Results tagged “publictransportation”

Normal-looking-but-totally-crazy woman: (Begins singing, quietly at first) "Jesus loves me, this I know..." (and then much much louder) "...for the Bible tells me so!" Internal: Shit, shit, shit. Listen lady, you're obviously out of your mind, so we'll cut you some slack, but you're not a very good singer.

                  

Employees of Sound Transit were understandably filled with a certain pride yesterday morning as they showed off the new light rail operations and maintenance center for the collected media.

Today marks the fourth annual National Dump the Pump day, yet another day supposed to encourage people to ride their bikes (check), ride the bus (check), and leave their cars behind (unchecked). It's not such a shabby idea, but as we found out last year, it pretty much requires gas prices to hit the $4 mark before Seattleites will give up their keys for public transportation.

• Add this to the traffic sucks--again--column. Eastlakers were fortunate enough to find out this morning that construction crews began work on the Boylston Avenue E street and sidewalk improvements. Work will continue daily (except weekends) till Friday, June 26.
• The Montlake home of Daphne Tomchak has been left in shambles--$18,000 worth of damages--after funding ran out mid-shoot for the Hollywood movie types who used and abused her home for the film.

To tunnel or not to tunnel under downtown Bellevue is the big question for leaders facing the anticipated light-rail expansion. Last fall voters approved building surface line tracks, but since then the Bellevue city council has tossed in two additional light-rail options that just so happen to include building a $600-millon tunnel under downtown Bellevue. Heated discussions have ensued. Now Microsoft is getting involved, pushing for the voter-approved surface tracks which would allow for a quicker install and could possibly extend the tracks farther east. (Hmmm, Redmond maybe?) Haven't we realized yet that making light-rail (or any transit) decisions really isn't our strongest suit? Right now, too many three options are currently on the table, and the transit-board members will vote May 14 for the best option to begin their environmental-impact studies. Let the chaos begin.

• Big Blog won points with a post about The Bachelor's ex-wife and her YouTubed guest spot as a groupie on local band Out From Underneath's Seattle-heavy music video. Onwards and upwards, Gas Works Park.
• The blog formerly known as bigasscity is quoting none other than ZZ Top while crunching the numbers about Metro's projected budget shortfall and how much money the city could have saved by rejecting the bored tunnel viaduct replacement option.
• Cliff Mass thinks it's "pretty definite": we're looking at more snow, probably on Sunday. Actually, that works well with our schedule. How kind of the gods to check with Seattlest HQ's Google Calendar before sending the cold front!

On Sunday, February 1, regular Metro fares will increase by 25 cents. Their handy fare revisions chart [pdf] goes into more detail: kids, senior citizens, or disabled riders won't have to pay any more than previously to ride the bus, but regular riders will soon be paying $2 for the pleasure of riding in peak season and $2.50 for peak two-zone rides. Off-peak regular fare will be $1.75 for one- or two-zone rides. Metro blames "a weak economy, record fuel prices in mid-2008 and falling sales tax revenues" for their budget woes, and notes that the fare revision will help them maintain their current system rather than to increase route coverage or frequency. Guess that means fewer quarters in our bank account to spend on jalapeno poppers.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) will be providing a huge chunk of financial support for Seattle's light-rail project--to the tune of $813 million. That's about 40% of the total cost, says the math-savvy P-I this morning. Doesn't sound like the extra federal funding, an increase from initial promises, will make the work go any faster; we're still looking at 2016 as a finish date for the main light-rail route from downtown to the UW. Reading all the details about tunneling in different kinds of soil is exciting, though, and reminds us that this is really happening. We're really getting light-rail! 2016 is only seven Christmases away!

• While lightning may not strike the same person twice, getting stuck on the Monorail just might. Just ask Ballard resident Robert Baker.
• The cold weather and icy roads may be a hassle for the rest of us, but if you're selling chains or snow tires, it's been a boon. So much so, according to White Center Now, it's nearly impossible to find chains at area stores.
• It seems that public transportation in Seattle has always had a problem with the hills when it snows. Just check out this photo of a derailed Seattle cable car from 1929.

[ED. NOTE: Seattle Transit Blog strongly disagrees with Brad's characterization of their conclusions. They did some back-of-the-envelope figuring based on Brad's premise, with the intent of downsizing his initial estimate of the possible tax error. They are not interested, apparently, in the looking into the situation further: "But a figure in the low tens of millions of dollars is serious money, enough to do a freeway ramp or other practical project. I’d rather use that money to build a project they participated in the vote for than attempt to reconstruct 12 years of purchase records."]

• We knew we'd heard that name somewhere--Steve Almond, who wrote a lovely innocuous column for Martha Stewart Living about Christmas candy, is familiar to us through his at-times NSFW short story collections. Matthew at Roots & Grubs points out that he, too, can write about Christmas candy, and his bibliography is 99% safe and Martha-approved.
• West Seattle Blog breaks out the snow talk! They're pointing everyone towards a community Christmas tree lighting, and as is the usual, WSB also has a scoop: the weatherman has a blog.
• The school closure meetings have everyone in a tizzy about their neighborhood schools. Capitol Hill Seattle reports with relief on their beloved Lowell, which was removed from the closure list, and the commenters react with skepticism and challenging questions (like, what happened to all the rhetoric about Lowell's building falling apart?).

