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Jun 1, 2016 at 4:00 am
Thousands of People Said They Wanted New Light Rail Lines Faster—And Now Sound Transit Has a Bigger, Better ST3 Plan
Light rail to Ballard is still 19 years out. But faster timelines will improve the package’s chances of passing.
Kelly O
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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
The first plan was likely just a way to make long timelines seem less long. They released a plan they knew everyone would hate. Then after the outrage they put out the real plan to make it look like you listened to people's concerns.
This new plan is still way too slow and had it come out first people would have been just as upset.
There should be no excuses for not knowing the growth was coming. We saw it coming, but preferred not to deal.
Oh, and $150 million dollars so that a handful or riders will get there around a minute faster is nuts. In comparison, the entire set of transit packages that SDOT is working on ( http://seattletransitblog.com/2015/12/21…) costs less than $300 million. Those include areas that (of course) have more riders today, and suffer from more congestion. Sound Transit doesn't care about value, they care about symbolism. Their plan looks great on a map, and making it elevated sounds great to those who don't care about cost.
I wonder why there has been no coverage of those improvements in The Stranger, even though they are more likely to have a bigger impact on the day to day lives of more people. I guess they like reporting on shiny new things the way that some dream of riding them.
The notion that the average person owns one car valued for tax purposes at about $5k is absurd. Sure, if you live in Seattle that may be true. But if you're a family of four living in the suburbs, driving kids around, this is a fiction.
This seems like a big money grab by Seattle, for Seattle. Sure, by all means live in your extremely over priced and under assessed properties in Seattle and benefit from public transportation so you don't even need a car. Terrific. Meanwhile I pay 40% more property tax on my house than a Seattle resident does for the same property valuation. If Seattle wants public transportation then let Seattle pay for public transportation. And let those that commute to Seattle from the suburbs, or vice versa, pay for it too.
And heaven help you if you happen to be a car collector. This is the kiss of death. There is no relationship between road usage and someone who owns half a dozen vehicles - or more and probably drives each of them no more than 2k miles a year. I could easily imagine the direct annual impact to me at well over $3000 on vehicles alone.
Funding for this should be based on 3 factors. Where you live. Where you work. What your income is.