Yesterday I was driving back to Seattle from the Eastside. I hopped on SR-520 at north Bellevue, and immediately took my place in the line of cars waiting to cross the bridge. The freeway was at a total standstill.
Without AC, my ’88 Chevy POS was getting hotter and hotter. At the same time, I was getting more and more pissed off. I never got this pissed off when riding the commuter bus across the lake. The longer I waited in traffic, the more my mind started to wander.
Right-wingers see transit as an attempt by the “elite” to “force” people into making choices they wouldn’t otherwise make. In the Puget Sound region, our two options are bus or car (or commuter train, for some people). Since our transit system is built on buses which get stuck in traffic, there is little incentive to leave your car at home. Because of this, I’ve been “socially engineered” back into my Chevy. So it’s really the anti-transit folks who take away my choices, and limit my freedom.
We lose productivity and efficiency when we have people in hour-long backups on our freeways. The absence of real alternatives to driving takes away freedom from hardworking folks. Looking at the Sound Transit maps of East Link, I would have been 3/4 of a mile away from a train station, easily in walking distance from my Eastside starting point. Studies show that people will walk much further to a train station than they will a bus stop. From that still-only-on-paper light rail station, it would have been a scant 20 minutes to downtown Seattle.
When we spend big bucks on transit infrastructure, we increase freedom, not decrease it. And you know who understands this better than any Seattle lefty? Try a born-again culture warrior:
Various free market think tanks state that Americans love their automobiles and do not desire rail systems as an alternative. Really?
Each year Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), D.C.’s subway and bus system, reaches a new high in ridership. I have an employee who drove to work. He often was upset upon his arrival. He now lives less than one block from a Metrorail station. He comes to work smiling and continually points to the virtues of the Metrorail system. Metrorail carries close to 600,000 riders per day. Some are tourists but most are workers. If these riders were stranded on the streets of Washington there would be gridlock beyond comprehension.
Many of Free Congress Foundation’s visitors live in the suburbs and take Metrorail and Metrobus. They sing the praises of mass transit. Sure, Americans love their cars. But cars are only good when they are moving.
ALL of the “light rail” (extremely heavy on the wallet) stops are right at or very near bus stops.
So, explain again how YOU are NOT an elitist because YOU won’t take the already available bus? Don’t you want to “save” the planet?
The trains will take decades to build and will never satisfy the minimum requirements (golly, the anti-ANWR argument).
When we spend big bucks on transit infrastructure, we increase freedom, not decrease it.
Right on! That’s why we should spend 100% of our transit taxes on roads to give the greatest amount of freedom. Ultimate scaleability, ultimate flexibility, ultimate freedom.
Trains are fixed. Stuck. Rigid. Like the thinking of their planners/supporters. In other words: Illiberal.
I agree exactly Will (by the way typo in paragraph 3 sentence 4: There is not their’s) – busses sit in traffic and make traffic worse with all their stops.
The already available bus – stinks! I prefer to ride my bike if necessary. I would take the bus to the train thoiughj – but not just to take another bus that will also be stuck in traffic.
Mcidiot: should we: Build roads for cars that use gas and pollute or
Build trains that run on hydro don’t use gas, don’t clog up the roads and don’t pollute..hmmm tough choice.
What do they do in europe (where gas is even more expensive) and every other civilized ocuntry and every other city in the US?
hmmm – could it be that the anti-rail people are simply not civilized? Roads don’t look like such a good deal now that no one can afford to drive.
Trains run on hydro? Water? That would be amazing.
Or do you mean hydrogen, which is incredibly expensive to manufacture? Far more expensive than gasoline.
Yessir, the bus stinks. All those leftist crack whores. But, amazingly, only elitists with perfect composure, showered, coiffed, and perfumed will be on the trains. As it winds through Magnolia, Mercer Island, Madrona, Sammamish, Bear Creek…
If I lived in DC, I wouldn’t own a car for daily transport. The metro goes where folks need to go, or real close to it, clean, fast, on time, and economically. Airport, downtown, suburbs.
If I lived in Vancouver BC, I wouldnt own a car for daily transport. Skytrain goes where folks need to go, or real close to it, clean, fast, on time and economically. Airport, downtown, suburbs. Near a train station is a great place to develop housing or a business, and the buses take you to the train.
Move people by local rail, free up the interstate for commerce. How is this a leftist ideology?
