Goldy talked about how he’s going to vote no on everything:
We gave you your gas tax. We gave Ron his buses. But you refused to give us our light rail. And you did so believing that despite being dicked over on the one thing we really wanted, we would remain good progressives, pragmatically voting to tax ourselves for good infrastructure projects, whenever they came our way. Well fuck that.
What’s more, if Ron Sims “green transit package” looks like some BRT, variable tolling piece of shit, then I’m out. Fuck ’em. People who talked absolute shit for months about Prop 1 and then demand that I be reasonable and negotiate? Fuck them. Ron Sims and the Sierra Club savaged the proposed line to Tacoma for months, and I’m supposed to shrug that off and roll with it? Erica C. Barnett’s title says “Pro-Light Rail Enviros May Have Swung Prop. 1 Election.”
Well, but…
The Sierra Club didn’t campaign on a pro-transit theme. They campaigned on an anti-global warming theme (I remember, I was there).
All the players in this game are figuring out what this election means, and what the next step is. I want to see Sound Transit go right back to the voters in November of 2008, a high turnout election where liberals will vote in droves, with the same 50 miles of rail and the rest. To me, anything else is unacceptable, and will get a big fat ‘no’ vote from me.
Why would anyone think light rail will increase their commute time? Do they think the train will get tied up in traffic?
I appreciated Goldy’s piece, but your swearing sounds band-wagon-ish to me.
Further, please don’t fall into the SLOG “we-bold-things-that-are-actually-our-point-instead-of-just-making-our-point”
trap. I can only hope that you’re mocking ECB with that bolded sentence.
And I sort of agree: we want discrete projects to vote on. Give me Sound Transit, or a bridge, or a viaduct. If it’s generic “transportation” funding, take care of it in Olympia or DC.
People who are really in favor of ‘choice’ would realize that if you have a choice of bus, rail, air, and auto, bikes, and hikes, you have real transportation choices. choices.
How did anyone ever convince the conservatives that the only way to have free choice in transportation is lots of roads and cars.
re 2: Quit trying to sound world-weary and wise — twerp!
@4:
But I AM world-weary and wise. And a twerp.
@ 2
Well, if it sounds bang wagonish,l it’s because we’re of the same mind on this.
Seriously, if there’s nothing to be gained by working together, why compromise anything?
I want to see Sound Transit go right back to the voters in November of 2008, a high turnout election where liberals will vote in droves, with the same 50 miles of rail and the rest. To me, anything else is unacceptable, and will get a big fat ‘no’ vote from me.
How many signatures would it take in the 3 county region to get that on the ballot?
I am not sure if anyone has noticed this, but:
There seems to be a big lake in the middle of the greater Seattle area. This lake is called Lake Washington.
On the west side of the lake there is a City called Seattle. People in Seattle do not go across the lake unless they have a job, or relatives there. They do not care about eastsiders because A) they vote Republican and B) blame Seattle for everything.
On the east side of the lake there is a cultural dead spot called Bellevue. These people do cross the lake whenever they want to be entertained better than just the usual multiplex experience. They come for the zoo, the sports, the educational institutions, the art museums, the regular museums, et cetera, et cetera.
I am glad Goldy has joined team busdrivermike in saying “fuck you” to the eastside. Let us see how the Republican mantra of “the magic of the marketplace” solves their transportation problems. Because I could care less if there is ever light rail over there. I am certainly opposed to taxing hardworking Seattleites such as myself for more eastside freeway.
And Will, I guess I can allow a little room for you on the bandwagon, too.
In 2006 over 2,683 women were raped in the City of Seattle. In that same year 3 women in the City of Bellevue were raped. Mike, is that the kind of entertainment you are talking about?
Try 71 in Bellevue, that is according to the Bellevue Police web site. But you were only off by 4000%.
That is pretty close for a Republican. Congratulations.
