Posted Tue, Apr 24, 2:09 p.m.

"So if you park at the airport you are directly subsidizing it's existence." If you park at the airport, presumably, you are using the airport, right? So, people who use the airport are paying for it. How is that a subsidy? If you park at the airport and are not ...

Posted Mon, Apr 23, 6:08 p.m.

"We subsidize air travel via building airports with tax dollars. We subsidize driving by property taxes to pay for local roads. " The tax revenue spent to build airports is from taxes on airline tickets, landing fees, etc.. Airline passengers pay for the airports. Taxes, fees, fines, etc. on motorists ...

Posted Mon, Apr 23, 2:43 p.m.

Transit is not environmentally friendly. That is just one of the lies from the leeches who want taxpayers to subsidize their transportation so they don't have to pay for it themselves. I think you will find most people are not against transit. They are against stupidly expensive transit which is ...

Posted Mon, Apr 23, 12:01 p.m.

This is a good article, and I am in agreement with it. And, that is without even mentioning the unbelievably stupid cost of OPERATING streetcars in our area. According to Sound Transit's 2012 budget, the operating cost of the Tacoma Streetcar is projected to be $4.52 per boarding in 2012. ...

Posted Wed, Apr 4, 5:40 p.m.

This is one of the worst "parks" I have ever seen. As someone else wrote, it looks like an abandoned gravel pit. I live on top of Queen Anne Hill and drive past this park all the time. There is usually nobody using it, and occasionally one or two people ...

Posted Fri, Mar 30, 9:37 a.m.

"Are neighborhoods too privileged in Seattle land-use debates?" No. Is Roger Valdez too privileged in Seattle land-use debates? Yes. Who the hell is Roger Valdez, and how much does he pay Crosscut to put his garbage on this site?

Posted Thu, Feb 23, 10 a.m.

This idea is so stupid. Here is the obvious point: tax revenues generated by any development are to go to the public for things like police, schools, jails, fire stations, etc. If the tax revenues generated by a development are used to pay for that development, then where do we ...

Posted Tue, Feb 21, 10:52 a.m.

"The new Arena, one should note, is not just about sports and rock shows: it will also be a large facility for big meetings, rallies, maybe even a national political convention, a very big deal for focusing attention on any city." The seating capacity of the new arena will be ...

Posted Mon, Feb 20, 9:50 p.m.

"Neither draw money from the general fund." But all the taxes generated by the Amazon development will go into the general fund. NONE of the taxes generated by a new arena would go into the general fund -- all those taxes would go to pay off the bonds for the ...

Posted Mon, Feb 20, 12:38 p.m.

The Amazon development should be the model for any new arena. The City of Seattle is NOT selling bonds to pay for constructing the Amazon buildings. Neither should the city sell bonds to pay for constructing a new sports arena (or parking garage, for that matter). The City will receive ...

Posted Mon, Feb 13, 12:53 p.m.

Actually, if McGinn plays this right, saying NO to any public involvement in a new pro sports arena would raise his prospects for re-election. Leading the charge for any public involvement in a new pro sports arena will just re-inforce McGinn's image as an incompetent boob who panders to every ...

Posted Mon, Feb 13, 12:18 p.m.

This is all so stupid. There is nobody who has said that he is going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money to build a new arena in Seattle. Even McGinn did not make that claim. Where Thiel, and others, get this is a mystery. And ...

Posted Sat, Feb 11, 10:36 p.m.

I think Thiel misses the bigger problem with having 2 more pro sports teams in our town. It would be tough for all those teams to sell tickets, true. But, the bigger problem would be selling luxury suites and club seats for all the pro teams (NFL; MLB: MLS: NBA; ...

Posted Sat, Feb 11, 10:20 p.m.

"...proposed new PRIVATELY FUNDED ARENA " So, where is everyone getting this "privately-funded arena" idea from? I have yet to read one article that says any private investor has pledged one dollar towards building a new arena in Seattle. Some guy bought a little land, but that doesn't include any ...

Posted Sat, Jan 21, 5:28 p.m.

You failed to mention the most important thing that is becoming obsolete: commuting to and from work. Telecommuting -- working from home -- will become almost as common as shopping, banking, and paying bills online. Why try to slog throught inclement weather when you can just stay home and work ...

Posted Fri, Jan 20, 12:38 p.m.

Very funny piece. Too bad Art doesn't have a real job any more.

Posted Tue, Jan 17, 10:55 a.m.

"In contrast, families in the fourth highest group (incomes from $62,000 to $99,000) pay only 9.5 percent of their income in taxes." This is a mistake. Families with incomes from $62,000 to $99,000 are the SECOND-highest income group -- not the fourth-highest. They are the fourth-LOWEST income group, if you ...

Posted Sun, Dec 18, 12:24 p.m.

There is no money to build rail between Ballard and downtown, so why waste millions of tax dollars studying it? In a year or two, there will be inproved bus service (RapidRide) between Ballard and downtown. Buses do the same thing as rail at a fraction of the cost. Rail ...

Posted Wed, Dec 14, 9:46 p.m.

McGinn is a pompous jackass. What kind of moron responds to the defeat of Prop 1 by saing it lost because it was not a high enough tax, and because it would have spent too much on roads and not enough on transit? I certainly hope someone qualified to be ...

Posted Tue, Dec 13, 2:34 p.m.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2011/11/portland_state_students_find_5.html From a study of red-light behavior of motorists and bicyclists in Portland, Ore: "Their findings (PDF): 56 percent of bicycle riders ignored stop signals, compared with 7 percent of motorists."

Posted Tue, Dec 13, 2:21 p.m.

Yesterday, around midday, when it was clear and sunny out, but chilly -- about 40 degrees -- I drove from Queen Anne to the Ballard Fred Meyer. I intended to use the Ballard Bridge, but traffic was backed up because one lane of that bridge was closed for maintenance, so ...

Posted Thu, Dec 1, 5 p.m.

The problem with rail, particularly in our area, is the cost. Duke barely mentions this. Here is a quick comparison between the cost of Link light rail and the improved bus service that Metro is calling RapidRide, which has some BRT features. Central Link light rail cost about %2.6 BILLION ...

Posted Fri, Nov 25, 12:25 a.m.

"where bus lines and bus stops lower property values and tend to drive businesses out," That has got to be one of the most ignorant, stupidest comments I have read anywhere. Where on earth did you get that blatant nonsense? Have you ever been to Queen Anne? Ballard? West Seattle? ...

Posted Tue, Nov 22, 4:48 p.m.

Seattle voters have had 2 chances this year to prove that they prefer to spend money on transit/bicycle infrastructure rather than on roads. They chose the tunnel over the "surface/transit" option for the AWV replacement overwhelmingly, even though a lot of people, like myself, voted against the tunnel because we ...

Posted Tue, Nov 22, 11:58 a.m.

smacgry: Your little personal opinion is very convincing. However, I prefer to rely on surveys to judge the public's feelings on various matters. Here is the survey done by the city on transportation issues: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/docs/ctac/CTAC%20III%20Survey%20Summary_FINAL.pdf "CTAC III Phone Survey – Summary of Key Findings Overview Input from the community informs ...

Posted Tue, Nov 22, 11:45 a.m.

crossrip: right. And if you never buy anything, you don't have to pay the sales tax either. Has anyone ever told you you're a genius?

Posted Tue, Nov 22, 9:51 a.m.

Hopefully the author is correct that there will not be another attempt at a car tab increase. But, he left out a few important points. He neglected to mention that the City Council did pass a $20 car tab increase this year, which about half the car owners in Seattle ...

Posted Mon, Nov 21, 3:48 p.m.

Nice to read an intelligent piece on transit. Overall, this column by Dick Nelson is pretty good. Streetcars and light rail are just stupidly expensive, and a disastrous waste of tax dollars. The Tacoma Streetcar has operating costs about 3 times as high as ST Express buses. The streetcar costs ...

Posted Thu, Nov 17, 11:10 a.m.

