Posted Sun, Feb 22, 1:41 p.m.

To coolpapa You are right that we could improve 1-5, which would handle some of the through trips now taken on the Viaduct. To dbreneman -- transit does not need to handle every viaduct trip, it needs to handle some of them. A lot of cars come on and off ...

Posted Tue, Feb 17, 8:34 a.m.

The proposal to improve throughput on I-5 was to remove a couple of downtown exits to gain a lane. That would also improve flow on the downtown streets. One can also increase throughput by giving transit a little more priority on the express lanes. We also know that transit works ...

Posted Mon, Feb 16, 10:54 a.m.

WSDOT, SDOT and King County traffic engineers all agreed that the surface/transit/i-5 solution would handle the traffic just fine. Here's the explanation -- some street grid improvements, some more transit, improve throughput on 1-5, and it all adds up. Pretty simple really.

Posted Sun, Feb 8, 3:01 p.m.

"Seattle v. Suburbs", while convenient, is a pretty flawed frame through which to look at land use. Taking a finer grained approach and looking at neighborhoods is much more useful. Downtown Whitecenter, Kirkland, and Renton probably have more in common with Lake City and Greenwood than differences. The same is ...

Posted Fri, Feb 6, 2:10 p.m.

O'Brien is exactly what the council needs. We got light rail without onerous taxes for 184 miles of new highways, because he was willing to take a stand.

Posted Mon, Feb 2, 6:11 p.m.

Chris -- it is incorrect to suggest that everyone supports roads because the projects in RTID are ones that "both Republicans and Democrats believe are needed." Elected leaders logrolled their way into a Roads and Transit measure that got clobbered by the voters. ST alone passed handily when not yoked ...

Posted Mon, Feb 2, 8:48 a.m.

The voters have spoken on new highways as well by rejecting the Roads and Transit ballot measure in 2007 and then overwhelmingly passing Sound Transit in 2008. The public is not prepared to tax themselves for massive new highway projects, but they will tax themselves for transit. The reason no ...

Posted Fri, Jan 30, 9:39 p.m.

Compare apples to apples. Seattle's property taxes are not going up six percent.

Posted Mon, Jan 26, 10:06 a.m.

Good analysis. The megaprojects soak up our attention and dollars, while local streets and local transit decline. This makes it much harder to meet our long-term economic and environmental goals.

Posted Wed, Dec 31, 11:51 p.m.

With everything we know about global warming and its causes, why would we spend billions of dollars to promote the use of single occupancy vehicles? It appears as if our state and city goals to reduce global warming pollution do not really mean much to our elected leaders if they ...

Posted Mon, Dec 29, 11:09 a.m.

Global warming, pollution, waste and over-consumption are not "trivial." The Kyoto pledge, car-free days and bag fees are not "symbolic." They are first steps towards trying to address problems that are much larger than a bad snowstorm.

Posted Mon, Dec 29, 11:09 a.m.

Global warming, pollution, waste and over-consumption are not "trivial." The Kyoto pledge, car-free days and bag fees are not "symbolic." They are first steps towards trying to address problems that are much larger than a bad snowstorm.

Posted Fri, Dec 26, 9:14 p.m.

Northgate is very instructive about density, but there is one factual error in your piece, and one ambiguity deserving clarification. The Sierra Club did not endorse in the primary race between Schell, Nickels and Sidran. The Sierra Club endorsed Nickels over Sidran in the general election, after Schell had taken ...

Posted Fri, Dec 12, 8:31 p.m.

A couple of years ago the wise pundits told the Sierra Club that surface-transit was a pipe dream, support a tunnel or Olympia would force an elevated on us. The Sierra Club ignored the advice, supported Cary Moon's vision, and now the surface-transit option is the leading contender. Then the ...

Posted Wed, Nov 5, 3:29 p.m.

Winner -- the Sierra Club. A $5 million campaign in good economic times to pass roads and transit failed last year with the Sierra Club opposed. A 750K campaign in bad economic times for transit-only passed. The difference? No climate changing highways, and Sierra Club support. Further evidence that the ...

Posted Tue, Nov 4, 12:44 p.m.

