2045 Seattle Will Be on Komo 4 News at 4pm and 5pm!
Komo News 4 is going to do a story on our efforts tonight at 4pm and again at 5pm. The more people who bring great constructive ideas to the table, the more people who take action, the healthier our city will be in the future and hopefully this story will help. The top story on Komo 4 is that highway 99 is backed up for three miles. Imagine how many of these people would rather be on a monorail tonight.
Video: One Man’s Monorail Mantra: Don’t Ditch It, Fix It
(Requires Quicktime video player)
Accompanying story on the Komo News 4 website
Congratulations to everyone for their hard work in getting word out. It’s pretty easy to work so hard when it’s something as important as the future of our city.
August 12th, 2005 at 6:01 pm
Congrats! I missed it. Hope you get on the website.
The scary thing is that all of the forecasting models for SR99 assume that the monorail is built. With no monorail, we don’t just get screwed at construction time, we also choke with congestion much earlier. I’ve never seen drive time models without monorail, but I bet if a freedom-of-information-act request were made to the state, you could get it eventually.
BTW, remind me to tell you my shoulders/lanes/capacity cost-reducing message sometime.
August 12th, 2005 at 6:20 pm
Nice site design, and it’s great to be involved, but — I must say, I disagree. I too live in Seattle, and I use the bus system. However, the monorail is unpractical due to the costs. I like the idea of a monorail. But, I still don’t want to be paying for it… 40 years from now.
August 12th, 2005 at 7:07 pm
Actually, it was on again at 6:30 and I caught it. Yer famous!
August 12th, 2005 at 9:36 pm
To anonymous: I don’t believe we will be paying for it 40 years from now. It sounds like we’ll be voting on something that will be financed with much healthier 30 year bonds, but we will know in a few weeks the details of what is possible.
August 13th, 2005 at 10:30 am
I agree with anon, great site, and it’s even better that you’re involved in the process, but I truly think that the monorail idea is a novelty item. The idea that it will relieve congestion is far-fetched.
Having lived in Europe like many people have, I depending on public transportation solely for my transportation needs. I think the problem is that many people envisage a system like you’ll find in many European cities where you’re able to travel from point to point without problem, when in fact those systems took decades to build at a very steady cost. If the Puget Sound region wants a useful transportation system, it’ll need to fork over a lot of money, and have transparent, compentent leadership.
Right now, we don’t have the will or the leadership.
August 13th, 2005 at 10:47 am
Greg, Like you said, a great transit system takes time. We are building one line at a time so that we can learn from our past work as we build the second and third lines, giving those communities serviced by the lines time to evolve as people learn to take advantage of this new feature in their neighborhoods.
Monorail as a technology is hardly a novelty as it’s used widely in asia and lines continue to be built all over the world.
We also have a unique opportunity to have a line up and running in time for the viaduct to come down keeping west Seattle as an integrated part of our community.
August 15th, 2005 at 10:15 pm
I just returned from MInneapolis where I was able to experience their light rail system from the airport to the Mall of America and then into the city. It was a delight. Seattle deserves the same progressive convenience.
August 16th, 2005 at 9:49 pm
I would be willing to donate, e.g. Buy A Bond campaign, for the ‘rail as proposed by your passionate spokesperson I saw on the Seattle Channel’s monorail board meeting coverage.
A Rally For The Rail at Westlake Mall plaza or at some central place downtown might be a good way to garner news coverage about the hundreds (hopefully thousands) of Seattleites who support a monorail for this century. That’s one thing Seattle sometimes does really well — having public rallys for issues important to a large part of our population. Although I no longer live in Ballard I still support the idea of the ‘rail. In fact I’d like to see the elevated rail idea return to Madison Park/Madison Valley after the Green Line is under way and collecting revenue (my understanding is that there was an elevated rail line from downtown to then-rurallike Mad. Park).
August 17th, 2005 at 12:00 pm
There was a cable car to Madison, but no elevated. (assuming you’re talking 60-110 years ago)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2004/0328/nowthen.html
While there may have been bridges, etc around the city, the only real elevated streetcar structure was from Spokane Street on the west side of the Duwamish to Pioneer Square.
August 23rd, 2005 at 1:34 pm
Oops, there was a better link to the elevated that I just was clued in to. Paul Dorpat had a short discussion a couple of weeks ago.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw08072005/nowandthen.html
November 14th, 2005 at 7:57 am
[...] We sent letters to our representatives. We called the Kirkland Chamber of OnTrack the mock organization they were on KUOW. We got news stories on Q13 Fox and Komo 4 News. We managed to get quotes and comments and letters in the Seattle Times and Seattle P-I. The Stranger called us idealists. [...]