Why does the author say, "the results were surprising"? There have been many articles written about the new electric cars, like the Leaf, and they have all benn just like this article. Nothing in this article surprised me, at all. Electric cars are great. They are just expensive right now, ...

Posted Wed, Nov 16, 4:39 p.m.

The Sightline guy who authored this article wrote: "In fact, Washington’s tax code is riddled with 567 “tax exemptions,” collectively worth about $98 billion per biennium." Then he wrote: "Shutting just one of the more perverse loopholes — the “trade-ins exemption,” which mainly benefits auto dealerships — would fix one-fifth ...

Posted Mon, Oct 31, 3:07 p.m.

I notice a lot more people on motor scooters in Seattle the past couple of years. I think a lot of poeple tried bicycling, and found that riding a bike was too much work and way too slow to be practical, but a motor scooter solves those problems while not ...

Posted Thu, Oct 27, 11:37 p.m.

Valdez is just another car-hater. But, at least he admits he wants to force people out of their cars. So, he is honest, if not intelligent. Prop 1 is a regressive tax, with most of the revenue wasted on garbage like streetcars, curb bulbs and bike lanes, and less than ...

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 11:30 a.m.

One of the most galling things to me about Prop 1, which noboby has picked up on, including Kammerer in this article, is that the CTAC III -- laughingly described by Middleground as a "citizen's panel" -- conducted a phone survey this year of Seattle residents on transportation issues. Here ...

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 10:46 a.m.

Excellent article by Kammerer. I agree with the comments by JakeJackson, supersinic, and mspat. Vote NO on Prop 1 http://citizensagainstraisingcartabs.com/

Posted Fri, Oct 21, 12:49 p.m.

This is another really stupid hit-piece against I-1125, which is a good initiative, which I will be voting for. I-1125 does not prevent tolling, at all. What it does do is prevent toll revenue from being spent on transit. This is a very good thing. Why should motorists pay tolls ...

Posted Tue, Oct 18, 9:13 a.m.

I fully agree with Van Dyk on Prop 1, the $60 car tab increase. It is just the latest front on McGinn's war on cars in Seattle. Tax cars and waste the revenue on b.S. like road diets, curb bulbs, bike lanes and planning streetcars. This is an obvious NO ...

Posted Fri, Sep 23, 9:38 p.m.

Streetcars in Seattle cost over $50 million per mile, and the rails and streetcars have to be replaced about every 30 years at great expense. Repaving streets costs only a few hundred thousand dollars per lane-mile and lasts about 12-15 years. Streetcars are just stupidly expensive, and not cost-effective whatsoever. ...

Posted Tue, Sep 20, 9:16 p.m.

I agree with the author and most of the posts here. This is the wrong tax at the wrong time for the wrong things. Why would I vote to pay an extra $60 per year on my 2001 Ford Escort to give the city council a blank check which we ...

Posted Mon, Sep 5, 10:15 a.m.

Why does Crosscut keep putting this kind of crap on its site? The future is not bicycles and transit. The future is electric cars and other extremely energy-efficient motor vehicles. And the future of energy prices is down -- not up. We are going to be entering an age of ...

Posted Mon, Aug 22, 7:59 p.m.

Keith, so, you are saying that every vehicle crossing the 520 bridge is going to either I-5 or I-405, or both? Do you feel that making the I-90 floating bridge 8 lanes was a mistake? You think it should have been only 4 lanes? Or only 6 lanes?

Posted Mon, Aug 22, 7:23 p.m.

Any transportation infrastructure is a failure when it is stupidly expensive to build, stupidly expensive to operate, very few people use it, and it has zero affect on traffic congestion. That is Central Link light rail: insanely expensive to build; stupidly expensive to operate; carrying a fraction of the people ...

Posted Mon, Aug 22, 2:15 p.m.

What, exactly, is your alternative to a new 520 bridge, Knute? You want to just take the current bridge down and not replace it with anything? As for spending money on highways vs light rail. The $2.6 billion Central Link light rail carries about 10,000 people per day south of ...

Posted Wed, Aug 17, 9:42 p.m.

Light rail is the most-expensive, stupidest mistake this area has ever made. There is nothing that can be done to make Link light rail anything other than an insanely expensive boondoggle.

Posted Wed, Aug 10, 1:31 p.m.

I find it amusing that people keep suggesting we close or tear down the viaduct without replacing its capacity, and just see what happens. As if that has not been done. When the viaduct was closed for a few days after the earthquake which damaged it, traffic was a disaster, ...

Posted Tue, Jul 26, 12:25 p.m.

I find it sad that people write about how much they want public transit, but, apparently are not willing to pay for it themselves. Metro fares pay only about 25% of operating costs. Link light rail fares pay only 18% of operating costs. You like transit so much. Transit is ...

Posted Sun, Jul 24, 7:48 p.m.

I can only hope that Ted is correct about stadiums and Sound Transit, and the deep bored tunnel. However, some of this sounds a little like wishful thinking on Ted's part. But, I am right there with him wishing the same.

Posted Wed, Jul 20, 11:10 a.m.

Interesting that the city is going to allow up to two food trucks on each side of a city block, at below-market parking rates in many areas (the city raised onstreet parking to $4 per hour on many blocks downtown, and is charging food trucks only $2.50 per hour). Presumably, ...

Posted Fri, Jul 15, 11:04 a.m.

This article and the comments following illustrate why Central Link light rail is such a stupid waste of billions of tax dollars. For a fraction of the cost of Link light rail, we could have had improved bus service -- Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) -- like the excellent SWIFT bus ...

Posted Wed, Jul 13, 6:33 p.m.

How about giving us some idea of what the contracts of Prince, Felix and Ichiro would add up to per year. Say Felix at $20M; Ichiro at $18M, and Prince at $25M? $63M total for just 3 players, or thereabouts? The M's' total player payroll this year is about $84M. ...

Posted Mon, Jun 6, 9:03 p.m.

I find this article to be poorly written, and confusing -- perhaps intentionally so. Early in the article it states this: "As much as 800,000 pounds of petroleum pollution and 525 pounds of mercury are sluiced into the sea each year." Then, several paragraphs later it says, "Forests are also ...

Posted Wed, May 25, 4:40 p.m.

What orino said. I can't believe it would be legal to have a state income tax that taxed only pro athletes and nobody else. Is this the case anywhere in the U.S.?

Posted Wed, May 25, 2:14 p.m.

"We can argue in another forum whether a retro fit, replacement or surface option is the preferred voter choice, but it's pretty clear that the tunnel is ranked 4th from those choices." Totally wrong. It is crystal clear that the "surface/transit" option has the least public support of the three ...

Posted Wed, May 4, 12:39 p.m.

This article is so stupid. The state is closing ONE LANE in each direction for a period of time. And the author equates this to completely closing the viaduct. lol So, Roger, are you claiming that closing one lane in each direction, while keeping two lanes in each direction open, ...

Posted Thu, Apr 28, 6:26 p.m.

You linked two articles from 2004? Those stories are ancient history. The amount of known natural gas reserves in the U.S. has increased greatly in just the past 3 years, or so. Natural gas is not imported. The article is about the price of gasoline. The less oil we use ...

Posted Wed, Apr 27, 5:47 p.m.

We no longer use oil to generate electricity in the U.S. A couple of decades ago, about 20% of electricity in the U.S. was generated by burning oil. Now that is just about zero. And the percentage of homes in the U.S. which heat with heating oil has dropped from ...

Posted Wed, Apr 27, 5:40 p.m.

Cars have gotten far cleaner in the past decade, or two. And not just because they keep getting more and more miles per gallon of gasoline. Cars now leak very little motor oil onto streets, compared to in the past. My ten-year-old 2001 Ford does not leak oil at all. ...

Posted Tue, Apr 19, 9:34 a.m.

Who is either of these two twits to presume to speak for anyone but himself?

Posted Thu, Apr 14, 10 p.m.

Of course, the M's should trade Ichiro. They should have traded him years ago when he still had some trade value. I doubt they would get much of anything for him now, plus the M's would have to pay much of his salary while he was playing for a different ...

