Vanpools are the safest, cheapest and most cost effective transit mode for connecting commuters with urban employment centers.

The PSRC estimates that if the Destination 2030 plan were fully implemented it would reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) by about 4.1 percent for a cost of $40-$45 billion. If vanpools were expanded to reach their market potential, they could reduce VMT by up to 9.3 percent for only $2.5 billion.

Without any onerous government regulations, social engineering or loss of mobility, vanpools could reduce regional Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) by between 4 million to 9 million miles per day by 2030.

The winner in the Nov. 3 election will help decide whether to raise fares, raise taxes, cut service or cut spending for employees in the nation's seventh-largest public bus-transit agency.

Interesting story in The Seattle Times this morning about the emergence of a 2007 Alaskan Way Viaduct earthquake simulation and whether the timing of its delayed release is in any way related to next week's mayoral election. From Jim Brunner's story: The state kept that video secret until Sunday night, when it granted an exclusive airing to [...]

This morning, seattletimes.com (WSB partner) follows up on the WSDOT Viaduct-earthquake-simulation video release with a few more tidbits, including the price tag - which many asked about in comments here and elsewhere after the video started making the rounds Sunday night: $80,000. The Times story also questions why the video turned up “first” on a KING5 newscast - though it does not mention what we pointed out here Sunday night: WSDOT actually published the video to YouTube on Friday (which you can verify through Google Video Search, as well as the datestamp on the ...

At one of the Antiplanner’s presentations in Houston, a member of the audience representing the Citizens’ Transportation Coalition propsed that Houston’s light rail was a success. I asked how he defined “success,” and his answer seemed to indicate that the fact that it carried lots of riders made it a success. Wikipedia says Houston’s light [...]

 Sound Transit estimates its light rail expansion will carry only 163,000 daily trips by 2030, at a cost of $22.8 billion.

The average passenger load for a vanpool is 8.14 riders per van, so vanpools in the Puget Sound could carry about 193,000 trips per day by 2030 for a public cost of about $2.5 billion.

The Fiscal Crisis At Metro Transit The Daily Score (blog) He mostly rides the Metro 358, 5, 48 and 70 and the Sound Transit 550, plus whatever comes along in the downtown transit tunnel. It's a fundamentally worthy ... and more »