Vote for parks and openspaces - as our city continues to grow and become dense, we need parks and open spaces to preserve our quality of life. Without this levy, funding for parks, trails and open spaces will decline dramatically. And the levy is only about $81 dollars a year, ...

Posted Fri, Oct 24, 7:16 a.m.

And this curious comment: "Another political factor is that the parks levy interrupted the carefully arranged queue for these special levies." Whose carefully arranged queue? Is that really an issue -- that the establishment did not get to decide what is best for us? C'mon, what goes on the ballot ...

Posted Fri, Oct 24, 6:41 a.m.

This levy isn't about the Mayor, and it isn't about City Council either. In the face of an expiring levy a community coalition called the Green Legacy Coalition came together to push for renewal. Without a renewal, capital spending on parks would go down dramatically, both to develop existing city ...

Posted Mon, Sep 1, 10:44 p.m.

Polls do show a bounce: Obama is enjoying a post convention bounce. See the articles below which show polls in which his lead has gone up approximately 5%. USA Today CBS = As for Palin's troubles not affecting the race -- it points to a seriously disorganized McCain campaign. NYT ...

Posted Tue, Aug 26, 9:46 p.m.

Vancouver and Portland: If car free days in Seattle chase you to Portland or Vancouver, better time it carefully. You would hate to run into streets full of people having fun linked text = linked text =

Posted Tue, Aug 26, 9:35 p.m.

The Point: Did any of you look at the streetfilms clip I posted? Closing a street for people to enjoy without cars is an event, no different from any other event. The point, so far as I can see, is that some folks don't like being reminded that cars are ...

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

Huh?: We close down 1-90 for the Blue Angels, 4th avenue for Seafair Parade, Montlake Bridge for Opening Day, Lake Washington Boulevard for bicycling, the viaduct for a running race-- the list goes on and on. So, why exactly all the carrying on about closing down some streets on summer ...

Posted Fri, Jun 20, 10:21 a.m.

Rights of Way: The street right of way on 62nd between 2nd and 3rd NW was never paved, so it became a p-patch as well as access to the homes fronting it. There are plenty of quiet streets in our town which could be converted from asphalt to p-patch, maintaining ...

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

Half right, half wrong: The essential point of the article is correct, but please, enough of the "straw man" arguments. Plenty of greens get that saving buildings is often the right thing to do. "Reduce, reuse, recycle" applies to buildings as well. The half right part is important -- we ...

Posted Sat, May 31, 11:30 a.m.

Seattle and transportation: In adopting its Climate Action Plan, Seattle had to determine which emissions it was responsible for, which requires some judgment calls. For example, Seattle took responsibility for a proportion of the flights in and out of Sea Tac Airport. In a recent City report, Seattle acknowledged that ...

Posted Fri, Mar 14, 9:43 p.m.

Definition of Housing: Is the median house price listed above single family houses, or does it include condos as well? I agree with the points raised above about creating jobs and more housing in the cities throughout the region. All of those cities with pre world war II street grids ...

Posted Tue, Mar 4, 8:34 p.m.

More misleading interpretation: The author above claims that the poll shows that the highest transportation priority for voters is various road projects, with green solutions like mass transit getting only 5% support as a high transportation priority. But the question he relies upon for this conclusion is about road priorities: ...

Posted Tue, Mar 4, 8:10 p.m.

A closer look at the poll: Environment not a concern for voters? My guess is that support for mass transit is rooted in environmental concerns, as is some of the concern about congestion and transportation. After all, autos are the most serious source of global warming pollution, as well as ...

Posted Mon, Jan 14, 2:13 p.m.

Choices: The construction worker in a pickup truck might appreciate reliably getting to the job site on time. Or back home in time to catch the kid's t-ball practice. The system we have now means he or she spends way too much time stuck in traffic.

Posted Wed, Dec 12, 9:15 p.m.

Compare to Transit Now: There is no surprise that Seattle voters support tax measures more than suburban voters, but Mr. Morrill draws the wrong conclusions about the cause of Prop 1's defeat. What is notable about Prop 1 is how poorly it did in usually pro-tax areas. That was the ...