Posted Thu, Mar 31, 3:21 p.m.

Is there sales tax on college tuition? How about room and board at UW if you live on campus?

Posted Thu, Mar 31, 8:43 a.m.

This is well-known, but it does raise some other obvious points. The higher the sales tax, the greater the incentive to avoid it. Not only by shopping online, but also by shopping out of our state, primarily in Oregon. How many people living in Vancouver, WA drive over to Portland ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 9:54 p.m.

Where is the poll(s) in which/surface transit got roughly the same support as a viaduct?

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 6:09 p.m.

"She notes that the polling on this remains very stable over the past few years: one third for the tunnel, one third for a new (or repaired) Viaduct, and one third for the "surface solution" (no tunnel, no viaduct). " If Bagshaw said that she is being disingenious. Here is ...

Posted Tue, Mar 29, 7:30 p.m.

abcs: I attended several presentations on viaduct replacement options a couple of years ago, and WSDOT said that the useful life of a new viaduct would be just the same as for a tunnel. Where did you get 50 years for a new viaduct? The current viaduct is 58 years ...

Posted Tue, Mar 29, 4:22 p.m.

The author: "Years from now people will marvel that we simply didn’t close down the viaduct, demolish it, and allow redevelopment of the new space. What appeared to be a compromise solution was really the perpetuation of an outmoded transportation mode at a time when what the city needed was ...

Posted Tue, Mar 29, 4:09 p.m.

Where do you find these people who want to live in Portland or Copenhagen, and why don't they move to one of those cities? The surface/transit option consistently polls at only around 20%. So only about 1 in 5 Seattleites favor that option. Surface/transit supporters need to stop pretending that ...

Posted Fri, Mar 18, 9:46 p.m.

"welcoming growth with open arms, and seeing the city — and our city in particular — as one of the solutions to the problems of global warming, air and water pollution," How can anyone be this stupid? He welcomes growth, but wants to solve global warming, and air and water ...

Posted Tue, Feb 22, 9:55 p.m.

What jmrolls just wrote.

Posted Tue, Feb 22, 9:41 p.m.

"but his point was that cars are for the elite," http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014158861_electriccar08m.html "Overall, there were 5.5 million private cars and trucks registered in Washington last year." There were 6.7 million residents in WA state in 2010, and 5.5 million private cars and trucks. How many million "elites" are there in WA ...

Posted Sun, Feb 20, 11:20 a.m.

"...when looked at based on 30-year amortization, streetcars cost less than buses." This is certainly not true in our area. In the Puget Sound region, streetcars cost far more to build, and operate than buses. A streetcar may last twice as long as a bus, but costs three times as ...

Posted Thu, Feb 3, 8:59 a.m.

"Getting a few thousand riders per day off other modes (or helping them travel period) isn't trivial either." A few thousand riders per day is absolutely trivial, particularly when that is the total from a few different routes. Between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., the average was under 400 riders per ...

Posted Thu, Feb 3, 8:47 a.m.

Very intelligent comments from D. McDonald and jniles. I always laugh when transit agencies like Amtrak put out ridership numbers "per year." As in, "More than 138,000 riders traveled to and from Vancouver in 2010." That is fewer than 400 people per day! What is the point?

Posted Mon, Jan 31, 8:34 p.m.

New tool for fighting urban sprawl? How about some old tools: condoms and birth control pills.

Posted Sun, Jan 30, 9:52 p.m.

Growth is a cancer. Population growth is destroying our environment. Growth does not pay for itself. If it did, then tax RATES would not have to keep increasing as the population of a city grows -- the larger number of people paying the same tax rates would increase tax revenues ...

Posted Tue, Jan 18, 8:39 p.m.

My posts speak for themselves. The people I am putting out information on this forum for, are not the lightweights like mhays, believe me. I just like to shoot down his nonsense and give others links to pertinent information. I could not care less who mhays might actually be. He ...

Posted Tue, Jan 18, 2:55 p.m.

mhays: This comment from you is a perfect illustration of why you are such a laughing stock on this site: "Since I'm not a lobbyist, I'll give on a point here! Fuel efficiency on cars can improve dramatically, and hopefully will." Fuel efficiency of cars "hopefully will" improve dramatically? In ...

Posted Tue, Jan 18, 11:11 a.m.

Ok, mhays, since you seem to be admitting that by 2016 the average new car in the U.S. will be more energy-efficient than any of the transit in our area, unless you consider van pools to be "transit" (van pools are the most energy-efficient form of transportation right now), I ...

Posted Mon, Jan 17, 9:56 p.m.

mhays, you are a joke. I looked at the first article you linked to. It is from "Public Transport Users Association" from Victoria, Australia. No agenda by that group, right? lol My data comes from the Transportation Energy Data Book, from the U.S. Department of Energy. You really expect anyone ...

Posted Mon, Jan 17, 2:26 p.m.

mhays keeps trotting out the same old misinformation. Actually, when manufacturing is included, autos look even better than trains from a ghg emissions standpoint. Who do you work for, mhays? Sound transit? And, mhays, what do you have against telecommuting as compared to transit, both as they relate to ghg ...

Posted Mon, Jan 17, 10:56 a.m.

http://cta.ornl.gov/data/tedb29/Edition29_Chapter02.pdf According to the Transportation Energy Data Book, 2010 Edition, in the U.S. autos averaged 3,437 BTU/passenger mile in 2008. This is based on the U.S. passenger car fleet averaging around 24 mpg in 2008. New regulations mandate that by 2016 new cars sold in the U.S. must average about ...

Posted Sun, Jan 16, 10:03 p.m.

This is just another incredibly stupid article. 1) As the authors allude to, the biggest problem is population growth. So, what is their plan to stop population growth? They have none. They don't even address the major problem. Stupid. 2) Transit is no "greener" than autos. In fact, with the ...

Posted Fri, Jan 7, 10:50 p.m.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2013865902_lance07.html "Basic survival: water supply and quality" Water shortages are going to become more and more common, and, obviously, this, too, is the result of population growth.

Posted Fri, Jan 7, 10:47 p.m.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110101/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_population "Japan population shrinks by record in 2010" Japan's population is shrinking. I believe there are European countries where this is true, also. The first thing we need to do in the U.S. is to stop immigration, which is the main cause of our population growth. Of course, the powers ...

Posted Tue, Dec 28, 9:49 p.m.

Oops. Here is the link to that second article. I only quoted a few paragraphs from it. http://robertbryce.com/node/395

Posted Tue, Dec 28, 9:44 p.m.

Second article from 12-22-10 in the Wall Street Journal: "A Wind Power Boondoggle" "After 30 months, countless TV appearances, and $80 million spent on an extravagant PR campaign, T. Boone Pickens has finally admitted the obvious: The wind energy business isn't a very good one. "The Dallas-based entrepreneur, who has ...

Posted Tue, Dec 28, 9:39 p.m.

Here are a couple good articles on wind power. I will put them in 2 separate posts. The first, "Wind Power Won’t Cool Down the Planet Often enough it leads to higher carbon emissions." http://friendsoflanai.org/?page_id=340 "A slew of recent studies show that wind-generated electricity likely won’t result in any reduction ...

Posted Fri, Dec 10, 10:50 a.m.

http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/transportation/high-speed-rail Here is a great article on what a boondoggle high-speed rail is. By the way, the Highway Trust Fund is not going bankrupt. Gas taxes pay for our highways, but for the past 20 years or so, they have been taking billions of dollars of the federal gas tax ...

Posted Thu, Dec 9, 7:40 p.m.

Excellent column. We learned from the Sonics's departure that Seattle is exactly the same city without an NBA team as they were with the Sonics. The Sonics' departure has made no difference whatsoever to this city. It's as if the NBA were never in Seattle. So, the NBA can do ...

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 11:13 p.m.

Who cares if some people feel that trains are "more attractive to travel on than buses"? What does that have to do with anything? If you are willing to pay the full cost of taking a train, without any tax subsidies, then go ahead. You won't need any tax revenues ...

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 11:07 p.m.

