Posted Mon, Apr 23, 11:37 p.m.

This is a fine article. But its most important feature is that is too late. The First Hill streetcar has been launched. Transport choices are made in the political realm. Economic and technical factors are only part of the decision making. The mode choice may have been made in 2006. ...

Posted Fri, Apr 13, 9:18 p.m.

While studying economics, I read TANSTAAFL: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. That applies to parking spaces as well; they are not free. If transit agencies provide free parking, it comes at a capital cost, in land and material, and an operating cost, in maintenance. The parking ...

Posted Tue, Apr 3, 12:03 a.m.

for Tom Heller, Columbia Indiana, see above. Link will be more reliable than the bus routes, especially in the reverse peak direction (opposite the flow of the I-5 reversible lanes); Link will provide much better speed and reliability to both the U District and Capitol Hill. The NTC routes are ...

Posted Sat, Mar 31, 2:42 p.m.

Rhonwyn and many others drive to Northgate; Simon and many other retailers provide free parking. That is fine. I suspect short term parking for retail will be free and plentiful for decades. The Royer issue is: should transit funds be used to provide commuter parking in the urban center.

Posted Wed, Mar 28, 10:09 p.m.

Royer's first several paragraphs are pretty fair, but deserve some comment. Nickels did initiate the GDP discussion, but the council, led by Conlin and Steinbrueck, helped redirect the south lot toward a TOD and daylighted creek rather than a detention pond. Nickels proposed rezone was too modest and focused on ...

Posted Sat, Feb 25, 8:59 p.m.

of course the Amazon expansion is more important than the potential arena and long shots at professional teams. who would doubt it? perhaps Royer's comment is more about the media focus. the NBA is a cartel. they profit from monopoly power as 40 cities compete for 30 teams; billionaire owners ...

Posted Tue, Feb 14, 9:06 p.m.

nice piece. a key point: the NBA is a cartel; 40 cities fight for 30 teams. the billionaire owners make money, not on operations, except in the largest markets, but as tax right offs against other profitable holdings and by selling to the next billionaire. as the Maloofs are targeting ...

Posted Tue, Feb 14, 8:54 p.m.

the penultimate TVD paragraph makes sense; ST already has forecast low ridership from Link to Federal Way; it would not be competetive for FTA funds; south King County riders need service today, not decades from now; ST has already provided center access ramps at South 317th Street; the capacity of ...

Posted Tue, Dec 27, 11:25 a.m.

simorgh: yes, the Elliott and 15th Avenues West project was planned and executed under Nickels, not McGinn.

Posted Mon, Dec 26, 7:15 p.m.

Mayor McGinn's policies toward cycling are about the same as those of Nickels; the implementation of three-lane profiles began in the 70s with California Avenue SW, Broadway, and North 45th Street and have continued under every subsequent administration. Cars are not incredibly safe as they run into each other or ...

Posted Mon, Dec 26, 7:57 a.m.

the premise of the piece, that Seattle is hostile to bicycling may be false. attitudes towards cycling in Seattle, as in most places, are varied. I have been a bicyle commuter since 1971, so have pedealed many miles in Seattle. sure, there have been incidents of harrassment and hostility, but ...

Posted Sun, Dec 4, 5:57 p.m.

Nelson is correct; the federal highway trust fund is on fumes; there is too much tax aversion to increase the federal gas tax. ST has applied for FTA grants on its lines that are cost-effective and competitive for FTA funds. That may not be the case with East Link. The ...

Posted Sun, Nov 27, 6:28 p.m.

The central Puget Sound region, variously defined as the four-county Puget Sound Regional Ccouncil, the partial three-county Sound Transit, or perhaps including Thurston, needs investment and more transport maintenance than the Legislature will give it. Although there should be a statewide gas tax increase and additional indexing, so that its ...

Posted Sat, Nov 26, 10:02 p.m.

I seriously doubt the TVD premise; there is almost no chance that Seattle will attempt a rail vote in 2012; the council majority has yet to pay for the new seawall and the other deep bore projects (e.g., utility relocation will be on rate payers; Mercer West? new Elliott connector); ...

Posted Mon, Nov 21, 9:40 p.m.

Dick Nelson is correct to be skeptical and analytical. Please note the TMP is draft. Nelson over states its text as recommendations; it has few. It aims to chart a 30-year course for Seattle to improve transit with a focus on capital and the allocation of lane space, curb space, ...