Well maybe there is a couple parents in Bellevue that insist that their kids receive a poor education. Now there is a reason to come to Seattle. heehhehe
Yes, That epicenter of stupidity named the University of Washington. And BTW, we in Seattle are not aching to see you,hehehee.
And here is your rape stats. Bellevue has a rape rate that is .68 the national average. Seattle, with an actual urban center that isn’t a mall, has an average of .73
You Republicans are so stupid you cannot even present examples that prove your point.
Your just clownish, fucking idiots. It is called “google”. Do a search. There were 173 forcible rapes in the City of Seattle in 2006, not 2000, or 3000, or 300,000, or whatever stat you read off the brown stain you wipe off your blood soaked ass.
At least your moniker is truthful, BS.
From the Bellevue polic Department Web site:
However, the number of robberies in 2006 compared to 2005 increased from 49 to 71, due largely to a small group of suspects who were later arrested.
Rapes increased from 29 to 42, while murders increased from two to three.
Liberals can’t even get right when the numbers are right in front of them. Of course some of these same people create statistics that over a million people died in the Iraq war. hehehehehe What a crack up.
Give me the petition, or if you want I will write the petition myself (its not like I can do any worse then Mr. Unconstitutional.) I will gladly gather signatures for it and I wholeheartedly agree.
As far as I am concerned, between Prop 1, rejection of simple majority for school levies and I-960, this state’s infrastructure can rot. Build rail, fully fund the state’s education infrastructure and provide Health Care for all state residents. After those are taken cared of, I will consider agreeing to road improvements. Until that point, I will do everything in my power to kill any initiative or legislation (state or federal) that invests in roads.
I know some will get through, but I also know that without support from people like Goldy, Will, myself and others who feel betrayed, the majority of such measures will fail.
To those sitting on the fence. Get off. People seem to think that they can get roads without paying for the taxes to build or maintain them. Education is supposed to be a profession that earns just enough to disqualify above the poverty level even though it requires advanced degrees. Police and Fire departments are supposed to operate without ever getting any new equipment and never supposed to grow with the growth of the population but somehow provide first rate protection.
People that believe the above need to find out first hand what happens without them. They aren’t as long as people like us keep cobbling together robbing Peter to pay Paul band-aids that keeps raiding necessary public health programs and assistance to the most impoverished of our society.
And that is their goal. They despise any program that educates the masses. That makes sure they don’t die of exposure or starvation. That infectious diseases like TB don’t run rampant and kill tens if not hundreds of thousands within the state. They don’t care about anyone but themselves. As long as the government makes access to their houses, stores and other businesses easier without them paying a dime they are happy. For them, its all about them and screw their fellow man. Everyone, other themselves, is going to have to fend for themselves no matter how old, no matter how crippled, no matter how young, no matter whatsoever they don’t care about anyone but themselves and maybe their family.
Those are the people that the Sierra Club joined forces with to kill the first real regional mass transit that doesn’t get stuck in traffic transportation system the King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties would have seen. It would have had the capacity to have moved more people than the I-5, I-405, I-90 and 520 combined. It would have been able to do so using absolutely no carbon fuels whatsoever. But that wasn’t enough for the Sierra Club, they had to have perfection. Therefore, from now on that is how it is going to be played. Either it is a pure rail with absolutely no compromises on the ballot and it passes or no roads, no busses, no bridges, no infrastructure projects whatsoever will even be considered.
You guys have to have a heart for me. I supported/voted for Prop 1, I work from home, take a bus 2/3 of the time that I go anywhere outside my neighborhood, but twice a week I need to cross the lake via 520.
Here I am, working on the inside for you guys, and you want to literally throw me out with the bathwater! :-) Prop 1 goes down and it’s me sinking into the lake some fine evening trying to figure out how to open the emergency door on the 255 (running, as usual, about 7 minutes late).
That’s WA politics for you. Say “wah.”