Mr. Baker: No.

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 8:14 p.m.

What for? We learned with the Sonics having left that Seattle is exactly the same city wihtout an NBA team as with one. The NBA can do whatever it wants to do. With private money.

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 10:29 a.m.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124528126290225307.html New, Improved Bus Service taking passengers away from trains. "In April, Greyhound Lines Inc., which is based in Dallas, launched 102 new "motorcoaches" in the Northeast featuring leather seats, additional legroom, Wi-Fi access and power outlets in every row." "The new breed of buses also has a cleaner, more-luxurious ...

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 10:18 a.m.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/plane-train-automobile-travel.html "Long Distance Bus Travel Beats the Train "Taking the bus for long distances was consistently the lowest emissions of all public transit methods. (This isn't the case for inner city travel, but hold that thought for a moment.) From New York to San Francisco, St Louis or Washington DC ...

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 10:10 a.m.

http://www.echinacities.com/biz-china/business-topics/chinese-academy-of-sciences-high-speed-rail-construction-201.html "Some local media have reported recently that the recently enabled Wuhan - Guangzhou high-speed rail is currently running an average daily attendance of less than half capacity, while the newly opened Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed rail attendance is even lower. The main reason for the high-speed rail low attendance is that ...

Posted Fri, Nov 5, 5:56 p.m.

Transportation systems need to be useful year-round, not just in good weather. By mentioning things like "golf courses, tennis courts, basketball courts, beaches, marinas, and stadiums" you are making my point: bicycling is a hobby, like all these other things you mention. Bicycling is not a legitmate means of transportation, ...

Posted Fri, Nov 5, 5:44 p.m.

Here is the only interesting item in this article: "The R-52 campaign scarcely mentioned energy or climate, as these were said to poll poorly," So, voters in WA state are not concerned about energy or climate. That is the most important information contained in the column.

Posted Fri, Nov 5, 1:43 p.m.

Today, around noon, I drove from the Ballard Fred Meyer store to the top of Queen Anne Hill. It did not rain at all, and it was in the mid-fifties (not cold). On this trip I counted 337 motor vehicles on the roads and exactly ONE bicycle. If those motor ...

Posted Fri, Nov 5, 9:46 a.m.

This is the most interesting comment in the article, a quote from Jeffrey Miller, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Biking and Walking, a national coalition of which Cascade is a member: "As a movement, our organizations have certainly been getting much more professional, much more engaged, and bicycling ...

Posted Tue, Oct 26, 12:13 p.m.

I can't believe the "swapping batteries" idea would work. If you make it easy to exchange batteries, then it would be easy for thieves to steal batteries out of cars. Since those batteries would be worth several thousand dollars apiece, I don't think you would ever be able to park ...

Posted Fri, Oct 8, 2:23 p.m.

I think this is a great column, and I fully agree with it.

Posted Fri, Oct 8, 2:23 p.m.

"the true financing of city streets" is never pointed out. Just the fantasy that streets are financed by property and sales taxes. From just parking fees, parking fines and the commercial parking tax, the city of Seattle collects around $75 million per year. The City gets more millions from the ...

Posted Sun, Sep 26, 2:44 p.m.

The simpleton in the mayor's office vs the idiots on the city council. Who can waste the most tax revenue in the stupidest way? Light rail; Mercer Street Prettification Project; Deep-Bored Tunnel; Road Diets; Sculpture Park; Bicycle paths/lanes; Pro Sports Stadiums; etc. Seattle: The City of Morons.

Posted Sun, Sep 26, 2:08 p.m.

70 passengers per day on a 12-car Amtrak train? WSDOT considers that a "success"? What would they consider a "waste of money"? Anything? Just exactly how does that pencil out for Amtrak? What is the amount of money Amtrak loses each day to take those 70 people to Canada? 70 ...

Posted Thu, Sep 23, 11:28 a.m.

"Light rail across I-90 is a no-brainer, right?" Right. Putting light rail across the I-90 bridge is about the stupidest waste of billions of dollars imaginable. You certainly need to be without a brain to think that is a good idea. The money from the feds was the federal gas ...

Posted Tue, Aug 31, 3:15 p.m.

oops. typo. I meant 1.71 passengers per vehicle in 2009, obviously.

Posted Tue, Aug 31, 3:14 p.m.

Actually I should thank andy for spurring me to look up vehicle occupancy rates again. In the same document, the "Transportation Energy Data Book Edition 29 -- 2010", on page 8-10, figure 8.1 it gives the average vehicle occupancy rate for "All" vehicles combined for 2009, which is 1.71, not ...

Posted Tue, Aug 31, 2:53 p.m.

LOL andy. The very chart you link to shows the vehicle occupancy for all purposes in 1990 was 1.6 -- exactly what I said. 125th is used for "all purposes," not just one purpose. And, instead of using 1990 data, how about using data from 2009? From the Transportation Energy ...

Posted Tue, Aug 31, 9:55 a.m.

mhays: actually, investors using oil as an investment tool in this economy is the only thing keeping the current price as high as it is. If people stop using oil as an investment instrument, the price could collapse. One analyst recently said the fundamentals of supply and demand would have ...

Posted Tue, Aug 31, 9:36 a.m.

little andy. I am correct. The average occupancy of autos in the U.S. is 1.6. Look it up. Link carried about 21,776 boardings per day in the 2nd quarter of 2010. You say this is wrong? Only about half of Link's total boardings per day are on Link trains along ...

Posted Tue, Aug 31, 8:25 a.m.

"the increasing likelihood that oil will get costlier,". This is not true. What is true is that petroleum-powered vehicles will get increasingly more fuel-efficient, thus using less gas. And that more and more motor vehicles will run on energy other than oil -- such as electricity -- which will further ...

Posted Tue, Aug 31, 8:12 a.m.

I am surprised that Doug MacDonald would make two mistakes normally associated with light rail cheerleaders. MacDonald wrote: "...this road, according to SDOT, would have a capacity of 22,000 vehicles a day. That couldn’t be much closer to the 21,766 average weekday boardings that Sound Transit recently reported for Link ...

Posted Mon, Aug 30, 9:05 p.m.

I am surprised that Doug MacDonald would make two mistakes normally associated with light rail cheerleaders. MacDonald wrote: "...this road, according to SDOT, would have a capacity of 22,000 vehicles a day. That couldn’t be much closer to the 21,766 average weekday boardings that Sound Transit recently reported for Link ...

Posted Mon, Aug 30, 8:55 p.m.

Finally, someone writes what everyone in SDOT knows, but nobody will admit: road diets make congestion worse on many streets. Of course, this is what transit advocates and bicycle enthusiasts want. The car haters want to make congestion worse in Seattle, in their effort to force everyone to walk, ride ...

Posted Mon, Aug 23, 10:08 a.m.

These bicycle-promoter articles are all the same: they are written from the assumption that bike-riding is "good", and car-driving is "bad." From the perspective of getting where you want to go in as quicklly as possible in as much comfort as possible, with all the things you want to take ...

Posted Sun, Aug 22, 10:01 a.m.

mhays, you have no idea what you are writing about. ST's own ridership projections show only 47,000 boardings per day on Central Link by 2030. This is nowhere near what I-5 is carrying today, which is 400,000 people per day where I-5 parallels Central Link. Again, that is 40,000 people ...

Posted Sat, Aug 21, 7:45 p.m.

More nonsense from mhays. The $1 per passenger mile OPERATING cost for Link light rail does not include any of the $2.6 BILLION CAPITAL cost of building Link light rail, including the cost of the light rail cars themselves. I compared operating costs of autos to operating costs of Link ...

Posted Sat, Aug 21, 6:47 p.m.

R on Beacon: Like most light rail cheerleaders you add no facts whatsoever. Congratulations on your non-use of any data. (Would you care to find out just how many vehicles I-5 did carrry when it opened, or are you just going to revel in your ignorance?) Another fine student of ...

Posted Sat, Aug 21, 2:35 p.m.

