Has EVERYONE read this article?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : I-695 Thirty Dollar License Tab Initiative : One Thread

http://gt-wa.com/RTA/Bundy99.htm

This is a great article that covers some of the concerns that even transit ADVOCATES have with Sound Transit. I don't believe that anyone should make up their mind about the transportation improvement initiative without getting the FACTS, and this article has many of these facts.

-- Craig Carson (craigcar@crosswinds.net), December 30, 1999

Answers

The same site hosting the above reference has some other very good references, for those interested in the issue. No, I don't agree with all of them, but that's no excuse not to see what the people have to say. It never hurts to get more information, even if you view it from a different perspective than the one you get the information from. Here are excerpts from another excellent article:

Metro's new six-year (1996-2001) plan discloses that the existing transit system "has a significant amount of underutilized capacity." Less than 3 percent of currently scheduled bus trips run more than 90 percent full, and even during the afternoon peak period (3:00 to 6:00 p.m.), only 56 percent of the seats on buses leaving downtown Seattle are filled. Utilization is even lower on buses leaving the University District. The plan suggests numerous ways this capacity can be put to work.

We also know much more about the transportation dilemma that is common to most major metro areas, the ineffectiveness of light rail, and the broader range of available solutions.

The Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey, a once every five-year look at American's travel patterns, found that 4 of 5 trips are now for purposes other than travel to and from work: to eat out, to shop, and for a myriad of leisure and other personal activities. The Puget Sound Regional Council has established that nonwork travel here is even greater--85% of all trips in our region are for reasons other than going to work, and nonwork is the major trip category even in peak periods. The private vehicle is overwhelmingly the preferred mode for nonwork travel; for example, public transit is used for just one of every 100 shopping trips. Transit must be very flexible to compete with the auto for a greater share of these trips, which are to highly dispersed destinations and are often linked with work trips.

We now have revealing information from Portland which has been a laboratory for light rail transit. Researchers at Portland State University carefully analyzed the results of the first ten years of operation of Portland's Max light rail system and found no appreciable effect on growing weekday traffic on a freeway that parallels the rail route. At a June forum in Colorado on light rail convened by the Center for the New West, the principal author of the study, Professor Ken Dueker, reported that "what we're observing is that the peak period for highway traffic is widening, and that non- peak and weekend travel on light rail is where the growth in transit riders is occurring... Light rail in suburban service has problems. When you get 15 miles out, you're almost an hour by light rail to downtown, because it has to stop at every stop. I think that express bus service could do a better job for the suburban commute."

A recently completed national study of light rail systems built in the past twenty years, conducted by a researcher at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, found that with rare exception, the costs greatly exceeded benefits. The few exceptions were systems that had very low construction costs, which can be the case when there is a preexisting rail right-of-way. (http://www.gt- wa.com/RTA/rethink.htm)

This article would strongly suggest that this dog just ain't gonna hunt, and we ought to rethink the issue. Give it a look.

The Craigster

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-- (craigcar@crosswinds.net), December 30, 1999.


Yes, it seems there will be some angry (ripped off) voters in the near future.

-- Marsha (acorn_nut@hotmail.com), December 31, 1999.

Yes Marsha-

And as I said, I don't agree with everything on this site, it's hosted by pro-social engineering pro-transit pro-HOV anti-SOV types, but even THEY can see the waste in rail transit. And the fact that it will have a trivial effect on congestion, even in the unlikely event that it lives up to expectations.

-- (craigcar@crosswinds.net), December 31, 1999.


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