Newly elected Bellevue Mayor Don Davidson on the future of light rail in his fair city:
“They haven’t figured out how to get across Lake Washington. It’s going to be quite a bit of time before we see light rail being laid here.”
Um… when are anti-rail, Kemper Freeman toadies like Davidson going to pull their collective head out of the sand (or whatever dark hole in which they keep it)? Sound Transit has figured out how to get light rail across Lake Washington. It’s this fancy new technology they call a bridge. In fact, they plan to use the same center span of the I-90 floating bridge that was specifically designed to accommodate light rail in accordance with a memorandum signed by the city of Bellevue way back in 1976.
I understand that Davidson would prefer that East Link pass by the outskirts of Bellevue, or pass unseen through a half billion dollar tunnel (paid for by anyone but Bellevue taxpayers), or ideally, not be built at all. But statements like this one just makes him sound like an idiot.
“They haven’t figured out yet how to talk to others instantly. It’ll be a long time before this Pony Express Package reaches our Senators in Washington D.C.”
“They haven’t figured out yet how combustion works. It’ll be a long time before we can grill in the back yard.”
Thanks! You’ve been great. Tip your waitress. If you’re driving, Please, take your car.
All the Bellevue mayor meant is “they haven’t found out a way to get across Lake Washington that people will agree to.”
Speaking of bridges, which rock, and getting to Bellevue, which s*cks…
If you drive Eastbound on East Madison Street in Seattle’s Capitol Hill, at around 19th, you are presented with a beautiful view of the asphalt strip descending down to the Lake. Directly aligned with East Madison Street, seeming to rise above the street, are the hi-rises of downtown Bellevue.
East Madison Street would make a good third bridge to Bellevue, if we added a new bridge which extended North East, directly through Maydenbauer Bay, and onto 8th NE in Bellevue. The travel time could be about 5 or 6 minutes. Of course, I am talking cars here.
Then, there would be room to remove a couple of lanes from the I-90, relocating them to the new “S.R. 590 straight-shot”.
The plan of putting light rail on the I-90 doesn’t appeal because it includes planned-for deaths resulting from the narrowed I-90 lanes. 11-foot lanes are scary and people don’t want to drive in them.
The Aurora Bridge is scary during heavy traffic. Similarly, people who use the I-90 don’t want to trade the comfort of a few more lane feet. We all know that changing lane widths to the narrowest allowed width will result in a marginal increase of traffic fatalities in exchange for the environmental benefit of implementing light rail.
re 2: We must ask ourselves: “What would Lee Iacocca do?”
105,000 daily riders by 2006…hahahahha
hey, whats not to love about ST’s light rail – where success is defined by bringing in the project at twice the budget with barely 10% the expected ridership.
WOOHOO! Man, I cant wait to flush more of my hard earned money down that toilet!
If I was one of those Bellevue citizens (voted for light rail by 60%) I would be embarrassed by this new puppet Mayor in Bellevue.
Talk about an airhead. Davidson isn’t real smart on the stump – so it could be an interesting year of gaffs and goofs.
But, hey, at least the new mayor has got kooks like lebowski and X on is side.
STB hit the nail on the head:
http://seattletransitblog.com/.....s-surface/
Here is the extent of lebowski’s analytical skills, via TVD thread from the other day:
salmon-loving william ruckelshaus endorsed davidson in 11-09 election. please make a note of it.
Yep, old school Repubs supporting old school Repubs. Big deal, boomer.
As for Fake lebowski: the REAL Lebowski liked the train. And it looks like more than 3 people joined him back in July.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....de21m.html
@7….wrong again pumpy….
daily ridership averages about 19,000 people….you can look it up – that info is straight from Sound Transit.
@9…..just remember Jaster, we were promised 105,000 daily riders for HALF of what we paid.
How do you feel about that?
oh, and by the way, I drove along I-5 again today and saw just a very few people inside the train as it went from Tukwilla to Seattle.
