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I went to a meeting last night where SDOT consultants talked about the the proposals to have either light rail or streetcars running into Ballard and where the stations/stops would be. They were asking for input from the residents. This was a meeting specifically for the Connect Ballard group, also invited were the Association of Pedestrian & Bicycle Professionals (APBP) and the Young Professionals in Transportation (YPT). The consultants also talked about proposed bicycle lanes and Greenways in Ballard, and access to the stations/stops via walking or bike.
This link is what they were talking about:
http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/transit_ballardHCTstudy.htmThey have done these presentations for a number of groups in the Ballard area.
As a cyclist, I do not like the idea of streetcars mixed with bikes unless either one of them is in a dedicated, separated lane.
The idea of having a Link station at Bergen Place with a direct line to the U Dist. and then Downtown sounded good. But would probably be slower than the current D line.
I like the idea of trolley buses especially the new articulated ones that Metro is buying. I wish they would run them on the D line in a dedicated lane with timed lights and skip the Queen Anne stops.The problem with the dedicated lane is that they still can be blocked. After that whole fish-spill incident I’m firmly in the light rail camp.
I wanted to go to this. Thanks for posting the link.
My big question, I suppose, comes out of two things that happened on Wednesday. I have always been very suspicious of these large scale transit projects, but this pretty much changed my mind:
– I took the 28 bus from 8th/Market to Safeco. It took an hour and 25 minutes.
– News stations reported that the Capitol Hill – UW light rail line is being tested and will take 3 minutes to go between locations.It is my understanding that whenever Bertha finally finishes, they are going to just drive it into a tunnel and bury it. Given how much we’ve already spent, why can’t we just have it keep going, tunnel under Westlake, the Ship Canal, and into Ballard, then make a left turn and do the same thing under Interbay until it reaches downtown?
I would ride a train befor another bus. To me, not dealing with street traffic is the key; a no brainer choice
what if the bus had a dedicated lane or was otherwise separated from other traffic somehow?
people seem to have an aversion to buses for some reason.
or maybe there’s some nostalgic appeal of trains.@chris, a few weeks ago, I drove on a Wednesday night to Safeco Field (with 5 people in my car, mind you) and it took 90 minutes. I am quite confident we could have walked there quicker.
@veganbiker, I agree that streetcars and bikes are a bad mix. especially where it’s ‘moist’ and those rails are slick.
@gi That must have been awful. I hope the game was worth it :). I go to seattle pottery supply ( a block past home depot) and it usually takes 15-20 min midday.
The dedicated-lane theory ignores completely the fact that there isn’t enough room without further constricting traffic, unless you start using eminent domain to take out all of the buildings on one side of an arterial, and on virtually every street south of Denny.
Tunnels. Lots and lots of tunnels with trains. Have you ever seen the geography of, for instance, Japan? They have even more difficult engineering challenges than we do, and at the same time have what is arguably the most-developed train system (with lots and lots of tunnels) in the world, all the while dealing with the fact that they have bone-shattering earthquakes roughly as often as we have presidential elections.
It seems to me that, despite Bertha’s problems, we have probably figured out 95% of all the things that can go wrong with the tunnelling machines. We just need to figure out how to get a returns policy on the next one that allows us to send it back.
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