You've been arguing for more than a decade that the city should expand its monorail system. You've pretty much lost that fight, but do you still believe expanded monorail is a better option than opening more light rail stations?

Yes... By the way, have you noticed the light rail signs [by the UW light rail station]? Did you notice what it was? Did you look closely? It's a monorail. It's this big, huge looping track that's only about six inches thick, and the train is obviously up in the air. If you look at it, it's a monorail. I wish I would have had a bit of a copyright.

But isn't light rail going to help reduce the city's unbearable commuting congestion?

It moves 240 people at a time. That sounds like a lot, but we're in an area of about 1.5 million people. And because they're steel wheels on rails, they have to maintain a certain safety distance, and that means you can't say, "We're going to have so many trains running every minute!"... That's not the way we do it in this country. In Tokyo, they have the trains miss each other by a few inches. They cross each other. They train five years to do that. But we're not going to do that. In the United States, to the best of my knowledge, there are about 20 light rail systems, and none of them move more than 5,000 people an hour per direction. For example, the Burke-Gilman Trail has a capacity of about 20,000 people an hour. That's a bicycle trail. We'd be better off building some bicycle trails than this stuff.

Is there a solution for the light rail stations that have yet to open? Would elevating the tracks in a monorail-like fashion be a better option?

Oh, yeah... They should elevate because it's much cheaper than building on the surface. In the South End, where [light rail] is elevated, that's saved them $40 million a mile.

So let's end on a happier note. Are there any current transit success stories here in Seattle?

I think the double-decker buses [in Snohomish] are interesting. I'd love to see what their numbers look like... They're bringing in 27 more soon.

CORRECTION: According to Sound Transit, standard two-car trains can hold 400 people, and they can run four-car trains during busier times.