A state income tax, higher Seattle parking rates, private waterfront development: budget woes can turn bad ideas into timely ones.
Electronic tolling coming to the 520 Bridge My Wallingford Starting in early October and continuing next year, Metro and Sound Transit will be adding nearly 130 bus trips a day across the SR 520 bridge. ... and more » |
 Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog) | SDOT installs first 'bike box' for cyclists Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog) Sound Transit's lawyers at Foster Pepper and Stoel Rives have put ... Aspects of this new ST2 measure seem wrong. We were discussing this . ... and more » |
King County Metro officials have raised bus driver pay dramatically while neglecting some promised service increases. Now, the wages threaten to cut into existing service.
 This seems timely-
These are the comments of Ted Van Dyk, writer for Crosscut, regarding an article by Knute Berger on transportation in the Puget Sound region:
Posted Tue, Sep 28, 10:20 a.m.Â
Good piece. As someone who lived in Boston, NY, DC and LA before returning home to Seattle 10 years ago, I can attest that local transportation congestion is minimal compared to that experienced in those metro areas. We are not at some transportation crisis point.
The Alaskan Way Viaduct and Evergreen Point Bridge must be replaced or retrofitted because they represent a threat to public safety. We are nearly 10 years late in dealing with them.
We have a totally unneeded Allentown trolley, from downtown to South Lake Union, to feed Vulcan Inc.’s desire for such a link (and with a bit of tourist-appeal trolleyism thrown in). It has been running near empty since Day One. We are beginning a First Hill streetcar system not to meet any particular transportation need. Existing buses could do it.
Sound Transit light rail actually will cost far more than the $18 billion sum you cite. The three-county system now being planned—which includes retrofitting the I-90 bridge for light rail—will take many years of capital construction. At the end of the period, congestion will not be reduced—same as with the Mercer Mess redo. The transportation need could be met immediately with simple and far less costly expansion of existing bus service.
We should not underestimate the degree to which these projects are driven by the economic self-interest of powerful local players—the Mercer Mess redo and trolley for Vulcan; light rail to feed the ST bureacracy, contactors and sub-contractors, law firms, financial and p.r. firms, and unions which feed at the light rail trough—and who keep campaign money coming to the elected officials who support light rail.
Badly missing in all of this are elected officials, at federal, state, and local level, with the capacity to examine priorities and options and, then, to choose those in the public interest.
Transportation should not be consuming such a disproportionate amount of local energy and resources. Much is being driven not by public need but by the voracious appetities of those who benefit financially from transportation projects.
— Ted_Van_DykÂ
See http://crosscut.com/2010/09/28/mossback/20197/Why-is-transportation-in-the-driver-s-seat—/?pagejump=2
Tonight, the case for a potential conflict of interest was laid out re: Bellevue City Council member Grant Degginger and his law firm Lane/Powell by a Bellevue citizen during public comment. Lane/Powell apparently represents Sound Transit and Degginger admitted he has tried and won a case for them.
After Degginger’s comments re: his involvement, he called out his challenger by disparaging a group she belongs to. That led to an escalation of conflicts between Council members.
See the streamed 09/27/10 City of Bellevue Council meeting on their website at: http://www.ci.bellevue.wa.us/bellevue_tv.htm