So, rapes only went up 40% and murders 50% IN ONE YEAR!!!!
You law and order republicans are going to have to start waterboarding to stave off this epidemic.
But, I guess that is what you should expect when you open a Trader Vic’s and a Cheesecake factory.
re 5: OK. Ya got me. Heh…
I hear that Bellevue might get a Macaroni grill soon. The mayor of Bellevue is saying that, combined with the nearby IHOP, it will be Bellevue’s answer to Seattle’s International district.
busdrivermike says:
So, rapes only went up 40% and murders 50% IN ONE YEAR!!!!
Maybe the Kennedy family had a get together in Bellevue and Ted drove a woman home.
Actually, it was Bush who visited the eastside, so I wonder how much the delusional psychopath statistics went up. I know Cheney visited, so the draft dodgers per capita probably only went up a little.
I didn’t like the light rail package, but I like the shove-it-up-their-ass attitude! No more namby-pamby liberals! Time to get TOUGH! Republicans don’t negotiate or compromise, so why should you? However, I would encourage light rail supporters to take advantage of this opportunity to fix the flaws in the Prop. 1 proposal and put something on the ballot that people can (and will) vote for.
Bush did the right thing by asking Musharaff to take his uniform off.
But did he have to say that while he was in a bathroom at an airport in Minnesota?
Will,
The Sierra Club did run its campaign based on global warming. I recall previous posts where you said you really care about global warming.
How about judging the next transportation proposal on how well it does in reducing global warming pollution from transportation, the single largest source of global warming pollution in our region?
20% of the people that voted no on Prop 1 said their primary reason was concern about the environment and global warming. The future of transportation, to paraphrase Yogi Berra, ain’t what it used to be.
That type of transportation measure will have light rail where it is most effective, buses where they are most effective, congestion pricing, and an emphasis on safety and maintenance, not highway capacity expansion. That addresses congestion, transit and global warming. Sounds like a winning transportation proposal to me.
Governor Gregoire could sure use one of those right now.
I suppose this might sound like a stupid question. Roads and highways are paid for those who drive on them. No sales or property taxes, etc., just gas taxes, motor vehicle excise taxes, and (in some places) tolls. Why not pay for light rail the same way? Those who ride it, pay for it. Set fares at a level that would cover the costs of building and operating it. This would remove any reason for voting against it, and you could build it the way you wanted it, limited only by the fare you’re willing to pay. Hey, I’m not saying that’s the best way to go, I’m only saying it probably would fly in the voting booth. Thoughts?
Car commuting, by the time you figure in all the costs of car ownership and operation, has to cost at least $1.25 a mile and probably more than that, so if you’re commuting 10 miles to work you’re spending at least $25 a day. If light rail costs only $25 to $30 a ride, with no subsidies at all from taxpayers, you could commute by light rail for only twice what it costs to do it by car.
I think 520 should be replaced, but not with any damn $4.4 billion gold plater! No additional lanes to encourage more eastside sprawl, no expensive tunnel to keep the Montlake residents happy,* just replace it in the cheapest feasible way.
* Given the bridge has been there for 44, there are few (if any) residents in the adjacent neighborhoods who bought their homes before the bridge was built, so they volunteered to live next to it and therefore don’t have to be kept happy at our expense.
44 years
@ 24
Governor Gregoire does have a transportation plan.
It’s called, “replace the 520 bridge so I can get reelected” plan.
@29 I agree with you about the guv but not the rest of the anger directed at innocnet citizens led badly.
I voted FOR prop 1 … but I did so with one hand closing my nose.
Prop 1 was horribly written and presented with NO visible support from its most important sponsors .. Gregoire et al.
1. You can NOT ask folks to pay for something with no definite final cost,
2. The claim that each region was getting what IT paid for was utter BS and no one believed it.
3. The thing was such a melange of ornaments and tinsel that no body I met could figure it out.
4. Although there was a vague claim that this was part of a regional transportation plan, that plan was (and is) a mystery.
