Comments

1

They'll go up anyway. This won't aggravate climate change by itself and why not be a little magnanimous for a change to your fellow motorists and treat $1.00 toll as good news?

2

Love the tunnel! Amazing piece of infrastructure and makes me proud of Washington State and Seattle to build something that works so well.

Tolls? Well of course it should be tolled, it will make it faster when I use it and the higher they are, the fewer poor people will get in my way. Just look at the 520 in the morning, all Audis and BMWs.

3

Actually: "A Good To Go! pass gives SR 99 tunnel drivers the lowest toll rates possible - from $1 to $2.25, depending on the time of day. Without a Good To Go! account, those same tolls will cost $2 more for each trip."

So as much as $4.25 (each way for a $8.50 round trip) unless you have a Good To Go! pass.

And that $1.00 Good To Go! rate is only 11pm-6am weekdays (though it is all day weekends).

Don't have a Good To Go!, your looking at $3.00 minimum each way.

4

Hey Lester, don't direct peoples' ire at local politicians, this is a state facility and the tolls are set by the state transportation commission, whose members are appointed by.... the Governor and legislature.

5

@4
In Lester's world people with cars are "rich", but people like him with $200,000 educations from Boston College are "poor".

6

$1 each way will encourage drivers to use the tunnel, and not clog up surface streets!
(disclaimer- I do NOT own a car!)
I wish the Stranger had $1 for each trolling comment! Theyd have more revenue than the Seattle Times!

8

@7 You can also believe it’s happening but not be hysterical about flimsy predictions of global doom that blame every fart in the wind on your neighbor’s SUB. Such a person recognizes that our entire economy is dependent on cheap, large scale energy that fossil fuels and nuclear can provide and also sees carbon panic for what it is, an attempt for massive state control of the economy aka socialism (money for people who don’t want to work!).

Get rid of these cheap energy sources and you will bring about massive human suffering.

Have some faith in human ingenuity, mitigate effects, build more nuclear and develop carbon capture.

What you don’t do is wet yourself every time we get a hot week in Seattle. I just turn on the ac and plop some ice in the wine.

10

It wasn't the politicians who voted down the carbon tax.

11

Mercedes owners are hunting for fixer-uppers in Delridge and Highland Park?

12

@7, @8

When it comes to climate change, there are those who deny it exists, those who deny any of its effects are or might become serious, those who deny anyone can do anything about it, and then there are those who aren't suffering from any of those forms of denial.

14

@11, they sure are. You can instantly tell the neighborhoods that have turned over--what used to be modest working class cottages all have Audis and BMWs parked in front of them. Kind of funny, since if they'd moved to Kirkland they could park that $70K automobile off the street.

15

Trolls like Lester Black blindly vote for the Democrats and then are shocked when the Democrats screw us over. If you want to do something about climate change, quit voting for the Democrats, idiots. It was Ex-Governor Christine Gregorie and Pedophile Mayor Ed Murray who rammed this tunnell down our throats without the LEGALLY required environmental reviews. I should know. My law firm worked on the lawsuits to block the tunnel until proper environmental reviews were done. Seattle is full of assh0les like Lester Black who bitch about how bad things are and then continue to put into power the very parties who are f-cking things up.

16

Given that Lester couldn’t even get the details of the toll rates right, there’s little point in asking him the obvious follow-up question: what’s the tipping point price, above which traffic starts using the downtown grid? Because lots of stop-and-go in downtown congestion emits more carbon than a straight drive-thru at speed.

The Stranger has been pissily finger-pointing at the SR-99 tunnel ever since it lost this battle in 2011. (Back then, they complained how there would no longer be a way for single-occupancy vehicles to use the SR-99 tunnel for commuting downtown!) All these years later, and (like @15) they still can’t admit they lost.

Don’t worry; no one can ever force you to watch the viaduct-free sunset from downtown. Ever!

17

"climate activism is complete bullshit...."

Lester finally has grasped what half the country has known for a couple of generations;
"Climate Change" is an excuse for snotty Leftists elites to try to tell everyone else what to do while they continue to jet set from one 20 bedroom mansion to another.
And an excuse for their credulous fiollowers to feel morally superior because they are so woke about the planet.
The Left has had decades to show the rest of us how it is done,
to walk the talk.
Isn't going to happen....

18

Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump... That piece of crap tunnel is so poorly built that they couldn't even make it smooth when it opened. The expansion joints are too big so every 30 feet you're feeling the bump.

19

...and the way they have 99 going into it is a shitshow. A bus lane that disappears, 90degree exits all along it, bus stops, a left exit for everyone to use the lane to snake in at the last minute, Who the fuck thought a left exit was a good idea? I-5 is a constant shitshow due to WADOT cheaping out when it was built and having 520 traffic left merge and then exit to downtown on the right within a half mile. Brilliant. I guess we shouldn't have gotten our hopes up that they'd learned anything before building this boondoggle.

20

Lester is spot on. Anyone here that defends a) driving in the tunnel because they are economically disadvantaged and he's spoiled b) driving or the tunnel as a great marvel that won't exacerbate global warming misses the point entirely and is complicit in the ignorance, idiocy and hypocrisy Mr. Black is highlighting. Get out of the fucking cars already. PS- Just think what massive amounts of social housing the $ for that asinine tunnel (that most sitting and former council-members voted to support) could have built.


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