Posted Mon, Sep 5, 9:06 p.m.

we have plenty of governments. As Steinbrueck asserts, some have weak powers due to our 19th century state constitution. but cities have the relevant power of zoning. one legislative agenda: cities and counties could ask the Legislature for the powers they think are lacking. one policy that would help greatly ...

Posted Sun, Aug 14, 8:57 p.m.

the gas tax is much easier to collect than the street utility that requires arcane measurement and is subject to appeal. with the gas tax, it is no tax, no fill up.

Posted Sun, Aug 14, 8:55 p.m.

MacDonald's piece is excellent. I have often cited our transport maintenance deficit on this site. as Doug makes clear, the problem is decades long. Note the comment about Germany. In Europe and Japan, gas taxes are the equivalent of several dollars per gallon. This is the course we should follow. ...

Posted Sat, Jul 9, 3:54 p.m.

Cheryl's post is also a sound warning. additional traffic will be drawn through Pioneer Square to both the north-south avenues and to South Jackson Street and all are important pedestrian and transit streets. In addition, the poorly conceived First Hill Streetcar, if implemented, will further gum up traffic and transit ...

Posted Thu, Jul 7, 9:14 p.m.

many reasonable folk share the authors' view. but ouch! there are three key issues with the deep bore: political, fiscal, and environmental. politically, we are divided: in the city and between the city and the state. fiscally, the state has a much larger appetite for highway mega projects than they ...

Posted Fri, Jun 10, 3:24 p.m.

dmiller asserts that zoning policy is pushing single family out of Seattle; to the contrary, about 70 percent of the city is zoned single family and several administrations have attempted to focus denser development in urban villages and urban centers. single family zoning is among the third rails of Seattle ...

Posted Wed, May 25, 12:54 p.m.

the deep bore debate is in the context of a state and national tax aversion that is leading to infrastructure failure. it has happened before. in that context, deep bore opponents are correctly questioning whether the deep bore is the first project that should be funded with the capped state ...

Posted Mon, May 23, 2:08 p.m.

the Brewster points on the waterfront seems off, as the waterfront would be opened with the I-5 surface and transit option as well; both will have the new Elliott-Western arterial in place of the AWV; even the deep bore has a six-lane arterial connecting with the south portal. the deep ...

Posted Mon, May 23, 2:02 p.m.

the GaryP point re top two primary is irrelevant; the top two changed partisan elections; Seattle elections were non partisan and already top two.

Posted Fri, May 6, 5:57 p.m.

Local governments are creatures of the state government. The transportation benefit district (TBD) is just one. The countywide ferry district, flood control district, and its own TBD are three more. The voters will know to hold city councilmembers accountable if the Seattle TBD does terrible things. It is the tool ...

Posted Thu, Mar 17, 11:23 p.m.

There is plenty of parking in Pioneer Square. That is not the problem. There is commercial parking, curbside parking on Yesler Way up the hill, parking on the water front. Pioneer Square needs more people. It has transit service, beauty, charm, art, coffee, and bars. The city is correct to ...

Posted Sun, Jan 16, 7:38 p.m.

very nice piece. the "mass" of mass transit is needed in only a few corridors. there are lessons from the Redmond and Burien TODs: as the transit agency funds are quite scarce, they should not build structured parking unless is used multiple times during the day. single use commuter parking ...

Posted Sun, Oct 10, 11:25 p.m.

It is the council majority who has made a fuss about maintaining the co-lead status, not the mayor. The Council and state think it is important.

Posted Sat, Oct 9, 2:03 p.m.

bicycle culture is quite varied. the spandex set on light road bikes is the fastest riding crowd. the fastest growing segment may be wearing regular clothes and travel on neighborhood streets with all the trip purposes that cars are used for: commuting, shopping, and leisure. the hipsters and the poor ...

Posted Sat, Oct 9, 1:54 p.m.

Prof. Locke is a fine man. His piece attributes motives to Mayor McGinn that are mere guesses and probably false. That's OK, the piece was fun. Mayor McGinn has proposed quite reasonable incrases in parking meter rates and span. I would guess his motivations are sincere and related to economics ...

Posted Tue, Sep 28, 11:06 p.m.