The current OPERATING COST of Link light rail is around $1.00 per passenger mile. The current OPERATING COST of the average U.S. auto is around $0.11 per passenger mile. Thus, despite the unsubstantiated claim of mhays, the operating cost of moving people by Link light rail is about NINE TIMES ...

Posted Fri, Aug 20, 9:18 a.m.

Another article on climate change which does not even mention the biggest problem: population growth. If the world's population keeps growing, nothing we do is going to make a significant difference. This column is just one more author playing with himself. Tell us how we can stop population growth, then ...

Posted Thu, Aug 19, 9:59 a.m.

All this talk about "safety" for pedestrians, and increasing the number of places where crosswalks can be put across streets sort of rings hollow when you consider what Sound Transit did to Martin Luther King Jr Way when it put in Link light rail. That street is much wider now ...

Posted Sun, Jul 25, 9:11 p.m.

If the theory of global warming is true, there is no way to make any meaningful reduction in ghg emissions as long as the human population keeps increasing. Population growth has been the biggest culprit over the last century, and continues to be the biggest culprit. The author does not ...

Posted Thu, Jul 15, 8:21 p.m.

Runs scored is most important for a leadoff hitter. As I wrote, Ichiro has scored 35 runs before the All-Star break, which is not even in the top 50 in the AL! That is just pathetic for a leadoff hitter. How does that make Ichiro an All-Star, or a great ...

Posted Thu, Jul 15, 10:27 a.m.

This is an excellent article, except for the author's nonsense about Ichiro being a great player. I find it amusing that the first post here was written by an idiot, criticizing the author, who mostly got it right. About Ichiro: he is an imminently ordinary player this season. If he ...

Posted Wed, Jun 23, 8:31 p.m.

http://www.sustainable-transportation.com/ Here is a link to an article in which the authors DID cover the energy to produce cars or build infrastructure. Here is what this study found: "We present results of a comprehensive life-cycle energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and selected criteria air pollutant emissions inventory for automobiles, buses, trains, ...

Posted Wed, Jun 23, 5:32 p.m.

Regarding energy efficiency, here is the latest edition of the "Transportation Energy Data Book: http://cta.ornl.gov/data/tedb28/Edition28_Chapter02.pdf Table 2.13, page 2-15 shows in 2007 U.S. cars averaged 3,514 btu/passneger mile; transit buses averaged 4,315 btu/passener mile. Figure 2.2 on page 2-17 shows that in 2007 the average of all light rail systems ...

Posted Wed, Jun 23, 5:20 p.m.

Another great argument in favor of cars over transit is the time savings often enjoyed by driving vs taking transit. How much is peoples' time worth? Here is a good example that I experienced today. I had to go to Mercer Island from the top of Queen Anne Hill, so ...

Posted Wed, Jun 23, 9:34 a.m.

This is really a silly piece of nonsense. Many cars are more energy-efficient than buses or light rail, and with the new MPG regulations, soon the average car will be more energy-efficient than buses or light rail. So, the energy-efficiency argument is false. Cars often take much more direct, thus ...

Posted Fri, Apr 23, 9:42 a.m.

Another article about China: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/slpp/regionalities/2010/03/recently-opened_bus_rapid_tran.php "Recently-Opened Bus Rapid Transit Line in Guangzhou, China: A Success. "Thirty-one bus routes serve the BRT corridor, with a total of 310 buses per hour per direction (equivalent to about 12-second headways at the maximum bus-volume point). One route serves the corridor from beginning to ...

Posted Fri, Apr 23, 9:25 a.m.

"Maybe too many of us have been looking at the goings-on in Europe and China and wondering what they know that we don't." What exactly is your point about China? http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2010-01/16/content_9331001.htm "Chinese highways for fast traffic add up to 65,000 km (Xinhua) Updated: 2010-01-16 11:02 China reported 65,000 kilometers of ...

Posted Fri, Apr 23, 9:19 a.m.

So, if you want to claim that light rail is more "reliable" than bus rapid transit, where is your data to back that up? The facts are that Sound Transit's light rail route cost about $2.6 BILLION and is averaging 2,000 boardings per day less than Las Vegas' new bus ...

Posted Thu, Apr 22, 10:41 p.m.

"Lincoln, do you really think "adding 100 express buses per hour on I-5 or SR-520 is a good idea"? " Absolutely. That would take thousands of cars per hour off those freeways. Thank you for you ignorant post which contains zero information or thought.

Posted Thu, Apr 22, 12:11 p.m.

"And again: Lincoln, come up with a funding place to add 100 express buses per hour on I-5 or SR-520 and I will vote for it." Sound Transit has plenty of money to do that right now. Stop wasting it on light rail, and spend it on express buses, instead. ...

Posted Thu, Apr 22, 9:52 a.m.

Nice to see Madison Ave. has not changed a whit. He contribures nothing but his usual infantile personal attacks. ST light rail is not "mass transit." It is currently averaging about 18,000 boardings per weekday -- 9,000 in each direction. St predicts about 45,000 boardings per day by 2030. That ...

Posted Thu, Apr 22, 8:49 a.m.

"Imagine thousands of vanpools shuttling into the city for a game. Or worse, the nightmare of cars we have now. Now that light rail is open, they are using that in droves." Well, since van pools carry at least twice as many people as cars, replacing those thousands of cars ...

Posted Tue, Apr 20, 5:21 p.m.

I should also add that vanpools can take you right to your office, while Sounder trains drop everyone off at King Street Station. How many people do you know who work at King Street Station? How long does it take the typical Sounder commuter to get to their office after ...

Posted Tue, Apr 20, 5:19 p.m.

"Putting commuters on rails frees up capacity on buses, leaving empty seats for new riders " Adding new buses to routes also creates new capacity on buse, at a fraction of the cost of building rail lines. And when people switch from cars to buses that frees up space on ...

Posted Tue, Apr 20, 4:57 p.m.

The light rail Sound Transit is building moves a small number of people, compared to a highway. East LInk across I-90 is predicted to have only 45,000 boardings per year by 2030, both direcitions combined, or about 22,500 people per day per track. Right now, on the 520 bridge, 190,000 ...

Posted Tue, Apr 20, 1:58 p.m.

"It's impossible to imagine doing away with Link or Sounder rail services and substituting vanpools. Where in downtown Seattle could we park a couple thousand full-size vans? Assuming that most rail riders would willingly switch, which is hard to fathom." You are saying that the few thousand people who commute ...

Posted Tue, Apr 20, 7:58 a.m.

This is quite a bit of foolishness. If officials literally try to force people out of their cars, they are going to face a backlash like they have never seen. Don't be an idiot, Knute. Here is an intelligent article in today's Crosscut: http://crosscut.com/2010/04/20/transportation/19745/#end-of-comments Vanpools are a great way to ...

Posted Tue, Apr 20, 7:51 a.m.

Very intelligent aritcle. Vanpools are clearly far superior to light or heavy rail in every way, including the fact that vanpools are far more energy-efficient than light rail or heavy rail. Why isn't this being pursued more energetically by our elected officials? What is the downside to increasing the number ...

Posted Mon, Apr 19, 8:44 a.m.

crossrip is correct. I always laugh when I read a stupid statement like, "We are 30 years behind on building a regional light-rail system and continually argue over whether we need buses or trains. We need both." Why do we "need" both? The author makes not one argument why we ...

Posted Sat, Apr 17, 5:33 p.m.

The environment is just going to keep getting worse and worse, as long as population, both local and worldwide, keeps increasing. These people who write articles which do not even mention population growth are just playing with themselves. Pollution covering ocean floors. New gigantic fields of trash floating in the ...

Posted Thu, Feb 25, 4:04 p.m.

I'm talking about politically, genius.

Posted Thu, Feb 25, 2:55 p.m.

Van pools are much more energy-efficient than light rail. If McGinn really cars about the environment, he should support lanes on the new bridge that allow van pools and buses -- not light rail. The current Central Link light rail is an utter waste of money and energy, carrying only ...

Posted Mon, Sep 21, 8:43 a.m.

