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Does Seattle work any more?

Pike Place Market. A former mayor takes a critical look at Seattle's political culture, its past triumphs, and why it's so much harder today to make good decisions. One problem: We chew but do not swallow.

Sound Transit version 2.1

Imagine this scenario. Sound Transit comes back to ballot this fall with a shortened light rail plan and all three county executives within the voting district oppose it. Wouldn't that make for an interesting campaign season?

It might just happen. Right now, Ron Sims (King), John Ladenburg (Pierce), and Aaron Reardon (Snohomish) have grave reservations about Sound Transit's scaled-back proposal, which would extend the line up to Northgate and across the Interstate 90 floating bridge to the Eastside suburbs.

Is there a problem, officer?

Is there a problem, officer? Yeah there's a problem. It seems you were about to drive your shiny, black Volvo wagon into the Seattle bus tunnel under downtown.

Traffic's so bad, we might actually be willing to pay a toll

Toll booth. Puget Sound policy-makers have been taking the public pulse. Their surveys reveal that people are generally pessimistic about the future, frustrated with traffic, and willing to pay to cross Lake Washington in a car — as long as it's really cheap.

Give foot ferries the boot

First, a compliment to Bruce Agnew of the Cascadia Center for Regional Development. The guy keeps pushing for new ideas in transportation, even when the rest of us are running away from the Heartbreak House of bold new ideas to solve our congestion. Cascadia wants to grab the Eastside rail line that might otherwise be torn up for a walking trail and make it into a Snohomish-to-Renton commuter rail line. (Cheap, but the line does not really go where the cities are.) The institute wants to solve the Alaskan Way Viaduct problem by boring a tunnel under Second Avenue, deflecting the through traffic so the waterfront only needs a modest surface boulevard. (Expensive, and needing a private partner, which alarms public-sector Democrats.) And now, a network of foot ferries on Puget Sound.

The last train to Hooterville

Seattle Streetcar. If you're trying to get from the Cheesecake Factory to South Lake Union, this SLUT's for you.

The road ahead on federal transportation funding

How is the U.S. going to fund surface transportation improvements in the future? Congress created the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission in 2005 to look at just that question and their report to Congress is due out Tuesday, Jan. 15. But Ken Orski, a Washington, D.C.-based transportation consultant, has a sneak preview. He reports that it includes some fairly controversial recommendations regarding tolling, congestion pricing, public private partnerships, and the future of the gas tax, all front-burner issues here in the Great Nearby. Are you bus and rail commuters ready for a "federal ticket tax?" Or how about a tax on every mile you drive?

Fare coverage

Let's say you run a business and your front door opens 310,000 times a day to let customers inside. Many are regulars, going in and out a few times daily. They are mostly strangers to each other, and once inside they spend a lot of time crowded together in small spaces. At any given time, some are running late and very cranky; others are lonely or wasted; buried in a tattered copy of The Da Vinci Code; and/or just plain nuts.

If you had just three reports of people being hurt or harassed each day, people would think you were doing a decent job on the safety front, right? Yes, unless you're a public-transit agency.

Beyond Proposition 1: A new consensus is emerging

Rice-Stanton report. A group headed by Norm Rice and John Stanton is gathering allies for a more rational and practical approach to the region's transit needs. Both supporters and opponents of the failed Proposition 1 are part of the effort.

Season's greeting from the — 17th century?

Who would have thought that nearly a decade into the 21st century, downtown streetcars and the mosquito fleet would be making comebacks in Seattle? Instead of super-slick mag-lev mass transit, we'd be juicing up the old bus system, adding bike lanes and considering tearing down an elevated highway to replace it with a boulevard? In the holiday retail core, giant nutcracker soldiers stand guard outside of stores like cigar-store Indians of old. I guess they're cheaper than real cops: no overtime.

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Key Links

Washington

Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID)

Created by the Washington Legislature to develop a transportation package to be submitted to voters in fall 2007 in Snohomish, King, or Pierce counties. Coordinating work with Sound Transit.

Sound Transit 2

Sound Transit's plan for extensions to the regional mass transit system. Coordinating with the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID).

Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)

The state agency in charge of planning, construction, maintenance, and management of state roads, certain rail services, and ferries.

Washington State Transportation Commission

An independent agency of seven citizen members appointed by the governor. Responsibilities include working with the governor, the Legislature, and the secretary of transportation to set policy.

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