Freeway Monorail

Stop Sound Transit before it derails
opinion by Michael Godfried, Free Press contributor

drawing by Sivichai Udomvarun

Imagine a time in the near future. A Regional Freeway Monorail system has been built using the I-5 right of way from Alderwood to SeaTac. When you need to go to work downtown, go to the airport, see a game or shop, the new Freeway Monorail offers a great alternative to your car. You wait only a short time on the station platform (monorail service is more frequent than light rail) and the monorail quietly glides up. You enter. The doors close and the monorail travels towards your destination. You look down at the traffic beginning to congeal on I-5 as the monorail speeds past slow-moving cars. As the monorail crosses the Union Bay bridge, you look out to Mount Rainier, the water and the city. You are thankful that your region chose such a modern, efficient transportation system to serve its residents.

Unfortunately, this is not the system that Sound Transit has in mind with it's fundamentally flawed light rail system which chugs along despite the protests of community activists and environmentalists. With buried stations of up to 23 stories underground, Seattle will have the dubious distinction of having some of the deepest stations in the world reached by long vertical elevators. Now imagine that.

Cheaper and with less disruption

When the Freeway Monorail was presented at the King County Council Chambers, Councilmember Kent Pullen responded enthusiastically. A regional freeway monorail is not only feasible, but has the potential to make better use of scarce funds, would attract regional ridership sooner and minimize community disruption (Daily Journal of Commerce, 6/28/00). Jeffrey Boone, the author of this proposal, studied I-5 and transportation issues at the University of Washington. Boone was assisted by urban planners, transportation experts and architects in a search for the most appropriate solution for our region.

The freeway monorail proposal would align with the existing I-5 Central Freeway, taking advantage of the state-owned right of way, structures and residual spaces. The monorail would inhabit the unused public spaces alongside, below and above the freeway without impacting highway lanes or disfiguring communities. The freeway monorail would link Alderwood to SeaTac in phase I, providing the necessary reach for a truly regional system. Unlike Sound Transit's buried stations, the monorail is easy to connect to future lines across I-405, I-90 and SR-520.

The freeway monorail system is a more fiscally responsible transit solution than Sound Transit, a system slated to cost over $100 million/mile. The Big Dig Portage bay tunnel is already estimated at more than $800 million, not taking into account complications and cost overruns. Sound Transit will also have to buy out small businesses and homes that lie in it's path. The freeway monorail avoids the damage to neighborhoods and the costs by using the I-5 state-owned right of way. There are no tunnels. The Elevated Transportation Committee's estimate is $35-50 million/mile for monorail.

An (un)Sound Idea

Sound Transit came about because of the explosive growth of our region and the resulting gridlock. With the problem identified, alternatives should have been generated and studied to identify the best combination of solutions based on cost and effectiveness. As former state representative Dick Nelson states: "They simply wanted to build a rail system, irrespective of its costs and benefits." Los Angeles recently completed it's rail system at a cost of $259 million per mile. The fiscal difficulties were so great that funding and routes were cut from the successful bus system leading to a lawsuit by low income bus riders through the NAACP.

Ron Sims has proposed 135,000 hours cut from bus service, a fare raise of 25 cents, $14.6 million cut from the County budget and an increase in the sales tax to feed Sound Transit coffers. All measures that will make it even harder for low and moderate income people to remain in this city. Ironically, these are the people who most use mass transit. Elected officials have already noted that Sound Transit will drain funds from current and proposed programs that benefit the region.

With all the money being spent, you would figure that Sound Transit would attract legions of new riders. But the Economic Development Council of Seattle and King County states the patronage estimates for the Capitol Hill tunnel options do not take into account the fact that approximately 2/3 of the First Hill/Capitol Hill tunnel passengers are already using the Metro bus system. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent to shift riders from buses to light rail. With all the money being spent, it would be hoped that basic planning for the location of stations would be logical. The University station at the corner of 45th and 15th offers just one example of poor planning. This is one of the busiest intersections in the University District, traffic crawls during peak hours. Sound Transit planners have no plans to accommodate park and ride, drop-offs, pick ups or the pedestrians that will be disgorged at this congestion hotspot.

And what do the neighborhoods get from Sound Transit? Although, invasive impacts and construction havoc is common to all station sites, the Rainier Valley will suffer some of the worst consequences. In the Rainier Valley, 88 small businesses will be bull-dozed along with 111 homes. Sound Transit's path will divide the neighborhood, because the central road will be widened to 70 feet to accommodate rail. In addition, slow moving, at-grade trains will pose physical danger to residents, generate noise and block the flow of traffic on through streets. It takes decades to build a neighborhood but only years to wipe it out. The Sound Transit route will do one thing efficiently, it will provide a route for gentrification into one of the few remaining affordable areas in Seattle.

Why is it that Sound Transit is proposing a $2.7 billion system that still leaves the public so dissatisfied? It is extremely unfortunate that Sound Transit did not work with the Elevated Transport Committee to apply monorail technology in a manner that would serve the entire region. The Freeway Monorail has the potential to provide a truly regional modern transit system while applying a technology that has broad-based popular support. Sound Transit is not a done deal. There are elected officials who see the serious problems that will be caused by this light rail project but they need a public outcry to take that stand. This issue has an absolutely direct impact on the quality of life in this region.