This article should be title: "Whi it's time to get rid of, finally, Grace Crunican." What a load of crap. This project REDUCES east-bound Mercer from the current 4 lanes to only three. In what way is that an increase in capacity for east-bound traffic on Mercer? Just yesterday afternoon ...

Posted Thu, Sep 10, 10:30 p.m.

"The bulk of its cost cover expanding Mercer under Aurora Avenue to six lanes (with adjacent pedestrian and bike pathways), which would clearly improve traffic flow." East-bound traffic on Mercer is currently FOUR lanes under Aurora. Reducing this to only THREE lanes under Aurora would "clearly improve traffic flow" from ...

Posted Tue, Sep 8, 9:51 p.m.

"How do we accommodate the expected 1.4 million new neighbors in the next 30 years?" We can't, without destroying our quality of life and our environment. The question should be "how can we prevent population growth in our area?" That is what we should be working at. Growth is a ...

Posted Sun, Aug 9, 8:41 a.m.

Excellent article by John Fox. Thanks for putting it on Crosscut.

Posted Thu, Aug 6, 10:54 a.m.

The "stakeholders committee" was an absolute farce. It was loaded with the mayor's stooges, like John Coney, who pretended to "represent" the Queen Anne area, but repersented nobody but himself, and the mayor, for whom he is a lapdog. Nobody on the "stakeholders committee" represented neighborhoods or voters. They just ...

Posted Wed, Jul 1, 7:43 p.m.

First of all, Israel has no chance against Licata, so that's not worth discussing. But, more importantly, all this talk about "smart growth" is a total load of crap. "Smart growth" is the ultimate oxymoron -- all growth is STUPID. How can anyone be so dull as to not understand ...

Posted Fri, May 22, 7:52 p.m.

Mr. Lincoln, exactly how are people supposed to live and pay their bills without any businesses? In California, Oregon, Canada, or anywhere else they want to, that's how. Just NOT HERE. I want people to stop moving here. I want people to leave this area. If the jobs leave, people ...

Posted Fri, May 22, 10:24 a.m.

This entire discussion is just incredibly stupid. There is only one option that makes any sense, and it is not even being considered: STOP GROWTH! When something is causing a problem, you try to stop that thing from happening. The problem here is obvious: THE PROBLEM IS GROWTH! How do ...

Posted Thu, May 14, 5:45 p.m.

http://www.soundtransit.org/x4306.xml According to Sound Transit, their light rail cars have a capacity of 200, with 74 seats. Thus, when Sound Transit light rail cars are "full" there will be 74 riders sitting and 126 riders standing on each car. To me, that means that more people will be standing than ...

Posted Thu, May 14, 11:47 a.m.

"good mass transit system knows that rail transportation is more comfortable and more convenient." More comfortable if you like to stand, I guess. ST expects most of its light rail riders to stand, while most bus riders get their own seat. More convenient? Maybe if you live right next to ...

Posted Thu, May 14, 8:50 a.m.

"The experience will be different on July 18, when Sound Transit opens its sleek new light rail service from downtown Seattle to Tukwila. (You always wanted to go to Tukwila, didn't you?) You won't have to wait at a grungy stop. You won't have to climb stairs to get on ...

Posted Sat, Mar 14, 10:39 a.m.

Sounds like Seattle is not the only city in which a majority of voters recognize that subsidizing pro sports stadiums is an irresponsible waste of public funds.

Posted Thu, Mar 12, 9:16 p.m.

This is a very well-written, informative article. Thanks to the author for the research and clear writing. I would support a state income tax starting on incomes over $200,000. Why not?

Posted Mon, Mar 9, 9:49 a.m.

"Why is a 720,000 sf building better than a 380,000 sf building?" To the city, it's not "better". Tax revenues to the city are the same whether people spend money inside KeyArena or outside. The only difference is it's better for the NBA owner, because the NBA owner gets the ...

Posted Sun, Mar 8, 10:27 p.m.

In what way does a 720,000 sq ft facility generate more tax revenue for the city, than a 380,000 sq ft facility? The seating capacity remains essentially the same, and the Sonics sold out very few games in their last couple of seasons, anyway. If Seattle got a new NBA ...

Posted Sun, Mar 8, 5:34 p.m.

When a government sells 20-year bonds, the ballpark figure for debt service is about 10% per year for 20 years. If $150 million in bonds is sold to remodel KeyArena, 10% of $150 million is $15 million per year for 20 years. That is the approximate debt service that the ...

Posted Sun, Mar 8, 10:28 a.m.

Mr. Baker: give us the numbers. If you think that "new money" tax revenues to the city of Seattle from an NBA team would come close to paying off a $75 million bond, then, you are the one who is "just dumb." As usual, you give zero facts and figures, ...

Posted Sat, Mar 7, 8:46 p.m.

Mr. Baker: How about showing everyone exactly how much revenue you expect an NBA team to generate for the city of Seattle that the city would not be getting without the NBA? Your fantasies and lies are getting old. Much of the money that would be spent on NBA tickets ...

Posted Fri, Mar 6, 10:41 p.m.

Kill the Mercer Street giveaway to Paul Allen boondoggle. Stop operating the S.L.U.T. Don't even think about putting any city revenue into remodeling KeyArena. The deficit becomes a surplus immediately.

Posted Mon, Mar 2, 10:03 a.m.

This is an excellent idea. As for trolley buses not being able to pass each other -- neither can streetcars. This article is about using trolley buses instead of streetcars, not instead of diesel buses. So that is a problem that both trolley buses and streetcars share. And, when a ...

Posted Wed, Feb 25, 9:09 a.m.

"Yes, New Rainier Vista and New Holly were re-built because of an initial infusion of federal housing dollars. However, each project depended on private developers coming in and building hundreds of units of market-rate housing. In both cases, light rail was a major factor in enticing those developers to build ...

Posted Tue, Feb 24, 5:27 p.m.

braddah wrote: "There's been some massive development on the corner of S Snoqualmie St and Martin Luther King Jr S. This is RIGHT NEXT TO THE RAIL." This is Rainier Vista, a public housing development that has been there for decades, and has been recently rebuilt, entirely separately from the ...

Posted Tue, Feb 24, 9:41 a.m.

Interesting that Belltown and Bellevue have such high density, and were built without any rail transit whatsoever. Suggesting that rail is not necessary for high density neighborhoods, if high density is what you want. Let's be honest about what these bills are really all about. This is an attempt to ...

Posted Sat, Feb 21, 10:22 a.m.

The first thing to cut is the projects which are a stupid waste of money in the first place, starting with the Mercer Street project, which would actually make traffic on Mercer Street worse than it already is. The city wants to waste tens of millions of dollars on this ...

Posted Fri, Feb 20, 4:10 p.m.

Cale: virtually anywhere in the Seattle area where zoning allows high-rises, they are built. It has nothing to do with whether or not there is light rail in those areas. See Bell Town. See Bellevue. See downtown Seattle. It is not light rail which spurs development. It is zoning, and ...

Posted Fri, Feb 20, 10:38 a.m.

I just find it funny that the light rail zealots kept telling us that building light rail would naturally result in "transit-oriented development." But, now that Prop 1 has passed, and the first segment of ST light rail is about to open, we find out that development does not naturally ...

Posted Mon, Jan 12, 8:51 p.m.

R on Beacon Hill is absolutely correct. This is not what the affected neighborhoods -- such as Queen Anne and Magnolis -- want, obviously. But, just as obviously, the mayor does not care about any neighborhoods other than downtown. I wonder if all the details in this story are correct. ...

Posted Tue, Jan 6, 1:22 p.m.

Back in the 60's when I was a kid, I remember a book with a picture showing the rockets that would regularly take people to the moon and back, sort of like taking the bus downtown. That was supposed to have happened many years ago. I also remember how "personal ...

Posted Wed, Dec 31, 12:39 p.m.

Excellent piece by Ted, as usual. I hope Ted continues to rip Sound Transit, as they so thoroughly deserve. As for the twits who say "get over it" about ST: I will get over light rail being built here as soon as ST stops taxing me to pay for their ...