So YEH I voted the way you wanted but only because I felt blackmailed.
Now, the guv has given the repricans an issue big enough to let DR “forget” Guzzo and move on.
Why in hell are bright, liberal, progressive folks, tolerant of people like Gregoire, Locke … or for that matter McDermitt?
I am going to work as hard as I can for Barak or Hillary because of what they mean nationally BUT locally, my hope is that the new admin will find some make work for these bozoes and let better people take these jobs.
I suggest that Gregoire head FEMA and McD be made ambassador to Australia.
Flame off.
As for Prop 1 … bring it back with a real regional plan and make her honor get off her touchas to support the friggin thing. In the emantime, I am rooting for the 520 proposal from Google.
/2007/11/google-to-rescue.html
Hey Roger,
Not sure where you got those numbers for how much it costs to operate a car on a daily basis…just for you, I will break out my costs of operation…I drive 13 miles each way to work in Seattle from Bellevue on a generally uncongested I-90 bridge! On top of that, I have FREE parking!
26 miles per day = 1 gallon of gas (3.25)
Value of vehicle = $4711 (nothin like a 98 Volvo S70 GLT that I picked up at auction in 2003 for $4000) You also have to consider the fact that the value of the vehicle never drops to zero, so the original capital outlay for the car is offset somewhat by selling it when you no longer want it…
Insurance = Decent level of coverage for about 250 every six months, so about 42 a month or $1.40 a day
Depreciation of vehicle due to mileage: I went on Edmunds.com and looked at how adding 1 month of commuting/driving in general’s worth of miles (about 1000) decreases the value of my vehicle. Its about 24 dollars every 1000 miles, meaning 24 dollars a month.
Sooo…lets figure out per-mile cost!
Gas @ 27 mpg going 1k miles @ 3.25 per gallon = 37 gallons = 120 dollars
Insurance for 1k miles = 42 dollars
Depreciation for 1k miles = 24 dollars
Parking = FREE!
Maintenance = Negligible! This puppy runs and runs and runs!
120 + 42 + 24 = 186 dollars
186/1000 miles = 18.6 cents a mile!
Now you can see why nobody wants to take the bus! A 2-zone trip on the 550 would cost me 2.50 each way, so 5 dollars a day, and I would have to be at the South Bellevue Park and Ride before 7am to get a spot…and that means waking up before 6am…and it would take me longer than driving… and thats just fucking brutal. That would be 200 dollars a month in commuting costs from bus rides alone! And I still have to drive to get groceries, get to the gym, hang out with friends… and I don’t get to blast my music, drive like a complete jackass, or talk to my friends to make plans for the night!
Just sayin…when its 18.6 cents a mile most people are going to hop in their car and drive happy.
Pretty much my commuting by car as an SOV into Seattle makes sense for me until gas gets past $5/gallon…and by then all those people with subprime mortgages in kent/renton/bothell/wherever, 5 maxed out 10k credit cards and a 500/month car payment will already be totally broke and homeless meaning LESS TRAFFIC for me…which means I get to do 80 across the bridge instead of the 60 I do right now.
Sorry, 100 dollars in commuting costs from the bus. All other calculations are correct though. (Kicking myself for screwing up basic arithmetic)…
Here’s what I don’t get, and it is probably because I am stupid when it comes to the WA State Constitution – the Democrats have control of the state government. There is no filibuster like in the US Senate, and there is no Republican executive to veto bills. If transit and healthcare and education are the key things to solve, why doesn’t the Democrat House, Senate, and Governor pass three bills to do so? What is stopping them??? Are they required by the Constitution to put every measure to the people?
This is a real question – and I am a Democrat (although a moderate one).
@2
“And I sort of agree: we want discrete projects to vote on. Give me Sound Transit, or a bridge, or a viaduct. If it’s generic “transportation” funding, take care of it in Olympia or DC.”