You dopes need to admit that this white elephant is a failure.
Just so we are clear:
FANTASY AND LIES: 105,000 riders PER DAY by 2006…..
REALITY: 19,000 riders(at best) PER DAY in 2009 FOR TWICE THE ORIGINAL BUDGET.
if thats not an EPIC FAIL, then I dont know what is.
Lebowski’s wrong because he’s generalizing from biased, non-probability samples.
It wouldn’t hurt to open the transit marketplace to private owner, operators. We might get some new ideas. And save a bunch of dollars and cut pollution at the same time while help low income people get to work.
@13…So you dont believe ST’s own numbers?
Goldy spews: “Sound Transit has figured out how to get light rail across Lake Washington. It’s this fancy new technology they call a bridge.”
Utter bullshit, Goldy. The mayor is absolutely spot on. There are a number of unresolved engineering issues remaining, any one of which could pull the plug on that crossing project. For Christ’s sake, Goldy, this was discussed on your own damned blog! Maybe you should read it more often. I’m not saying that there will be no engineering solutions, but if any of those issues can’t be resolved then there possibly could be no rail crossing on that bridge. Talk politics, Goldy, you shine at that, but engineering? Sigh! Not so much.
@14 “It wouldn’t hurt to open the transit marketplace to private owner, operators.”
That was tried 100 years ago, and two things happened: A handful of tycoons got rich by gouging the working class with monopoly fares, and all the private transit companies went bankrupt after the financiers stripped them of their profits and assets.
If you want 1890s transit, get a horse.
From the column linked @6: “Almost all of North King is Seattle – so essentially, Seattle taxpayers paid for Beacon Hill.”
That’s patently untrue. The city limit is at N. 145th Street, and the county line is at N. 205th Street, so there are dozens of square miles and tens of thousands of residents in North King County who aren’t Seattle taxpayers who pay the same Sound Transit taxes that Seattle residents pay.
@ 17 Roger does it ever occur to you that maybe you don’t know everything?
You might wish to take a look at the Public Utilities Holding Act of I believe 1935. And before that the history of the jitneys in about 1915-1920 when the streetcar companies got together with their buddies in city hall and outlawed the jitneys. Btw check out the Journal of Law and Economic. In a article on the subject of jitneys it was noted that Seattle had 518 jitneys carrying some 49,000 passengers daily in February of 1915. How many and at what costs does the light rail carry today?
If you’re against openness that fine. And 1890 was 120 years ago. Not 100.
It is us working class types who are being screwed today. Paying taxes for services we don’t get.
lebowski!
105,000 IS NOT A 2006 NUMBER – and it has never been a 2006 number. I believe it’s either a 2020 or 2030 number.
@20 –
Look at what voters were told to expect by the local law “Sound Move” (App. D, Table 16). By 2006 there were supposed to be 105,000 daily light rail boardings. The actual number now is about 14,000 per day (the Dec. boardings fell from the month before). Granted, there are three fewer stations than were planned, but the light rail boardings numbers are terrible.
The Sounder numbers are lousy as well. By 2006 there were supposed to be 16,000 daily Sounder boardings. The actual number is about 9,300. That’s a 7% drop from the same period last year. You can see those recent figures in the most recent ridership report at ST’s website (the projection for 2006 is in that same Sound Move table referenced above).
ST’s hauled in about $5 BILLION in regressive taxes since 1997. It’s hurt our economy, and will continue to do so. This is a destructive force in this region, and exceedingly few people use it. None of that is likely to change.
If you don’t like the Link ridership numbers get out of your filth-spewing cars and start riding the damn thing! You’re either part of the problem, or part of the solution.
And BTW, that 105,000 number that (fake)lebowski keeps spewing is for when Link is serving the U-District and Northgate.
@22….so we are going to pick up 90,000 riders a day from the U-district and Northgate? hahahahhahaha….you dipshit.
and no thanks, I like my CO spewing car – its much more practical…and fun!