Posted Fri, Dec 26, 1:48 p.m.

What we need in this city are more people who don't think the most important thing in the world is money.

Posted Fri, Dec 26, 10:28 a.m.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081226/ap_on_re_us/winter_weather "Slippery roads and cold have been blamed for seven deaths this week in Wisconsin; five in Ohio; four each in Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri; two in Kansas, two in Michigan, and one apiece in Illinois, Oklahoma, Iowa, Massachusetts and West Virginia." You think Seattle is the only place where ...

Posted Fri, Dec 26, 10:05 a.m.

So the U.W. shut down for 2 days, and that supposedly has some major economic impact on Seattle? Is it not possible that those 2 days will be made up, say during the spring break, or some other scheduled days off when the U.W. will now be open, as they ...

Posted Mon, Dec 22, 3:23 p.m.

Kent is absolutely correct about the streetcars and Mercer "improvement" project being boondoggles. The Mercer project will actally make travel times eastward in the afternoons much longer then they are now. It is not a transportation project at all, and is purely a prettification project, despite the lame potestations above ...

Posted Wed, Dec 17, 10:21 a.m.

Another small example is the S.L.U.T. Originally, they forecast 2,500 riders per day in its first year, when they were trying to get the plan ok'd. Then, after construction started, they changed the forecast to 1,000 riders per day. So, now that they have a little over 1,000 riders per ...

Posted Sun, Dec 14, 9:28 p.m.

Summary of key findings from this study: Summary of Key Findings The key report findings and facts as they relate to the key City Council issues include: ???????? The transportation analysis that the AWV team completed is adequate to determine that waterfront roadway traffic levels would not be “pedestrian-friendly” with ...

Posted Sun, Dec 14, 9:24 p.m.

https://www.seattle.gov/council/attachments/06awv_transportation_factors.pdf There's a link to a study on the mess it would be to replace the viaduct with a surface street.

Posted Wed, Nov 26, 5:42 p.m.

As I have been trying to tell people, the prices of steel and concrete have been plunging recently. The estimates for the cost of replacing the viaduct, and for the new 520 bridge are grossly over-stated. Those estimates were obsolete the moment they were put on paper. WSDOT should immediately ...

Posted Thu, Nov 20, 8:07 p.m.

As the economy tanks, construction costs of everything are falling fast. Just as the price of regular unleaded gas fell below $2 per gallon on average in the U.S. today -- down from over $4 per gallon just a few months ago -- the price of steel, concrete, copper, etc. ...

Posted Mon, Nov 17, 9:01 p.m.

I like Crosscut. I hope it succeeds. But are you trying to tell us that Crosscut has ever turned a profit? I find that hard to believe, but if it is true, I would like to know from you.

Posted Fri, Nov 14, 9:50 a.m.

The city council, except for Nick Licata, are nothing but lap dogs for the mayor. What a shame to have a council of such insipid little twits. The proposed Mercer Street project is a disgusting waste of over $200 million to change just FIVE BLOCKS of Mercer Street from a ...

Posted Thu, Nov 13, 9:57 a.m.

From today's P.I.: "THE ASSOCIATED PRESS OLYMPIA, Wash. -- State tax revenue in October was $53 million less than expected. A Washington Revenue Forecast Council report says sales tax receipts and other sources were nearly 6 percent below the level for the same month last year as retail trade declined. ...

Posted Tue, Nov 11, 8:05 p.m.

Let's keep in mind that all tax revenues, including hotel taxes and restaurant/bar taxes, are falling at a very fast rate. The amount of money available from any tax is going to be far less next year than had been expected. So there really won't be nearly as much money ...

Posted Tue, Nov 11, 8:02 p.m.

"Later this month, for instance, the third runway at SeaTac opens — eight years late, 20 years in the planning, 20 lawsuits later, and costing $1 billion (compared to early estimates of $430 million). Oh, and now that airlines are cutting back due to high fuel prices and consolidations, there's ...

Posted Thu, Oct 30, 6:36 p.m.

KeyArena is just fine the way it is, except for the NBA, which claims it needs improvements. If the NBA wants $150 million in improvements and is willing to pay that full $150 million, then that is what should be done. No other improvements are necessary. Lacrosse will pay for ...

Posted Thu, Oct 30, 4:21 p.m.

Minor league hockey left KeyArena because of the lease, not because of the building. Under the T-Birds' lease, the Sonics got most of the concession revenue from T-Birds' games. Without the NBA in KeyArena, a minor league hockey team could have a much better lease, and keep most of the ...

Posted Thu, Oct 30, 4:15 p.m.

An artifical turf playing surface for indoor lacrosse or arena football would only be the size of a hockey rink -- not nearly the size of a soccer field. That would not cost very much, and the cost would be covered by the rent the team(s) would pay to use ...

Posted Thu, Oct 30, 4:07 p.m.

"If the NBA wants to play in KeyArena they can pay for 100% of any upgrades they need." They are, it's 150 million from Steve Balmer." Perfect. Then if all the NBA needs is $150 million in improvements and Steve Ballmer will pay for all $150 million in improvements, then ...

Posted Thu, Oct 30, 3:33 p.m.

It is $20 million and that can all come from money KeyArena generates itself. No need for tax subsidies. KeyArena MAKES money on events. I said that KeyArena needed no tax subsidies at all, and it does not. The number of events in KeyArena is not important. If there are ...

Posted Thu, Oct 30, 10:54 a.m.

If the NBA does not need that $150 million in public money to make KeyArena suitable, then why should we spend it? We whould not. If the NBA DOES insist on that $150 in public money to improve KeyArena, then those improvements are for the NBA, obviously, and are subject ...

Posted Thu, Oct 30, 10:52 a.m.

The KeyArena report recommended $20 million be spent on KeyArena if the Sonics left -- not $30 million. That $20 million can come from the profits KeyArena is now making now that the debt has been retired. Those improvements can be made over the course of several years. There is ...

Posted Thu, Oct 30, 9:43 a.m.

By the way, all these revenue sources are going to be falling fast as we enter what will likely be a very deep and long recession. The hotel tax will not be generating nearly as much money in the next few years as had been anticipated. This is true of ...

Posted Thu, Oct 30, 9:38 a.m.

None of the $150 million KeyArena "improvements" is needed for anything other than the NBA. All of that money would be spent solely to satisfy an NBA team. Therefore, all of that $150 in public money would be covered under I-91. If that $150 million is not needed to attract ...

Posted Sun, Oct 26, 9:34 a.m.

Actual oil prices are less than half of what they were a few months ago, and falling steadily. What do oil futures have to do with anything? In 2004, what was the oil futures price for oil in October 2008? Do you know? Does that matter? Some traders may want ...

Posted Sat, Oct 25, 3:33 p.m.

Gasoline at Costco today: $2.64 per gallon. And falling fast. Oil consumption in the U.S. is now down by ten percent compared to last year. And that was before the stock market crashed this month. You people who worship light rail: could you at least try to get a few ...

Posted Sat, Oct 25, 1:16 p.m.

Gas just fell below $3 per gallon and is dropping like a rock. It's not going to get anywhere near $5, let alone $10 in the next several years. Jan makes no arguments at all. Light rail does NOT increase capacity through downtown Seattle, so you gain ZERO with light ...

Posted Fri, Oct 24, 5:59 p.m.

""Cost too much, does too little" is clever, but it doesn't tell the whole story. "Compared to what?" Compared to adding buses, which is going to happen because we already passed "Transit Now" in 2006, which will add about 60,000 transit trips by 2016. This is the same number of ...

Posted Fri, Oct 24, 12:46 p.m.

"Sound Transit, which Nickels strongarmed onto the ballot this year, is likely to fail." Are there some polls out showing this? If so, could someone please give us the numbers? If not, why does Brewster believe this?

Posted Fri, Oct 24, 11:04 a.m.

Average cost per household of Bridging the Gap: $155 per year Average cost per household of Prop 1: $300 per year Prop 1 would cost almost twice as much per household as Bridging the Gap. I already gave that information, genius. You have a reading comprehension problem? Bridging the Gap: ...