Exactly! And that is why the nickel gas taxes passed and R-51 and Prop 1 failed.
From the AAA
AAA Calculates Driving Cost at 52.2 Cents Per Mile for 2007
Orlando, Fla. – 3/26/2007
Cost of Car Ownership and Operation for 100 Miles of Driving is $52.20
http://www.aaanewsroom.net/Mai.....icleID=529
Consumers feeling pinched by increases in day-to-day living expenses can take some comfort in AAA’s annual study of driving costs released today. According to the nation’s largest organization for motorists, the cost of owning and operating a new vehicle in 2007 remains basically unchanged from a year ago at 52.2 cents per mile, or $7,823 per year, when driving 15,000 miles annually.
Hey Truth_Teller
The reason for the lack of massive social spending in the legislature is primarily that Frank Chopp, the Dem. Maj. leader down there wants a permanent Democratic majority…so that means he has to toe the line with hardcore no-new-taxers in Eastern Washington and the Eastside of the Puget Sound region, etc.
But it will come…just give it time. That is, unless Big D takes full advantage of the failure of Proposition 1 to embarrass our current governor and take the top spot…
Hey michael…
Thats for a new car…most people don’t drive new cars (even in Bellevue, surprise surprise). Just sayin.
Also, who the hell drives 15k miles a year?
Thats CRAZY!
@34
Washington’s fabled liberalism is just that, a fable.
@38
Just passing some info along…
Appreciated.
Someone once told me that if you are a AAA member they will pay to bail you out if youre arrested for reckless driving outside of your home state…ive always wanted to see if it was true :)
compassionate libertarian at everywhere,
It’s awfully convenient to ignore the cost of the roads you use – heck, they’re already built. Just as it’s convenient to ignore the cost of destroying mother earth.
Business as usual in unsustainable, but if you only value your own absolute freedom, continue to ignore the externalities, and don’t give a shit about the future, then, well, there’s nothing we can really do about it is there?
Poster Child –
Aah! Please don’t assume that I don’t give a shit about the externalities or about mother Earth or about the future. Believe me, I do.
Externality #1
The roads that have already been built are continually paid for by the taxes I pay on the gasoline that I burn. If they actually cost more, feel free to raise the gas tax. I’d definitley vote one up if it helped in any way to resurface 405 N through Bellevue (it feels like my whole car turns into one giant involuntary chair massager gone wild through there).
Externality #2
I am all for a cap-and-trade C02 regime. I am fully aware that global warming is real, and am definitely frustrated with the government of the United States regarding its refusal to sign on to Kyoto. I like the wilderness, cool animals like polar bears, clean water, etc etc just as much as you do! I’m in the arboretum whenever the weather’s half-decent!
Now here’s where I think we diverge – I am fully confident that technology will enable us to travel more/farther using less (and in the near future) no fuel. The vast majority of electricity produced in this region is hydroelectric, so as soon as a decent, affordable, plug-in hybrid is available for purchase, you better believe I will be first in line to sign away 5 years of my earnings on that car loan. And when I’m done paying that one off and there’s a fully electric car that can go 300 miles on one charge and is affordable, I’ll be first in line to buy it as well.
Just make it make economic sense! I am not convinced one bit that the vast majority of people in America (or in the world) enjoy living stacked 50 high in condominiums! If you take a look at France, for example, more and more people are buying American-style single family homes in the suburbs because they can’t afford to live in the center cities. And guess what – they’re driving all around in those areas, as they aren’t all that dense (by choice), and economic activity is dispersed throughout those regions.
So what do we see: people (in general, I know there’s alot of city slickers out there :) prefer low-to-mid density living, and personal automobiles due to their ease of use and point-to-point capabilities. So how can we make that a reality without demolishing the environment? Technology!