In a 6-3 split vote yesterday, the City Council approved the idea of expanding the city's streetcar system. All new lines would run north of Jackson Street: one leading up into Fremont, another into the U District, a third along the Waterfront, and the final along Broadway in Capitol Hill. (Here's the map.) Of course, as Councilman McIver pointed out, "we ain't got no money" yet, and the plans don't mean a whole lot until the funding comes into place.

We love the bus. We ride it whenever we can. We try to convince our friends, family, and neighbors to ride the bus. We even offered favors to our girlfriend if she would start riding the 41 from her Northgate crib to her downtown office. (She declined; we broke up. Draw your own conclusions.)

We know how bad this whole crashing economy is. Really, we do. But every cloud has a silver lining, and we're pretty sure the sparkle you can see just past today's bankrupt financial giants and tanked WAMU stock is increased transit ridership translating into more routes and added runs on existing routes so you don't have to drive (or pay for gas) anymore.

Metro just can't make up its mind about fare increases, so we say bring another quarter just in case. Just a few weeks ago, Metro said it wouldn't be increasing fares for a second time this year, but as of yesterday they'd decided that a fare increase is indeed necessary and imminent. Starting November 1, it may cost you an extra 25 cents to ride the bus. Another 25-cent increase may come in January 2010 as well. Like we said, with all the "may"s and "maybe"s, better to be safe and bring a couple extra quarters the next time you're riding Joe Metro.

Okay, okay, we'll hold on, just don't scratch us with those bloody talons.

"You know what I have to say, based on my last couple bus rides? I'm so glad I don't do speed anymore. And that's all I have to say about that."

By coincidence, it was while we were sitting in the over-crowded number 14 bus on the way to work when we came across this gem of an article in the : "Drop in Miles Driven Is Depleting Highway Fund; Loan From Mass Transit Is Urged." Our sneering disbelief was interrupted by being smacked in the face by the laptop bag of the guy standing next to our seat in the aisle; the 14 is standing room only by our stop, the third on the line, from about 8 a.m.-10 a.m.

Seattlest always kind of wants to roll our eyes when some transportation option gets put to voters in these parts. Call it a Pavlovian response trained into us through years of noncommittal discussion about monorails. But, today the Seattle Times is reporting that we'll get to vote on a light rail system that'll take folks to places like Overlake, Star Lake, and Lynnwood (sweet!).

Even folks who don't drive are being affected by the rising cost of fuel. Plane and train tickets prices have been raised recently to cover the increased cost of gas and, as we noted last month, it was only a matter of time before we'd be adding Seattle Metro buses and Access vans to that list.

While we've been admittedly hard on the South Lake Union street car, we are actually a fan of the idea of street cars in Seattle. With the way traffic is in Seattle today and the Sisyphean task our current public transit system faces daily, we're pretty much a fan of any and all public transportation ideas for Seattle. So we were pleased to read that the city will be holding four public meetings in the coming weeks on the potential for new street car routes in town.

Seattlest is grateful for our bus pass and our Zipcar membership. Paying more than $4 a gallon just doesn't sound enticing for us, but we're not surprised when we hear about rate increases and other ancillary fees (like having to pay for our baggage when we fly) being passed onto us for using public transportation.

on the City Council's discussions for SLUT expansion leaves us just a little ticked. After characterizing service expansion as "daydreams," Curl gives plenty of space to skeptics like Tom Rasmussen, who says: "Streetcars are nice; I like riding them. But we don't have a streetcar system, we have a bus system."

Popular Science released its list of the 50 Greenest cities in the U.S. recently. Of course, liberal, green Seattle was on it. We came in eighth. It surprised no one at Seattlest HQ, however, that our neighbor to the South, namely Portland, came in first since some of us believe that Portland is better and we all love PDX regardless.

Riding the bus to work the other day, our heart skipped a beat when we noticed signs taped to the window heralding the arrival of new spring schedules (they're blue!). Once we'd calmed down, we realized how silly it is to get excited over the prospect of a slight change to our bus schedule. It was the kind of self-deprecating experience we figured would make a good lede for a post informing you, gentle reader, of the coming changes.

All mass transit is not created equal; here in Seattle, a city with buses and, well, nothing else, unless you're specifically talking with someone about monorail or lightrail or streetcars (you know, mass transit), when you're talking about supporting mass transit, you're talking about supporting buses.

For those (like Seattlest) who are too lazy to actually visit in person the South Lake Union coffee shop Kapow! to get their S.L.U.T. tee shirts (which they may or may not even have), they are now available online.

The mouthbreathers who oppose public transportation are striking early against the roads/transit package that will appear on November's ballot. Unfortunately they are striking with a weapon they have little facility with: The English Language.

There was a lot of talk on the blogs last week about newly-released census data that highlighted the 23% of Washington residents that get to work by means other than riding in a car alone. Seattle is in the top ten US cities in walking to work, taking the bus to work and biking to work (although not in carpooling) all of which are impressive and encouraging. There is an element of spin to all that fantastic news, of course, and the fact remains that 77% of us still drive to work alone.

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on.