Posted Fri, Oct 24, 9:16 a.m.

Bridging the Gap Total cost -- $544 million over 9 years. Prop 1 Total cost -- at least $22 billion, and the tax does not end there. Bridging the Gap property tax: $155 per owner of $400,000 house (2007) Prop 1 sales tax: $300 per household in 2009 Bridging the ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 10:24 p.m.

Most Metro buses on main routes are full to capacity during peak hours. When buses are added, they fill up too. The people who ride those buses are people who would otherwise be driving cars -- they are not people who would be walking miles to work every day. So, ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 8:44 p.m.

jniles: Thanks for the list of Yes to Prop 1 contributors. That is pretty illuminating.

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 8:37 p.m.

"In Chicago there are buses and trains that go to both major airports. People take the train almost exclusively because it's easier on and off, more reliable, and more comfortable. During rush hour people in a hurry opt for the train because it's faster than a cab or the bus." ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 8:32 p.m.

"Because people only drive back and forth to work, right? I've lived in other cities with robust rail links in the city, along with lots of buses (Boston and Chicago). People ride the train... to the grocery store, out for dinner, to their friend's houses, to the library, etc. People ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 8:24 p.m.

"The reality is that if voters reject light rail this year, the idea expanding it north, south and east, won't go away. People will actually be riding it next year. That usually results in desire for more, not less, not a big wave of support for more buses instead. Maybe ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 8:22 p.m.

"I agree with Lincoln that the tunnel is underutilized by buses, but I'm having a hard time seeing them share it at all with rail. First train-bus fender-bender that happens will bring the commute to a screeching halt for hours." If Prop 1 passes, after all the light rail is ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 8:18 p.m.

"People who actually use transit would prefer that it get them where they're going in a predictable amount of time." So what? I don't feel like paying an extra 0.5% sales tax so 2% of trips have a better chance of arriving on time. That does NOTHING for me, or ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 8:16 p.m.

"Unless you walk or bike to work, your transportation is subsidized. Since I subsidize your car commute to work, you should use a bicycle from now on, since the roads don't have to be as wide and suffer less wear and tear. Otherwise, you can buy your own road." Everybody ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 8:08 p.m.

"So your plan is to do nothing, and wait for telecommuting to save us from congestion?" I would appreciate it if you would try reading my posts so I don't have to repeat everything. Prop 1 would reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by onlyl 1% by 2030. Is this your ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 12:37 p.m.

"Light rail has much more capacity in the bus tunnel than buses. It takes a full 2 minutes to empty even a small bus during rush hour." Ok. You just want to stay here and spew one lie after another. I have to leave, but I will be back. "It ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 12:31 p.m.

"Then we look at all of the new drivers we'll have to pay for all of this new capacity (not to mention the buses themselves, and their gas, and their maintenance)." ST has admitted that the OPERATING cost of light rail will be $1.24 per passenger mile. Metro buses cost ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 12:25 p.m.

How about where they [buses] get on and off freeways? Since one bus can replace 75 cars, adding buses will make it easier to get on and off freeways, because there will be many fewer cars.

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 12:24 p.m.

"Take a look at 3rd and 4th downtown - the bus stops are at capacity already." This is not true. They are not at capacity. They accomodated many more buses when the bus tunnel was temporarily closed. If Prop 1 passes, the light rail will exclude buses from using the ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 12:17 p.m.

"OK, so telecommuting, etc. don't require tax increases or subsidies. Presumably, then, this is happening on its own and is reaching some sort of equilibrium point. What's your magic plan to encourage it further without spending any money?" What makes you think those things are reaching some sort of equilibrium ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 11:46 a.m.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lightrailinitiative/2008283847_prop1soundtransit19m0.html Campaign contributions for both sides of the Proposition 1 campaign for this year, from the Seattle Times article on 10-19-08: "So far, the "yes" side reports $755,035 in contributions, led by companies that profit from rail projects, including engineering firms CH2M Hill and Parsons Brinckerhoff at $40,000 each. Opponents ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 11:35 a.m.

Matt: stop with the gibberish, or I will have to conclude you are a complete idiot. You wrote: "The 7% VMT reduction is great, but continuing to invest in subsidizing these techniques has diminishing returns." We don't need tax increases to increase tele-commuting, car- or van-pooling, or the 4-day workweek. ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 11:30 a.m.

Matt: you are joking, I assume. "The heavily funded no campaign"? LOL How stupid is that? Here is an article from the 2007 Proposition 1 campaign from the P.I.: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/337649_tranmoney01.html "Those for and against Proposition 1 have raised more than $4.9 million in cash and in-kind contributions -- dwarfing fundraising ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 10:49 a.m.

It would take me all day to rebut all the nonsense in this article, but I will address a few of the more ridiculous comments the author makes. 1) Traffic congestion CAN be reduced by adding more buses. One bus can carry 90 passengers, thus taking about 75 cars off ...

Posted Tue, Oct 21, 4:58 p.m.

I get so tired of the light rail zealots lying every time they discuss it. Like Matt's pathetic post: "Rail has the ability of moving the equivalent of IIRC 9 lanes of traffic." One light rail car has a capacity of 137 passengers, as noted in the SEIS from Sound ...

Posted Tue, Oct 21, 9:10 a.m.

MadisonAve makes no arguments, whatsoever. Just ignorant rants. What an adolescent clown he is. Van Dyk is right on, as usual. The light rail in Prop 1 would cost about $345 million per mile! This is about SIX TIMES what the most recent light rail extension in Portland cost. Talk ...

Posted Thu, Oct 16, 9:25 a.m.

Light rail will merely take people off of buses and put them on little trains at exhorbitant expense of taxpayers. The first light rail route is already well-served by buses. Light rail will not go anywhere that buses do not already go. So, what's the point? It would have been ...

Posted Thu, Oct 16, 9:16 a.m.

According to the ST website, the ride from downtown to the airport on light rail will take 36 minutes, then there will be an additional 1,000-foot walk from the light rail station to the terminal, which ST estimates will take 4 minutes, for a total trip time of 40 minutes ...

Posted Thu, Oct 2, 6:20 p.m.

this does not "fix" the Mercer Mess: The "Mercer Mess" is a traffic problem -- traffic on Mercer gets congested badly every morning and afternoon. If the city wants to "fix" the Mercer Mess, it must IMPROVE traffic flow in the area, because that is what the "mess" is all ...

Posted Mon, Sep 29, 8:50 p.m.

RE: Good Value?: Like a typical light rail disciple, Madison compares actual RIDERSHIP on Metro to CAPACITY on Sound Transit. The CAPACITY of Metro buses is several times the actual ridership. The CAPACITY of Metro is probably several million daily riders. Madison does not bother to provide the CAPACITY of ...

Posted Mon, Sep 29, 8:30 p.m.

RE: Good Value?: My facts are not mangled at all. Your comprehension of the facts is simply pathetic. I am talking about the sales tax INCREASES in both Transit Now and Prop 1. Compared to Transit Now, Prop 1 will cost about 6 and a half times more to produce ...

Posted Mon, Sep 29, 6:23 p.m.

RE: There is a Finite Amount of Tax the Public Can Bear: "Carpools, vanpools: Cost far more than light rail." What a foolish comment. If someone forms a carpool or vanpool it does not cost ME a dime. The people who use the car or van pool pay for it ...

Posted Mon, Sep 29, 3:53 p.m.

RE: There is a Finite Amount of Tax the Public Can Bear: "Please list these wonderfully cheap alternatives. Long-term, nothing beats rail even ignoring gas prices. Short-term, gas prices will become a very large concern that will hit not only car commuters but also buses." A few wonderfully cheap alternatives: ...

Posted Mon, Sep 29, 10:26 a.m.

Good Value?: Prop 1 is a good value? The authors do not even attempt to defend this absurd claim. Look at this in just two ways. Cost per mile of light rail. In Prop 1 the construction cost of the 34 miles of light rail extension is estimated at $11.8 ...