Bill Virgin Has his own Plan B for transportation. Here's the first of his modest proposals:
Disband Sound Transit. One less duplicative bureaucracy to fund and maintain. Finish King County's light rail -- since so much money has been sunk into it already, we might as well go ahead and finish the thing, then operate it as a laboratory and concrete example of what not to do next time, should the region ever venture into rail again. Then turn it over to Metro. Give the Tacoma light rail segment to Pierce Transit.
You'll want to read the whole thing. In fact, you may even want to buy a copy of the PI, just for this column.
Posted by Jim Miller at November 13, 2007 12:27 PM | Email ThisBill is dead on. This should become the "bat" to beat traffic planners with.
Posted by: Chris on November 13, 2007 12:49 PMMy hot button was touched on, too- the retrofit, not rebuild or tunnel.
Again, WOW!!
Posted by: swatter on November 13, 2007 12:53 PMhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/virgin/335522_virgin16.html
Disagree on 520 replacement.
Omissions: Taxis. Recent news, Seattle may be breaking the taxi license monopoly and rearranging the way taxi drivers are paid -- back to the 1950s when they were "employees".
We only have 750 taxis in Seattle! We need thousands for the whole Puget Sound -- and we need subsidies.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004010445_taxicabs12m.html
"A recently approved pilot project will test the idea of having drivers operate as they did in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s � as employees with benefits and possibly even union representation � rather than as independent contractors, the way they function now.
For the first time in nearly two decades, the county, which along with the city regulates the local taxi industry, will issue new taxi licenses � little decals, affixed to the back of taxi cabs, by which this immigrant-dominated industry lives and dies."
Posted by: John Bailo on November 13, 2007 02:06 PM"tc" = totally clueless
Here, I'll prove it.
TC, grab yourself a complete copy of the local law the voters in 1996 approved. You know, the one that authorizes and limits ST's rights. It is called Resolution 75, and as Res. 75 states, a second document (called Sound Move) also is part of the law.
I want to ask you some questions about it, just to prove to everybody that you are, indeed, totally clueless. Sound good?
Posted by: Wishkah on November 13, 2007 02:36 PMKing County Council votes to go into the ferry business
Will the madness ever end?
Posted by: Smoley on November 13, 2007 03:40 PMNot only are we getting tax increases to subsidize the island residents' foot ferries, the CLOWNCIL also voted to subsidize every resident who lives in a flood plain by raising taxes on everyone else. BOGUS!!!!
Posted by: Palouse on November 13, 2007 03:54 PMThe levies will fail!!!!!
So we have another tax increase. O-brother.
Explain this dems. You have controled this state for 30+ plus years, what happened....
care to explain DUFFMAN.
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on November 13, 2007 05:06 PMST should be disbanded and split among Metro and Pierce and Snohomish County Transit. A laundry list of road projects need to be built and tolls will likely result on some of them, but that is the price we must pay for user's fee. The cost of construction is ever increasing. There are constructive solutions, and just as I predicted - they would surface after the Prop. 1 dragon was slayed.
Posted by: KS on November 13, 2007 10:07 PMMy main points were:
1. Elect the board instead of appointments: Per ST website, the current board is appointed by the county commissioners.
"The county executive in each of the participating counties appoints members from that county. The respective county councils confirm the appointments. By state law, appointments must include an elected city official representing the largest city in the participating county and proportional representation from other cities and unincorporated areas. To help assure coordination between local and regional transit plans, half of the appointments in each county must be elected officials who serve on the local transit agency governing authority."
2. Not turn Sounder over to Amtrak: Amtrak's history of poor management is a lot worse than ST's. It would be the death of the Sounder.
3. Also not turn over the regional bus service: I use both the ST Express buses and Sounder on a daily basis. I also use Metro buses. I would rate Metro way behind the other area's transit systems as far as bus management. I would rate Snohomish's Community Transit as tops, then Sound Transit, then Pierce, then Kitsap Transit, and with Metro being last. Metro drivers are often rude (i.e., they act inconvienced when they have to stop, they cut off other bus drivers, pedestrians, and cars, etc.). The buses (other than the ones that serve Kirkland/Redmond or Bellevue) are poorly maintained. Finally, they don't bother sticking to a schedule, unless they have a supervisor at check points checking up on them. The point of a regional bus system was to provide service across the region, instead of just within an certain service area.
Posted by: tc on November 14, 2007 08:07 AM