Berger's sixth point could be emphasized more. Maintenance and basic infrastructure are starved in favor of the mega projects. It is worse than stated; he left out the $2 billion needed to rehab I-5 in Seattle, the $1 billion needed to add sidewalks to the north Seattle arterials that lack ...

Posted Tue, Sep 28, 10:25 p.m.

Hinshaw's piece is solid. I enjoy the park from both land and water via a dory. It will get better. In 1969, I walked by the lake to my busboy job at Kim's Broiler. We are growing. One sentence is incomplete: "The South Lake Union Streetcar already allows many people ...

Posted Thu, Jul 29, 12:05 a.m.

Councilmember Godden was a journalist and an expert on language. Why has she used such sloppy mud slinging? Perhaps the deep bore debate uses the term cost over runs too much. WSDOT has a preliminary estimate. When the bidders actually bid, WSDOT will have a project budget. There will be ...

Posted Sat, Jul 17, 4:46 p.m.

Representative Carlyle has a vote in the State House. The Legislature and Governor together have the power to address some major issues in transport, but they suffer from tax aversion. There are at least four legislative initiatives required: a significant increase in the gas tax, with part of it devoted ...

Posted Fri, Jul 16, 1:56 a.m.

Doug, here is the phrase in the RCW: " (b) The state's contribution shall not exceed two billion four hundred million dollars. If costs exceed two billion four hundred million dollars, no more than four hundred million [dollars] of the additional costs shall be financed with toll revenue. Any costs ...

Posted Thu, Apr 1, 2:40 p.m.

Skolnick and Campbell have high jacked the thread to discuss the AWV replacement. The key point of the piece is infrastructure maintenance. At all three levels of government, it is due to tax aversion. Consider these examples. The federal highway trust fund in on vapors. The federal gas tax has ...

Posted Sat, Jan 16, 5:59 p.m.

McGinn has suggested a levy amount. It may provide latitude for a variety of design options. If it does not, the Council could chose to increase the amount during their discussion. It will take five votes just to get it to the spring ballot. Since the seawall is failing, it ...

Posted Mon, Dec 7, 7:34 p.m.

Jarrett has since been hired by Constantine to help manage the government. The terms region and regionalism are used frequently but have fuzzy definitions; they mean everything and nothing. King County is sometimes referred to as a regional government, as its countywide services of criminal justice and transit service serve ...

Posted Mon, Nov 16, 11:17 p.m.

Brewster's piece hit several flat notes: Licata does not seem tired; Hutchinson is no moderate and most KC voters learned that; Dull and moderate is not a winning combination. The Bagshaw election and the affrimation of Ref. 71 and the defeat of Eyman's initiative are victories of moderation. It was ...

Posted Sun, Nov 8, 3:57 p.m.

Excellent discussion. I have read Jacobs and Flynn and Sucher. I have given each incoming Councilmember a copy of Jacob's Death since the mid 90s. Burgess gave me a copy of Flynn's Battling Moses and I read it last week. Asking what Jacobs would do is a bit like asking ...

Posted Thu, Oct 1, 10:18 p.m.

shopping with the auto are directly correlated with the cost of land; the higher the land cost, the more difficult it is to store the car and the more dominant the pedestrian becomes; there are great shopping areas throughout the world at all levels of density and auto use, but ...

Posted Wed, Sep 16, 10:28 p.m.

Brewster begins with a naval analogy, but shifts to boxing. the reported parries from McGinn do not seem low blows, but rather sharp counter punches, based on facts and a better understanding of Seattle's recent political history, against an oppenent who has flung a weak response. A low blow is ...

Posted Thu, Aug 6, 10:44 p.m.

odland and unter: yes, the AWV attracts an average of 110K vehicle trips per weekday, but that is measured south of Seneca Street and many are oriented to and from downtown Seattle. the number of trips in the Battery Street tunnel may be about 50K per weekday; they are the ...

Posted Thu, Aug 6, 10:09 p.m.

the deep bore option is now under study. wsdot is to report to Olympia at the end of the calendar year if they estimate it can, in fact, be built for the amount of the early guess. if not, what will happen to the supposed concensus? the agreement by the ...

Posted Mon, Jun 22, 7:19 p.m.

