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Is it a miracle? Can it really be so? Did I just read about a transportation plan that’s actually useful and affordable? That can happen soon but also has long-term benefits? I’m stunned by King County Exec Ron Sims’ proposal to increase the sales tax to fund better bus service. For an additional 1/10th of a penny per dollar, Sims believes the county can drastically improve bus service—increasing the frequency...

(This post is part of a series.) It’s interesting to see what Jaime Lerner—the legendary mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, who created a world-class bus rapid transit system on a shoestring budget—had to say about Seattle transportation, in a question-and-answer session with the Seattle P-I: Is there a way to create dedicated bus lanes in a cramped city like Seattle? “There are many ways, many corridors where you can have a...

I wouldn’t call it momentum, exactly, but there seems to have been a bit of movement on the idea of replacing Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct with a surface boulevard—a modestly-priced alternative to an aerial rebuild or tunnel. Now, just to be clear, I’m still not convinced that this is an ideal solution. Transportation is complicated, and while other US cities that have removed downtown highways (San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Portland)...

A year ago, Seattle Mayor Gregg Nickels assembled a “Green Ribbon Commission” to advise him on how to keep his trend-setting Kyoto pledge. Last week, the commission released its report. The global significance and political symbolism of the event have drawn much well-earned comment. The report itself has not. How is it? Superb. I’m in love. It’s well researched, innovative, and (mostly) courageous. (Full disclosure: the commission is also full...

At the risk of making this blog too Seattle-centric, I thought I’d point out this nifty article in today’s Post-Intelligencer about the city’s efforts to promote alternatives to the car—everything from walking to biking to transit to ride sharing to van pools.  And there’s ample reason to be concerned about rising car traffic, particularly downtown—not just on environmental grounds, but on financial ones.  Cars, you see, take up lots of...

Not much new here, really, but still worth noting: from the Seattle P-I, "Seattle sets own Kyoto goals for emissions." To me, the thing that’s most noteworthy is the admission that, if greenhouse gas emissions are really going to fall in a city like Seattle, a lot of the reduction will have to come from the transportation sector.  Seattle’s electricity is already, at least nominally, climate-neutral.  Some gains can probably...

An interesting bit of local history in the Seattle P-I. By 1892 Seattle was crisscrossed with 48 miles of electric railway and 22 miles of cable railway, stretching from Georgetown to Ballard. According to state historian Walter Crowley, the construction of the streetcar routes segued into smart new development: …developers platted new neighborhoods clustered around compact business districts at street railway intersections, built broad avenues such as Westlake, Madison and...

This Bill McKibben piece on Curitiba, Brazil—which has been held up for years as an international model of people-friendly urban design—may seem like old news to those who are in planning or transportation circles. But I still found it inspiring. If Curitiba—with a per capita income of $2500 a person, 300 percent population growth since 1970, and no lush beaches or obvious tourist attractions—can make its city a model of...

(This post is part of a series.) Noted in passing, a Seattle Times article with a mildly galling headline: Rebuild or replace the viaduct?  So, what then, are those the only two options on the table?  Obviously, no.  But it’s hard to know that from the Times’ coverage. The article highlights the musings of a retired structural engineer and I-912 supporter who claims that the Viaduct could be patched up...

UPDATE 9/26/05:Pretty good blow-by-blow coverage of the monorail’s unraveling in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Saturday. We’re not dead yet, proclaims the monorail board. Just minutes ago, the board unanimously agreed to send the monorail back to the voters this November. This is apparently a last ditch effort to resuscitate the project in the face of stern opposition from the mayor and city council. The new plan may actually be financially...