How many times do we have to vote YES?
“Nickels said the city was indeed revoking the transit way agreement under which the monorail could be built on city streets. However he said he hoped the Seattle Monorail Project would go to voters in November to ask them whether the line should be built. If monorail officials don’t do that, Nickels said the city would present a ballot measure.”
That’s right, another monorail election. This would be the fifth time since 1997. Fifth.
I already sent Nickels a scathing e-mail, which will certainly be ignored. But I don’t place all the blame on our idiot mayor. I place a big chunk of it on the idiots at the Seattle Monorail Project who have continually made stupid decisions like using a car tab fee to pay for the project.
We need a non-street-level transit system here. Our streets are choked to death. Is it really so hard to understand this?
I am so ready to move to Vancouver BC instead. Someone up there offer us jobs so we can do it.
If you want to send Mayor Nickels your opinion, this is where you do it.
Well, Vancouver does have above-ground transit (Skytrain), but unless you live in certain neighbourhoods, it’s useless because all it does is go downtown and back again. There’s no parking near most of the stations….and those that do have parking, most people are scared to leave their cars there because there’s a very good chance the car will be B&Ed by the time you get back. Some of the stations are very unsafe and scary (especially at night), and other stations, like the one nearest my house, are practically impossible to walk to unless you like crossing freeway exit ramps. And the transit planners have totally screwed up the bus system to try to force people to ride the Skytrain and probably only succeeded in encouraging people into single-occupancy vehicles (e.g. a bus trip to Simon Fraser University used to be a fifteen-minute one-bus ride from the stop near my house…now it’s a 35-minute trip involving two bus lines and a one-stop Skytrain ride).
Long story short, I wouldn’t be looking at Vancouver as any utopia of urban transit. The only thing it might be good for is as a bad example to show other cities (including Seattle!) what *not* to do.
I did notice the lack of parking near the stations. But the last two times I went to Vancouver, I specifically got a hotel room near the train, and then took the train a lot. It was great! No worry about a car at all! Of course just going “downtown and back” isn’t going to be enough, though — they need more. I still liked it better than Seattle. If I was visiting Seattle there’s no way I would stay out in a neighborhood and then take Metro everywhere — it’s too slow.
Top this off with closing the bus tunnel for the next two years, AND bussing high school kids on Metro instead of the school busses. Holy Gridlock Batman!!!