Vancouver has some other positives: it has no limited access highway; its electric trolleybus network has good service frequency; and, the harborside trail is grand. Seattle neighborhood markets are a nice addition. On the eastside, Kirkland deserves more praise than Bellevue: it has more population density; it treats pedestrians well; ...

Posted Thu, Jun 18, 12:26 a.m.

Brewster meant to write O'Brien, not McGinn in his update. Art is correct about the cost estimate: it is not due until the end of the year. Suppose it comes in higher than the $2.8 billion WSDOT has in allocated gas tax revenue and tolls? It would not really be ...

Posted Fri, Feb 13, 1:40 p.m.

"urban sprawl" is an oxymoron; if it is urban, it is not sprawl; if it is sprawl, it is not urban. Urban areas have street and sidewalk grids, making them walkable. Sprawl areas have incomplete street grids and sidewalks are scarce. For the most part, urban areas were developed before ...

Posted Sat, Feb 7, 2:33 p.m.

Vance missed some critical factors. SJenner is correct, maintenance of both local and state roads is underfunded; that should have a higher priority than capacity expansion. we need some "eat your broccoli" leaders to fund maintenance. After the 2007 Prop One failed and South Park bridge replacement was left unfunded, ...

Posted Mon, Feb 2, 9:55 p.m.

some potential caretakers would be strong executives. consider Locke, Revelle, Hill, Lowry, Rice, Choe, Noland, Royer, and Uhlman. A key difference between Phillips and Constantine on the one hand, and Patterson and Fergeuson on the other hand, is that the former pair represent even-numbered council districts and have a free ...

Posted Sun, Jan 18, 10:09 p.m.

Seattle would do well to ask the state to impose dynamic tolls quickly on I-5, the Battery Street tunnel, and the AWV. Such tolling is needed to manage demand and raise funds. The deep bore tunnel will require deep pockets.

Posted Sun, Jan 18, 10:07 p.m.

Drago was the leading elected official advocating the deep bore tunnel. The story is still playing out. The AWV is quite complicated as it requires action by three governments, each of which has an executive and a legislative branch. The Drago bore solution requires a major fiscal lift from the ...

Posted Thu, Jan 8, 6:01 p.m.

Rice was 1989; Schell was 1997. McDermott came "out of Africa" to take the 7th District seat. Godden filed at the last minute against Nicastro and her less famous challengers. Fame is the common denominator. Almost all voters already know Nickels and have opinions about him.

Posted Fri, Jan 2, 5:58 p.m.

I am less cynical about Seattle elected officials. They listen plenty. That takes time; that is the infamous Seattle process. Small "d" democracy is costly. There are a wide variety of views among the citizenry; there is even some variation among the electeds. An advisory panel is not granted power, ...

Posted Fri, Dec 26, 4:22 p.m.

The Brewster review gives too much credit to Mayor Nickels for the Northgate progress. Why is the glass half full? Nickels has the correct objectives, but needs significant help from the Council. The Lorig development is quite good. This sentence understates the role of the Council: "The new mayor inserted ...

Posted Thu, Dec 4, 6:15 p.m.

Bjorn's post is a good approach: maintenance over new construction. Several bridges need retrofit or replacement and are not funded by bridging the gap: Magnolia, the 2nd Avenue Extension South viaduct over the BNSF mainline, and the South Park Bridge. The bridging the gap pavement management program could be accelarated. ...

Posted Sat, Nov 29, 4:17 p.m.

from a basketball perspective, Presti made more good moves in the summer, aquiring Desmond Mason and Joe Smith for Ridnour. Firing PJ was good too, as he had lost the players and was like Bob Hill is showing too much faith in the Wally Walker trio of disappointing seven-footers (e.g., ...

Posted Wed, Oct 22, 9:24 p.m.

Most of the responses have addressed Prop One, 2008. Though Van Dyk's piece contained several glaring errors, he probably reached a reasonable recommendation. University Link LRT between CPS and the UW Stadium Station is already funded and is not at stake in this election. The Montlake Cut crossing is quite ...

Posted Sat, Oct 18, 2:18 p.m.

Brewster is correct that ST2 is a gamble in 2008 and Nickels wants to ride the Obama tide. Subarea equity does not stand in the way of a more sensible plan. Bus and transit investmenets on the BNSFRR-POS ROW could substitute well for the esat and south Link LRT extensions. ...

Posted Mon, Sep 1, 10:52 a.m.

