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Unfortunate Juxtaposition
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Just because you don’t use it doesn’t mean it’s a waste, Erica.
Um, Fnarf, it’s what, maybe 8th out of the top 10 traffic/street fixes we need in Seattle?
Fix the sidewalks first, then do Mercer.
Yes, Will, we all already know you have no idea what priorities are or who sets them for the city or any other government, or what the process by which projects are proposed, discussed, modified, approved, or carried out. The world began half an hour ago for you, didn’t it?
I don’t live in this neighborhood, but when I do encounter Mercer I generally am equally likely to be there on foot, on bike, or in a car.
I have to say, the traffic there is no worse than any other major arterial in Seattle. What DOES suck though is how confusing it can be while driving there and how scary it is to be a pedestrian or ride a bike around the area.
If they can keep the capacity for traffic roughly the same, simplify the connection to-from Seattle Center/LQA/Aurora from I-5, make the area more accesible for pedestrians and bicyclists, and in the process help to manage growth by densifying an in-city neighborhood, I’m all for it.
I’m not sold on the need for on-street parking, but I’m definitely with this project in concept.
The mercer project costs too much at $200 million to improve just 12 blocks? WTF?
Leaving travel times less fast?
WTF?
Most of that money is going to buy real estate. Instead of making a borader avenue they could just um paint a stripe down the middle put in a few planters and be done with it.
But anything for the jealous husband of Venus, right, hwo cares if it’s $5 million, 100 million 200 million woo hoo!
And then: 12 billion to build him a nifty bypass tunnel that comes out very close to his neighborhood in SLU and coinky dink by his holding in the stadium area!
Note: any discussion of actual costs will be derided as being dumb. Off tope. Stupid. DO NOT COUNT ANY MONEY YOU ARE SPENDING AND DO NOT COMPARE IT WITH ANY OTHER PROJECTS WHEN IT IS FOR THE JEALOUS HUSBAND OF VENUS!!!!!!!!!!!
The “Mercer Mess” has been a problem for a hell of a lot longer than Vulcan’s been around, and fixing it’s been a project in the works for nearly as long. Approximately one zillion opportunities have been had by all to express your opinions on the subject. Just because the average citizen has no recollection of anything that happened more than 20 minutes ago doesn’t mean that those things didn’t happen.
This plan did not spring up out of nowhere the instant Obama signed the paper.
As for “no worse”, you need to see it at afternoon rush hour or you’re not seeing it at all. This is how downtown gets away from downtown, and it is indeed a significant traffic issue. Again, if you think this is a mistake, that’s too bad, but you had your opportunity.
Oh, and @5, your dosage needs to be adjusted. Those wild swings, that’s not good. @2 just needs to be put down.
It’s about friggin’ time they take care of it — it’s an unmitigated disaster at rush hour. Does anyone know the story of how it ended up like that? It’s not like Mercer is one way for it’s entire length, and it’s hard to imagine the conditions under which creating the “Valley shuffle” would have been a good idea.
@6 – I think the opinion implicit in Erica’s statement is your phrase “downtown gets away from downtown.” I think the long-term idea is for downtown to stay downtown.
The problem, Good Grief, is that there is no possible way for a major arterial, with cross traffic, to handle the load that is placed on it. Also, Seattle simply does not have cross-town routes that don’t encounter impassible obstacles — in this case Seattle Center, Aurora, and Lake Union. You’ve got approximately half the workforce of downtown all trying to get to the freeway many blocks east at the same time. There’s just no easy way to do it.
And of course even if they fix it perfectly it’s still subject to the limited capacity of the freeway itself to accept the traffic injection at that point. It could be an elevated freeway straight from downtown and it would still back up.
@3 – try reading the daily emails from the city that actually outline each committee’s agenda and the bills they deal with.
Mercer is NOT our number one, or two, or three, priority.
Like I said … sidewalks are way more important.
(and if you read their own SDOT details you’ll find their “solution” makes it “slower”)
You are a stone cold moron, Will.
It doesn’t matter what number priority it is.
It matters that a decision was made — a long time ago — and the project was moved forward from there to the point where all that was needed was to fix the financing. Here we are.
In your universe, priorities are set every ten seconds, because ten seconds is as long as your memory functions. If you ran the city, every single penny would be spent on trying to find your socks.
But we’re all extremely impressed by the city email lists you’ve got yourself on, Will. Extremely.
@8, anyone who believes that “downtown should stay downtown” should be permanently barred from discussing city affairs. It’s a DOWNTOWN, not a hill village in Nepal. You have noticed those tall office buildings there, right?
@11, moving traffic to the freeway is not the sole problem they’re trying to solve.
I lived in Queen Anne for a long time and worked in and through there for quite some time as well. You got really good real quick at picking your poison and watching the clock as far as what route you tried to take to get through there. Sometimes you just lost, or forgot it was the day of the Seafair parade. I’m glad they’re moving forward on the project.
Mercer was a mess before I lived here.
And it will be a mess after I’ve left here.
And this won’t fix it.
Nor will the Billionaires’ Tunnel.
@2: Sidewalks? Really? That’s among our biggest problems? Yeah, whenever I hear people complaining about getting around this city, sidewalks are #1.
And is that really going to create serious jobs and/or stimulate the economy?
i bike around town for 99% of my needs. i avoid mercer and everything around it like the plague. it’s a river of smoke and steel death. yee-uck. crossing it to get downtown is always so frustrating.
i’m not sure what they’re going to do to “fix it,” though. short of turning it into an honest-to-god freeway, what else is there to do? two extra lanes? yeah right! i bet even a freeway would choke up worse in a couple years.
i will say that last night at midnight it was almost entirely deserted and riding my bike right down the middle was the bike-riding highlight of my day.
$200+ million to create longer travel times and increase the number of congested intersections (per SDOT’s own studies) is an absurd and indefensible waste of money that would be far better spent elsewhere.
Jan Drago herself said that they were making a policy decision to live with the Mercer Corridor as-is when they voted to sell the old Bay Freeway properties to Paul Allen.
And still not a dime for the Magnolia or South Park Bridges or the Lander Street overpass…
Will may be an idiot but Fnarf you are a mega, not in the good way, dick. The Mercer solution was pushed through by the Vulcan/Nickels cabal and will not speed up the travel time. Look at SDOT’s own numbers.
The Mercer project is one to enhance Vulcan’s property values. But then Fnarf you’ve been busy sticking quarters up your nose and trying to get your keys out of your running car, so you’re excused for having your head up your ass.
Thank you, Fnarf, for your comment at #13. #8 was so confounding that I couldn’t think of anything useful to say but “you’re a fucking idiot”, when actually you discovered a way to intelligently refute the point 8 was trying to make.