our ambitions to a Lesser Seattle, which might be good for America and the environment.
READ MORE 27 COMMENTS
Posted Wed, Jan 28, 6 a.m.
The federal stimulus package shortchanges transit, but the Washington Transportation Commission is thinking ahead: taxes, tolls, and demand management.
READ MORE 7 COMMENTS
Posted Wed, Jan 14, 6 a.m.
As Seattleites react to the announcement that public officials agree on a bored tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, it's time to assess the process that makes a decision like this one drag on for eight years.
READ MORE 11 COMMENTS
Posted Fri, Nov 28, 6 a.m.
So far, no big catches in the Northwest by the Obama team. But keep an eye on Rep. Adam Smith.
READ MORE 4 COMMENTS
Posted Tue, Nov 18, 6 a.m.
As early as 2010, the east-west transportation corridor could see a return to the pay-as-you-go model, done without the slowdown of a toll booth.
READ MORE 4 COMMENTS
Posted Tue, Oct 21, 8:58 p.m.
Notwithstanding increasing mass transit ridership and more prudent use of cars, automobiles will dominate U.S. transportation for decades to come. So how do we pay for roads? Variable tolling is one answer, and in the age of GPS the logical next step should also be explored: a fee on miles traveled everywhere by individual vehicles.
READ MORE 6 COMMENTS
Posted Wed, Oct 8, 2 p.m.
Washington's major professional association of transportation engineers delivered a withering blast at Initiative 985 Wednesday, warning that rather than reducing congestion, as it purports to do, the measure would increase congestion on Seattle-area roads and possibly reduce safety as well.
READ MORE 18 COMMENTS
Posted Fri, Sep 26, 1 p.m.
Two big unresolved transportation issues are back in the public's eye, reminding voters of the governor's biggest failure.
READ MORE 4 COMMENTS
Posted Mon, Jul 21, 4 p.m.
Sound Transit, the Viaduct, 520, the Mercer Mess — everywhere you turn, there's a Puget Sound transportation problem awaiting solution. It's time for citizens to demand leadership from leaders and to push for reform of agencies and even government.
READ MORE 34 COMMENTS
Posted Sun, Jun 29, 10 p.m.
Predictions at mid-year regarding sweet deals for developers, a Sonics boon, the precarious viaduct, a Boeing handout, Sound Transit, Pat Davis, and cleaning up Puget Sound.
READ MORE 1 COMMENTS
Posted Wed, Jun 25, midnight
They aren't the only solution, but they are the most flexible and potentially most attractive solution if they are used well. Bus lines are flexible, scalable, and can touch more people than rail, and they don't have to be a pain to use. Part 3 of 3
READ MORE 49 COMMENTS
Posted Mon, Jun 23, 8 p.m.
We've got buses going everywhere, and guess which routes are logging the biggest increases in ridership? Not the route that would become light rail to the Eastside suburbs. Part 2 of 3
READ MORE 27 COMMENTS
Posted Sun, Jun 22, 10 p.m.
The recent former state secretary of transportation has been riding buses a lot lately and crunching numbers, and he's convinced light rail to the Eastside and more Sounder service has no place in a big new transit plan. He thinks an advanced bus rapid transit system is the best way to serve millions of people and smartly manage urban growth. Part 1 of 3
READ MORE 39 COMMENTS
Posted Mon, May 19, 5 a.m.
The images of the quake aftermath in China raise the question: What would the wake of a major quake look like in Seattle? Fortunately, we have the answer. Or at least a pretty good guess.
READ MORE 6 COMMENTS
Posted Sat, Apr 26, noon
Prop. 1 was soundly defeated, but the leadership of Sound Transit plans to deliver Son of Prop. 1 to the voters this fall. The agency better get used to rejection.
READ MORE 45 COMMENTS
Posted Sun, Apr 13, 11 p.m.
The sort of tolling under consideration here and elsewhere in the U.S. is completely different from that proposed for Manhattan. That was "cordon" pricing, and it fell flat in the Big Apple. True congestion pricing makes a lot of sense in metro Puget Sound, contends the author. He explains the difference.
READ MORE 10 COMMENTS
Posted Tue, Apr 8, 9 a.m.