Dear Moron @4- hydro refers to hydro electric – do I have to spell it out for you?
@5: Agree – trains are only leftist when ignorant right wingers say so. It helps business to get people off the roads – it makes for more efficient commutes and we can still use our cars for other trips and save gas.
You Lefties really have your blinders on for light rail. One very real solution is reinforcing our rail freight infrastructure. Rail freight costs less per mile than trucks and is more time-consistent for the long haul. Take all of those semis off of the road and you have increased capacity for cars & buses. Limit trucks to “last mile” short-hauling.
If you think about it, you could even use a model like those home storage “pods” to let the little guys take advantage of rail. You could even replace long-haul moving trucks, too. Why would your household goods be any less safe on the rails that in the hands of a trucker trying to skirt the rules and put in an extra mile before bed?
7 A hearty “AMEN” to your point regarding rail transport versus trucks for freight. One of the railroads is running TV spots claiming that they can move a ton of freight 100 miles per gallon of diesel fuel. That’s because there’s so much less friction with steel wheels on steel rails than with tires on pavement (also the reason trains can’t negotiate steep grades), and that you can have 150 cars running behind the air resistance of the front locomotive.
This doesn’t say a lot of the same doesn’t apply for moving large numbers of people.
520 sucks, plain and simple. Building a new 520 with more lanes will mean it’ll just suck on a larger scale.
miklich…your points are incoherent and non-sensical.
You are completely fucking insane.
@7
Hey, you done went and posted something good. Cool.
Us liberals are already working on your idea, we’ve been pushing for better rail for quite some time now.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with public transit, be it rail or bus. However, I don’t like the idea of some ecofreak Pol deciding that I *need* to use public transportation and therefore he’s going to make sure that driving is as inconvenient/costly as possible.
Seems to me that you lefties are missing this – If I want to drive, that is my choice. If you want to take public transportation, that’s yours. Or vice versa, for that matter. I don’t want to be tied into one method of transportation, and I don’t want that decision being made for me.
@ 8 and @ 11
Which of you guys wants to go knock on the door of the Teamsters’ union hall and tell ’em that we’re going to eliminate trucking jobs by switching to rail? (Ever see a “chase” scene on the old Benny Hill Show?)
Do you really think the Dems are going to bite the hand that feeds them?
Thank, God, that the Greatest Generation, led by Democrats, just made the right choices without having to be forced to making the right decision for America. Patriots all of them.
Nowadays, conservatives mainly, are so self serving that they don’t give a shit about America as long as there’s some gain in it for them.
No eco-friendly politician is making it sooooo expensive that it is becoming too costly to drive. That bull shit if courtesy of regressive minded conservatives who still have some stupid notion that we can drill our way out of this Republican caused problem.
30 years ago Jimmy Carter saw this coming and took the leadership role of putting a renewable energy in at the White House – solar panels.
Reagan ushering in 3 decades of conservatism in government got rid of them. Thus, wasting 30 years of RE development.
Bitching about the cost of hydrogen today? VCR’s would still be too expensive today if the technology wasn’t adapted and refined. Hydrogen would be affordable today if it were not for Reagan and the conservatives pursuing the policy of cheap oil from terrorist nations.
Morons.
@13: Maybe you want to knock on the Teamsters door and expain why free market forces that make gas $5/gallon is a great idea – hope you come back in five or six pieces….
Dumbshit at 13…
If you had ANY fucking idea what you were talking about, you would know that a tremendous amout of rail freight is containerized and moves in and out of the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma regularly. REALLY regularly.
And again…if you had ANY fucking idea what you were talking about…you would know that the vast majority of truckers, either short haul around port areas or long haul, are 1 to 10 truck owners or loose affiliations of single independent operators or one or two or three truck independent operators or combinations of the above.
Not Teamsters.
But you don’t have ANY fucking idea what you are talking about…do you…
…so what you say just doesn’t fucking matter does it?
Incorrectnottobright: Stay away from typos and corrections. In fact maybe you should stop blogging…
“busses” sit in traffic
110 V busses?
220 V busses?
440 V busses?
Lee, I feel your pain. But you have to admit Donkey Seattle urban planners really screwed the pooch when they provided a small road right of way, built small roadways, and put a stupid convention center over a superhighway.
cmiklich: When you get rudeASS to say you are insane, you’ve done your job well. He’s part of the original dull knifes of HA; as dense as spent uranium!
