http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/24/i-really-want-metro-to-get-this-idea-right Comments On: I Really Want Metro to Get This Idea Right by Charles Mudede en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Wed, 22 May 2013 02:30:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by CATSPAW666]]> Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:41:13 -0800 The Stranger I blogged about it. It's real BRT, and yet it really sucks. Grade separation is the gold standard, and be afraid of anything that runs on the surface. BRT is a bad compromise done cheaply, and you get what you pay for.
Posted by Matt the Engineer]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 23:03:46 -0800 The Stranger Posted by flotard]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:12:19 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Totalpukoid]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:41:40 -0800 The Stranger
In addition to your hapless, hopeless lies and confusions, which don't even approximate sense, it's amusing that you think walking through "all the churned up mess everywhere" somehow refutes my (or his) notion that these unpleasant walking environments are somehow a deterrent.

You continue to be the most worthless piece of garbage commenter in the history of Slog, or anywhere else for that matter. Not just lies, not just nonsensical, not just bullshit, but wave after wave of nonsensical lying bullshit. At least the people here I disagree with can put up some kind of an argument; all you can do is soil yourself, and us, over and over and over.
Posted by Fnarf]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:57:55 -0800 The Stranger
I literally walked that area last night (hopped the 70 and walked through the nightmare to the Uptown).

It feels differently when you bike it, drive it, or bus it, than it does when you're walking and you can see all the churned up mess everywhere.
Posted by Will in Seattle]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:40:06 -0800 The Stranger
New York too ridiculous an example? Go to LA and walk the length of Wilshire Boulevard, or Crenshaw, or Santa Monica, or Western, or dozens of others, all of which have some problem areas but are full of interest the whole way -- and not just for cars, even in that archetypal car-oriented city (which is not half as car-dependent as Seattle is). And those streets are LONG.

The ultimate expression of Seattle's attitude toward pedestrians, and connections between neighborhoods, is the sign that reads "NO PEDESTRIAN CROSSING - USE OTHER SIDE".
Posted by Fnarf]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:10:24 -0800 The Stranger
And enough about the monorail scam, folks. That was a five billion dollar boondoggle we were lucky to escape from relatively unharmed. #WPPSS
Posted by Sir Vic]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:31:43 -0800 The Stranger
The delays due to that and other "blocking" buildings and the already broken tunnel boring Tunnel Of GHG & Drowned Doom construction are making a nightmare for cyclists, pedestrians, car drivers, and transit.

Even if we could afford it, which all projections (even optimistic ones) show we can't.

(details in today's Seattle Times online on some of this)
Posted by Will in Seattle]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:24:20 -0800 The Stranger Posted by gloomy gus]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:21:47 -0800 The Stranger
This is far from unusual in Seattle. Many of our routes, whether bus, car or bike (or ped) are ways of getting from one interesting place to another that's far, far away, with almost nothing in between. The next time you cruise up the stretch of Aurora between Denny and the Aurora Bridge, notice how even though the way is now lined with large buildings, there is absolutely zero civic interest the entire way. Until you get to Canlis, I guess. It's a total dead zone, a passage to be endured on the way to someplace alive.

If you're on the 358, notice how the dead zone extends through the Seattle Center area, after a short detour through a living neighborhood. Notice how the new Gates Foundation building -- the worst urban building built anywhere in the world in the last fifty years -- destroys opportunity on its side even more than the Center buildings do on the other. It's not until you hit Belltown that you're in a PLACE again.

These dead zones fill our city. The U District is an island; the Rainier Valley is a chain of islands along a string of nothingness. There are oceans of nothing even in heavily built areas like Pioneer Square (the disastrous Avenue Extensions). Look at the connection between Rainier and Boren -- there aren't even any cross streets, so there's no way to try to incubate city life even retroactively. Look at the new building in the Goodwill parking lot that faces Rainier: it's like a tombstone for a hundred acres of anti-city.

That's one of the reasons traffic is so bad: all these cars are trying to get far, far away, where the affordable housing is, through miles of shitty vacant lots and parking lots and turned-away faces of ugly buildings. The seventy-year-old ones at least have an excuse; but look at the shit they're building now! People complain about the four-packs out in the neighborhoods, but those are nothing compared to the commercial stuff.

And you'll never be able to run really successful BRT or any other kind of transit through these wastelands. Look out the window the next time you ride the elevated parts of light rail. What do you see? Nothingness.

A slow BRT line would be a success if there were reasons to get on or off along the way. As it is, Seattle transit is too often a series of moon shots.
Posted by Fnarf]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:04:26 -0800 The Stranger
I know people here will hate this because it retains autonomy for some drivers but I still like the road train model--this is what I was talking about. Barring some wild change in public policy, this is much safer / more efficient than doing nothing.


Posted by dirac]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:00:49 -0800 The Stranger
Rather than have dedicated lanes, buses should have sirens and flashing lights, and turn them on in traffic so the cars have to pull aside to let them pass like fire engines.
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:46:28 -0800 The Stranger Posted by redemma]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:44:22 -0800 The Stranger Posted by porter_esq]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:42:14 -0800 The Stranger Posted by dirac]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:38:03 -0800 The Stranger Is that one of the few segregated cycletracks around town?

I've been trying to find them.

I know we have some here in Kent...in fact, we have double wide sidewalks that are raised, segregated and split 50/50 bikes-peds.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:19:41 -0800 The Stranger Posted by doceb]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:12:26 -0800 The Stranger
we've put about 160,000 miles on it in the last 8 years. still running strong!
Posted by tainte]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:09:33 -0800 The Stranger Posted by unpaid reader]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:08:02 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Totalpukoid]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:01:20 -0800 The Stranger
We could call it .. monorail.
Posted by Will in Seattle]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:40:52 -0800 The Stranger Posted by DVNODVNO]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:35:29 -0800 The Stranger
Not that I'm worth a drop in the ocean of Getting Things Done In Seattle, but I'll add my voice, with @6, to the "yeah, I don't think actual BRT is gonna work in Seattle, let's keep building the light-rail, and also optimize the buses we have... like, yeah, more circular routes, like in Vancouver B.C."
Posted by treacle]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:33:48 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Don't you think he looks tired?]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:33:35 -0800 The Stranger