Here’s a couple of steps that we could take immediately to start the economic engine working on the problems that we both agree face us:
1) Tax the shit out of gasoline. $5/gallon minimum. That will be enough for trading in one’s ’95 Tahoe in for a brand new 47 mpg Prius, and will get industry working feverishly hard on fuel-efficient and/or electric vehicles that people can afford due to all the ’95 Tahoe drivers crying at the gas pump.
2) Enact a carbon cap-and trade system to hold carbon emissions worldwide at current levels, and have government over time begin buying back carbon credits to reduce the number in circulation. That will incentivize the largest emitters of carbon dioxide (coal-fired power plants and other heavy industrial users) to figure out ways to sequester, reduce, or even remove carbon from their daily activities. But it has to be WORLD WIDE. This is where having a decently intelligent president with an understanding of diplomacy, etc comes into play…(insert Obama pitch here) Oh yeah, and subsidize the living daylights out of solar and wind energy (I won’t talk about nuclear because its way too controversial).
3)Start looking at ways that technology can help reduce or even eliminate congestion. I know this may sound like crazy talk, but DARPA has already held several competitions where vehicles have had to traverse all sorts of terrain (including simulated busy city streets) totally autonomously. The vehicles only get better every year. Think about it – there is more than enough capacity on the roads that we have already built! What causes congestion is the human element to driving (stopping before merging, merging fear, constant-lane changers, left lane sitters, accidents, rubbernecking). What if we removed the human element from driving? (At least on major highways). Then you’ve just reduced traffic down to one giant math equation! And what region has the best technology minds in the world next to Silicon Valley?…you guessed it, Pugetopolis!
So maybe I’m crazy, maybe I’m totally wrong, maybe I should just go back to my split-level in boring old Bellevue and shop at Kemper’s mall…but please don’t say I don’t give a shit about the environment or our futures!
I’d like to hear what you think. Have a great day!
Some more thoughts:
The gas tax would fix the price of gasoline at $5/gallon. And then we would step the fixed price of gasoline all the way up to $8/gallon or so over 5-10 years (you have to give people time to adjust, and tax revolts are really messy).
The additional money raised with the very very high gas tax will be spent only on four things:
1) Fixes for existing bottlenecks on the region’s highways and arterials (i.e. the Mercer Mess, 405-167 interchange, 520 to I-5, I-5 and U.S. 2, etc etc) to reduce congestion, which will reduce the amount of fuel wasted while idling in traffic, which will lower our current rates of vomiting carbon into the atmosphere.
2) Maybe a new 520 bridge/viaduct. That can be just with the taxes raised in the Tri-County area (King, Pierce, Snohomish), if the rest of the state refuses to help. Some tolls too.
3)Massive investment in alternative energy research at the University of Washington. This would be an excellent way to spend the cash, as we will see a return on our investment, as well as perhaps becoming a new center for the coming “green economy.” Imagine electrical engineers researching ways to increase battery capacity + solar power generation, mechanical engineers working on reducing mechanical inefficiency in cars, public policy people figuring out how to best convince the public that this shit is real and not about to go away…It would be tech boom x10 out here, meaning more jobs, more wealth creation, and to top it all off, a BETTER ENVIRONMENT.
4) Pricing the living daylights out of the HOV lanes to ensure they flow properly, and instituting a true bus-rapid transit system along with increases in the amount of parking available at P&Rs (remember, I don’t take the bus because the lot is full at 7am, and who the hell wants to get up at 5:30?)
Any other ideas?
@8:
I guess you haven’t bothered to look at any election results, lately, now have you? The Eastside is shifting through purple right now from red to blue. Democrats are winning in districts they didn’t even contest ten years before because the Eastsiders you scorn are coming to the realization that the GOP doesn’t have shit for ideas on how to run things. Your anti-Eastside screed is every bit as dated as blue-and-gold Mariner uniforms.
@15:
Drama queen much? I’m not impressed. This is like a sports fan blaming the other team for playing dirty while neglecting to notice that his side couldn’t even beat Notre Dame, let alone Navy. I’m touching on that next.
