Seattle Weekly’s “20 things about Seattle we wish were a joke”- Trolleys vs. Bus Capacity
On the subject of balancing budgets & what is affordable in this economy, read #4 from Seattle Weekly (click here):
“We’re getting more public transit we don’t use and less of the transit we do“.
“They’re bright orange, they’re empty, and they seem to putter back and forth endlessly without reason: That’s the South Lake Union Streetcar. Then there’s the Metro buses: Yellow and aquamarine, they’re packed to the gills every rush hour with overburdened commuters. Which transit system would you rather see get more money? Sorry. Mayor Greg Nickels’ toy gift to Paul Allen is the one slated for expansion, as the Seattle City Council voted to explore extending the line to Pioneer Square and the U District. An extension to First Hill was slipped into the Sound Transit package approved by voters last November. Meanwhile, King County Executive Ron Sims announced in February that bus service may need to be cut by 20 percent due to a projected $100 million funding shortfall in 2010. Granted, the trolleys and buses are funded from different sources, but come on—$40 million per mile to lay down new putt-putt tracks when we could increase our bus trolleys for a fraction of that?
Sounds like it’s time to seriously rethink our whole scheme for getting from point A to point B.”
That's what Tacoma City Councilwoman Julie Anderson told the City Council during Tuesday's study session.
Anderson, a