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Send your letters to the WA Free Press, PMB #178, 1463 E Republican St, Seattle 98112, or WAfreepress@gmail.com. Please include your full name and phone number for verification. Keep them short. Letters may be edited for length, spelling and grammar. Letters printed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the WA Free Press. Letters which respond to WA Free Press articles will be given precedence.
READER MAIL
Next Stop: Bus ImprovementsDoug Collins's "Hey Metro" article begs for a follow up on the hot topic of Puget Sound transportation politics. We'll see several big issues on the ballot over the next two years. Unfortunately more local bus service will be only a minor part of the mix. However some solutions are already in the pipeline. The beta test of a smart card system will start soon, answering the plea for "simpler fare collection". Prepaid smart cards will replace all passes and tickets, everything except cash, all over Puget Sound. Many of us are also pushing for more sidewalks, system maps, bus shelters, and other usability features, but we often run head long into budget roadblocks. Less than a quarter of operations and maintenance costs are covered by fares county-wide (one third in Seattle), while all parts of the county are crying for more and better bus service. Some of us tried, but failed, to get the RTID (Regional Transportation Improvement District) legislation modified to help fund the "big gap" between big roads projects (RTID) and regional transit projects (Sound Transit). This "big gap" is precisely local transit, sidewalks, bike lanes, and transit-oriented development. The governor sided with suburban developers against Ed Murray's efforts to help transit users, environmentalists, and new urbanists. But on one issue Collins really missed the train. There is no way that a bus-only system will ever achieve the reliability, frequency, and speed of a well designed train and bus system. Transit-wise we're like a critter without a backbone. When our backbone - the light rail from SeaTac to Northgate - is done, it will have a big city subway ridership - substantially more than any other modern light rail system in the US. And it will do this by going to where masses of people live and work in a neighborhood friendly fashion, whether this be on a raised highway median, as in Rainier Valley where I live, or in a tunnel, through much denser downtown, Capitol Hill, and University District. The reality is that as gas heads toward $10 a gallon and global warming hits home, billions for I-405 and the like will seem like a monumental boondoggle. We need to work the politics now to be ready for this societal tipping point when the long SOV-SUV commute fades into the sunset. Dick Burkhart, Sierra Club Transportation Committee, Metro Transit Advisory Council
Doug Collins replies-- While I agree that rail transit has the inherent advantages that you point out, my objection to building rail at this point in time is that we don't even yet have a really good bus system to complement the rail. It makes much more financial and practical sense to craft a useful and popular bus system first, and then start thinking about rail improvements. It's a mistake to take your second step before you finish your first one, especially when your second step is enormously expensive, as is rail. Rather than enhancing our transit, I'm afraid that building rail at this point is instead sucking away money that should really now be used to vastly improve bus service all over the urban area, and thereby increase the base of people who are willing to use transit in the first place. Busses, after all, can easily service nearly every nook of the city. Rail is not able to do that.. Trouble is, there are a lot of real estate and development companies that have an interest in big spending on public construction projects, and they tend to keep plenty of political pockets lined. No local interests can make much money off of bus improvements because busses mostly use existing infrastructure. That's precisely why we don't hear very many proposals for bus improvements.
Bush on Way OutTake heart liberals, progressives and moderates. The Bush administration dinosaur is in its final death throes. Oh, to be certain, the administration will continue to cause irreparable harm to Americans, our economy, the environment and the world's citizens. But make no mistake, the Bush administration days are numbered. Not because of any action by the "loyal opposition" or the corporate media, but because the people have willed it! The Bush administration has become isolated through its excesses. The wrong turns taken by the Bush administration are almost too numerous to name, but here's just a few: abrogation of and refusal to sign hard won world treaties like those dealing with hydrogen bombs and Kyoto concerning global warming; invading Iraq based on falsehoods; gutting domestic social programs like Medicare to pay for weapons and warfare; cutting taxes for the wealthy and spending our country into a massive deficit; fostering corruption in Congress and administration programs; imprisoning suspected terrorists without charges and subjecting them to torture; attacking the rights and liberties of Americans and leading us back into the dark ages of religious oppression and hatreds. While many in the US and world have been immobilized by the administration's tactics of intimidation, bullying and terrorism, this has ended. Courageous world citizens are moving forward in the battle against global warming under the Kyoto Treaty, US citizens are moving towards almost certain censure, if not impeachment, of the Bush administration and several state legislatures are considering impeachment as well. Good people will prevail! Howard Pellett
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