@30:
Well said. I literally held my nose Tuesday night while I marked that “yes” oval on the ballot. (Here’s the deal, people: I don’t like being a cynic. But it’s the only rational response to what’s going on around here.)
I’m supporting Obama myself, but most of our local politicians — Democratic and Republican alike — need to go away, and now. As a Democrat, I agree that we’ve handled the GOP ammunition — the only saving grace is that the local GOP manages to be more inept than the Democrats. It’s like the Republicans are New England and the Democrats are Indianpolis, except in a game of suck instead of a game of football.
Let’s see, what have our politicians done to inspire our trust in them? Hmmmmm. Well, there’s the Alaska Way Viaduct, declared a hazard nearly seven years ago. And nearly seven years later, we’ve done nothing but shore it up. Instead, we’re now dropping millions of dollars more on studying it.
Oh, hey, we’ve got a brand new sculpture park. Yesiree bob, that sure is a nice place. So how come we can’t keep cops on the streets? How come we’re shutting schools down? Yes, I know that school district has nothing to do with the sculpture park other than the occasional field trip, but Joe and Jo Average don’t look at it that way. You don’t like that? Too bad. You need to convince them that their money will be spent wisely. Deal with that.
Ahhh, yes, we’ll build a light-rail line out to Lynnwood … in 20 years’ time. Meanwhile, notice how quickly that cheap condo got slapped up? And three more hideously ugly buildings like it? Joe and Jo Average are going to come to the conclusion that the government officials that are supposed to answer to them are willing to bend the rules for quick-buck artists while the Averages get the brushoff.
Oh, and the Averages are being asked to subsidize bringing in more and more people, most of whom seem to be insecure whiny prats from New York and LA who can’t wait to tell the Averages how much they suck.
In short, we get a bunch of politicians who can’t resist going before the cameras at every opportunity and bleating about how Seattle is a world-class city. The Averages, having actually paid attention in school, know that “world-class” is supposed to mean best, but that’s not what they’re getting. Our roads are getting more clogged, our schools are closing, our cultural scene is disintegrating and you can’t even see Mt. Rainier most of the time anymore because of the smog. In short, Joe and Jo Average are being asked to pay more to get less.
And we expect them to raise taxes for such dubious returns? Anyone who expects that is the real idiot, not Joe and Jo Average. The miracle is that Proposition 1 did as well as it did.
harry poon says:
Why would anyone think light rail will increase their commute time? Do they think the train will get tied up in traffic?
11/08/2007 at 8:28 pm
You are referred to this case.
http://www.busridersunion.org/.....istory.htm
and this consent decree
http://www.busridersunion.org/.....-10-96.pdf
Basically, the bus rider’s union was able to convince a court that the MTA was short changing bus riders (who were disproportionately minority) to fund rail transit (which was disproportionately NOT minority.
There are parallels with LINK here as well, namely the complaints by the international community along MLK boulevard that the at-grade segments of LINK disproportionately affect the minority community.
http://depts.washington.edu/ur.....Miller.doc
But the more general issue is that wherever light rail has been introduced, it tends to be much costlier on a seat-mile basis than bus transit, and given that the resources available are essentially a zero-sum game (because of the trivial amount of transit O&M and capital expense covered by farebox revenue) the disproportionate expense of light rail typically does come at the expense of decreases in bus services.
Also, in many (probably most, actually) locales, the transit bureaucracy would frequently try to justify the relativly high cost of rail transit by sub-optimizing the bus lines with the intent of FEEDING the light rail, which typically would NOT work and actual bus ridership would then go down.
http://findarticles.com/p/arti....._n16156963
You are of course free to make your own assessment of this, but a quick google search would rapidly show you that bus transit riders do indeed have a reason to fear decrease funding and performance of THEIR mode of transit as light rail is built.