The failure of an ambitious tolling plan there holds lessons for metro Puget Sound.
READ MORE 12 COMMENTSPosted Thu, Mar 26, 9:14 p.m.
The Speaker seems to be moving from his opposition to the Viaduct tunnel plan. Here's the three-cushion shot that probably lies beneath that very hedged statement.
MOREPosted Mon, Nov 17, 10 a.m. 2008
Christine Gregoire and others will have to shift their rhetoric after Minnesota disaster report
MOREPosted Sun, Nov 9, 12:10 p.m. 2008
It's time to prime the economic pump, and local infrastructure needs are acute. But will the politics enable us to emulate China?
MOREPosted Tue, Oct 7, 3 p.m. 2008
Tonight is the second presidential debate between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, and it represents what could be a knock-out punch for the Democrats. That is, if you're still convinced the election isn't over. (Hint: It is.) If the current polls are any indication, McCain's only chance of winning this election are if Obama walks onto stage tonight wearing an Arab headdress and an Irani lapel pin, and after giving a shout-out to Reverend Wright and Bill Ayers, tells the television audience that Sarah Palin is a trollop.
MOREPosted Mon, Oct 6, 1 p.m. 2008
The Seattle Times is recommending voters reject Initiative 985, the Tim Eyman-sponsored measure that would create a statewide "traffic congestion relief" fund, eliminate localized revenues for devices such as red-light cameras, and open HOV lanes during non-peak hours. The paper's editorial board writes, "I-985 is a poorly-packaged jumble of different agendas that will – please, listen carefully – worsen traffic in certain areas. It makes no sense to design a functioning, complicated traffic system by initiative." ...
MOREPosted Wed, Sep 24, 3 a.m. 2008
Now, we all know Microsoft was a big – like $200,000 big – supporter of Sound Transit's 2007 measure to expand light rail around Puget Sound. But as Mike Lindblom at The Seattle Times reported on Monday, the Redmond tech giant only plans to give $10,000 to the supporters of Proposition 1, this year's Sound Transit measure.
Sorry, Sound Transit. You are out of luck.
MOREPosted Mon, Sep 22, 1:38 p.m. 2008
David Goldstein at Horse's Ass wrote over the weekend – post gubernatorial debate – that "there is no state budget deficit," prompting me to wonder what the hell he was talking about. I thought, "Did I miss something?" As Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire said in Saturday's gubernatorial debate, the state is currently generating a surplus. But it has been widely reported – even by Horse's Ass blogger Josh Feit – that the state faces a projected $3.2 billion deficit in the coming years. Gregoire even told The Seattle Times on Friday that she expects a deficit next year. So what gives? The folks at Washington Policy Center Blog put it another way:
MOREPosted Fri, Sep 12, 1:10 p.m. 2008
Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi has been hammering Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire in his advertisements for raising "the gas tax." But as Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly points out today, "Rossi would take a chunk of the gas tax increase to pay for his $15 billion 'Pave, baby, Pave!' roads expansion plan ... complete with its specter of an eight-lane Evergreen Point Bridge." Said another way: Rossi is against the increased gas tax — unless he's elected and able to use the extra cash for his transportation proposal.
MOREPosted Thu, Sep 11, 2:04 p.m. 2008
The past week must have been exciting for local balloteer Tim Eyman. First, the state Supreme Court appeared to side with Eyman when it heard arguments from Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown about the consitutionality of Initiative 960, last year's successful Eyman-sponsored measure requiring a two-thirds vote in both houses of the Legislature to raise taxes. Brown had hoped to get the court to directly address the issue, but observers said the justices weren't receptive to her arguments. Eyman sent out a press release later that day claiming victory. ...
MOREPosted Fri, Sep 5, 4:01 a.m. 2008
Seattle's Convention Center is taking a close look at expanding, perhaps at a different location. It might complicate the coming legislative session if it puts its hand in the state trough of money for tourism-related taxes. Also crowding around the trough are the Huskies, King County arts, Seattle Center, KeyArena, low-income housing, Puget Sound cleanup, and more. And the Convention Center might topple some other interesting transportation dominoes.
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