I-Burn: I agree with you. I thought guvmint works for the people not the guvmint telling me how to live. They work for me since I pay their salary. Unfortunately both parties are off the wagon.
GBS: Come on man, revisionist history on renewable fuels from Cahhhhhhhhter? I already posted the truth on why Reagan stopped the program after $88 Billion was sunk into it. Opec priced oil @$14 in 1986. Remember it was $37 when Cahhhhhhhhter was in office.
The PuddyBitch has earned the “Ol Rujax'” FUCK YOU of the day.
Thanks #22. I wear that badge of honor with my head held high, almost an aloof look like headless lucy does tout le temps.
12 ‘However, I don’t like the idea of some ecofreak Pol deciding that I *need* to use public transportation and therefore he’s going to make sure that driving is as inconvenient/costly as possible.’
Nobody has to. It’s happening all by itself.
Both sides need to chill. I’m freaking tired of EVERY argument artificially dividing into left/right Democrat/Republican. This isn’t a left/right issue. It doesn’t matter WHAT party you vote for (or if like the majority, you don’t EVEN vote, and this is why)…no matter, we’re ALL sitting in the same 520 backup.
The problem is Seattle is an ‘in between’ city. Even the most rapid anti-transit “god loves roads” folks would agree you have to have mass transit in a city like New York, London or even Chicago. They simply wouldn’t economically function without it. A city like Seattle is JUST barely at that stage where it’s becoming needed. So I can understand some level of argument. But…
So for the Republicans out there, some economics 101. Unless you honestly…truly…not bullshitting…really know/believe Seattle is going to SHRINK in the future by a big margin, then you know we WILL have to have some kind of above/below/separate transit in the future. Now or maybe 50 years from now. By the way, as a fiscal conservative, I can tell you property values and construction costs won’t be cheaper in 25-50 years. So when you’re faced with an investment in a huge capital project that you KNOW for a fact will be needed soon (maybe not this fiscal year, but mid-term), do it when it’s cheapest. Waiting until the last minute, when you knew the problem was coming, when it’s most expensive and rushed, is BAD financial planning.
GBS @ 14
If you knew what you were talking about, you’d know that the explosion of the VCR — and the consequent drop in prices due to volume — was greatly due to home porn. In addition, many of the e-commerce developments have been driven by ‘net porn.
[Yeah, I left “explosion” and “porn” in the same sentence so that you kids could entertain yourselves]
Ahh my myopic friend….You forget that the cost of public transit isn’t just the farebox, but the usual massive subsidy that goes along with it. The farebox usually represents about 10% of the actual cost. If you paid 100% of the cost then nobody would have any problem with transit.
It’s not about taking away your choices, but you paying your fair share for those choices.
When we pay big bucks on transit, it may be perceived as choice. But, we’re actually cost shifting and trying to pretend it’s not.
No more sales tax increases. Trains aren’t worth it. You want more light rail? Tax businesses, impose tolls on highways and charge premiums during rush hours and use those proceeds. We pay enough sales taxes.
Incidentally, is it just me or has anyone else asked why sound transit can’t build light rail as inexpensively or quickly as any other metro region in North America? And no, glacial till isn’t the problem.
14/26 Hydrogen porn? What the hell are you guys talking about?
OK, let’s run stuff on hydrogen. Were are you going to get it? Seems that with our current capabilities it’s likely to involve passing electric current through water. Here in the wet, mountainous West, electricity mostly comes from falling water, but elsewhere it involves burning oil or coal or splitting atoms.
I’d never let one of my family ride any kind of train in any city anywhere with all the
liberal fucktard perverts that are on them and
the buses. Not safe enough and only going to get worse with liberals in charge. I would
ride myself only if I recharge my flamethrower.
God liberals are disgusting pigs. Ask me how I
really feel.
Geez, Mark….how many did you knock back between #26 and #30?
Art @ 31
Nice try, but different “mark.”
MTR is not me, either.
I originally posted as just “Mark,” but when the others showed up (some time ago), I permanently switched to “The Real Mark” and always post as such. Look for the “Roadkill Rabbit” Gravatar.
And to address the other thing you loudmouths tend to get wrong: The only thing approaching a wager I’ve ever had with anyone here was with Goldy (who owes me a beer for some mini contest) and I have yet to collect (though I haven’t made the effort, either).
As usual, you Lefties just can’t get your facts straight.
Facts are stubborn things, huh?