Brewster's nugget: Seattle should reconsider parallel parking to make transit, freight, and bicycles flow better. Its comp plan calls for more bicycle riding AND transit riding. To date, it has created bike lanes through road diets: shifing four-lane arterials to three-lane arterials. The last big fight was over Stone Way ...

Posted Wed, Aug 20, 10:35 p.m.

seattle streetcar south lake union line: the beauty of the subject acronym is that it captures the Nickels-Vulcan use of scarce federal grant funds and Metro service subsidy to help Vulcan market its office buildings and condos while providing very little transit benefit. it is only 1.3 miles long and ...

Posted Wed, Jul 23, 11:47 p.m.

sand point hangers: CR, did Council consider adding maintenance for the Sand Point hangers that have been in the news as private sector interests negotiate to sign long term leases?

Posted Thu, Jun 26, 12:52 a.m.

MacDonald, Eddy, and Richard: Thanks to MacDonald for a wonderful series. I doubt either MacDonald nor Representative Eddy are anti LRT, let alone anti transit. They are skeptical about the cost-effectiveness of the East Link LRT program. Could more transit ridership be attracted and better support to our environmental objectives ...

Posted Mon, May 26, 3:09 p.m.

gas: Would gas price increases look less dramatic if measured in another currency aside from the weakening dollar?

Posted Mon, May 26, 3:04 p.m.

right of way and budget constraints: Carless made one very good point at the end of the string: the most important initiative is systemwide dynamic tolling of the limited access highway system. This will promote better flow by of all modes: transit, freight, and general purpose traffic. Long distance intercity ...

Posted Fri, Nov 9, 5:26 p.m.

large counties: Surprisingly, I largely agree with Vance. The three counties of central Puget Sound, Snohomish, King, and Pierce, have good government through good structure and good elected officials. Vance may have given too little credit to the executives. The interplay between the two branches of county government that keep ...

Posted Sun, Oct 7, 7:56 p.m.

law of demand: Mr. Vance mischaracterizes the purpose of congestion pricing. For a Republican, who usually trumpet market-based solutions, this is troubling. It is not just to shift highway users to other modes, but also to shift them to other times of the day. If flow can be maintained at ...

Posted Fri, May 18, 12:46 p.m.

fortson brick: The last stuka analogy is flawed; both Fortson and the public resentment are thick; but he has real skill (e.g., good hands, passing, shooting) and did not shoot many bricks. The serious parts of the post are sound and consistent with a nice recent Art Thiel piece. The ...

Posted Mon, May 7, 6:27 p.m.

RE: Going my way?: Please reconsider the Piper post and analogy. "Except the difference between a road and a movie is that no matter when you drive on the road, your impact upon it is the same, whereas a cheaper price for the matinee acknowledges that unsold seats are just ...

Posted Sat, May 5, 11:26 p.m.

berger, roadway pricing, sims, social engineering: Berger terms tolling a favorite of social engineers. All public policy is social engineering. We have policy discussions to decide what kind. Since WWII, our social engineering has zoned against mixed use development and walkable communities, used federal funds to build an un-priced limited ...

Posted Thu, May 3, 3:09 p.m.

palmer bicycle satire: I've enjoyed Palmer's work. This one attracted 66 previous responses. Wow. I have cycled Seattle's streets since 1971; did it again this morning. But I am multimodal; I also drive, take the bus, and row a dory. We need to get along and follow the golden rule. ...

Posted Thu, May 3, 2:29 p.m.

soops and ST: David Brewster, Your source seems to suggest an arena along the weak south-first Link LRT line that will open in late 2009, extend to the airport in 2010, and will need new riders. The East Link LRT is many years away and dependent upon significant new revenue ...

Posted Thu, May 3, 10:32 a.m.

corr and bus tunnel closure: Corr misstated the results of the transit tunnel closure mitigation. Buses that had operated in the tunnel before September 2005 ran about 10 minutes slower through dowtown. But, on average, all the downtown Seattle buses ran about the same as before. There were only 70 ...

Posted Fri, Apr 20, 12:08 a.m.

zoo garage alternatives: Andrews may be optimistic that the City and Zoo will shift the funding from the garage. I hope they do so. When this was before the Council initially, it seemed obvious that it was not fiscally sound and the increased construction cost has worsened that. Council central ...