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Seattle Is Winning the War on the Car Commute

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Re: Seattle Is Winning the War on the Car Commute

#31

Post by Bensch »

mulmen wrote: post #12
beisner wrote: post #9

To add to the points raised in the article, Seattle’s public transit system and transit policy are just plain good . Buses are clean/new, frequent, and on-time; trains (while they don’t yet extend as far as they need to) are reliable and have good coverage along frequented routes; HOV lanes are (finally!!!) present along the entirety of common longer commutes (especially across the lake). The bus system is especially…

I'm not sure you can attribute HOV lanes on an interstate to the city of Seattle. Most of the I-90 bridge is not even in the city limits. In this case maybe you mean "Seattle" as in "Seattle Metro area" which would be fair. ST + Seattle Metro transit seem to be doing a good job considering the realities of transit around here.

Many of these (on state and interstate highways) are paid for by Sound Transit. It's more proper to say "Seattle area", but it's largely our tax dollars.

Re: Seattle Is Winning the War on the Car Commute

#32

Post by news_to_me »

A lot of the anti-transit comments here are simply saying "yeah but it's hard to get to X place by transit" (particularly Microsoft). This may be true now, but from my perspective only underscores the need for even better coverage — for example, ST3 reaching Redmond will help enormously for people getting between Seattle and Microsoft.

In general, focusing on transit at the expense of drivers is simply the smart thing to do — roads are a limited resource, and as the population grows we have to use them more efficiently. Doing so helps the most people for the least cost.

I'm sorry if you own a car and things get a little less convenient for you, but in the end we have to create the most value for the most people, especially those who don't have the luxury of owning a car.

Re: Seattle Is Winning the War on the Car Commute

#33

Post by noodle »

arcticfox wrote: post #27
beisner wrote: post #9

To add to the points raised in the article, Seattle’s public transit system and transit policy are just plain good . Buses are clean/new, frequent, and on-time; trains (while they don’t yet extend as far as they need to) are reliable and have good coverage along frequented routes; HOV lanes are (finally!!!) present along the entirety of common longer commutes (especially across the lake). The bus system is especially…

Maybe inside of Seattle it's "good", but when I lived near Microsoft I would have to allocate 3hrs+ for a round-trip into the city by public transit.

There are also comparatively very few people who live in the Redmond area and who commute to work downtown Seattle. It probably shouldn't be a heavily serviced path, realistically speaking.

Re: Seattle Is Winning the War on the Car Commute

#34

Post by chroem- »

news_to_me wrote: post #32

A lot of the anti-transit comments here are simply saying "yeah but it's hard to get to X place by transit" (particularly Microsoft). This may be true now, but from my perspective only underscores the need for even better coverage — for example, ST3 reaching Redmond will help enormously for people getting between Seattle and Microsoft. In general, focusing on transit at the expense of drivers is simply the smart thin…

>In general, focusing on transit at the expense of drivers is simply the smart thing to do

Light rail will not reach Snohomish County until the mid 2030's. That is not an acceptable answer.

Re: Seattle Is Winning the War on the Car Commute

#35

Post by andrewguenther »

beisner wrote: post #9

To add to the points raised in the article, Seattle’s public transit system and transit policy are just plain good . Buses are clean/new, frequent, and on-time; trains (while they don’t yet extend as far as they need to) are reliable and have good coverage along frequented routes; HOV lanes are (finally!!!) present along the entirety of common longer commutes (especially across the lake). The bus system is especially…

> Seattle’s public transit system and transit policy are just plain good. Buses are clean/new, frequent, and on-time; trains (while they don’t yet extend as far as they need to) are reliable and have good coverage along frequented routes...

Did we live in the same city? This is the exact opposite of my experience with Seattle transit.

Re: Seattle Is Winning the War on the Car Commute

#36

Post by bryanlarsen »

eksu wrote: post #2

How Seattle is winning the war on cars: make driving a car into the city a living hell, and actively peruse road expansions that make commute times worse to move people over to mass transit. Mass transit use up, quality of life down. I've grown up slightly outside of Seattle and have been working at some startups, but I'm leaving at the end of this year.

Where are you going to move to? Every big metro area in North America that is significantly geographically constrained has horrendous traffic: SF, NY, Boston, Vancouver, ...

Re: Seattle Is Winning the War on the Car Commute

#37

Post by throwawaysea »

amsha wrote: post #4
eksu wrote: post #2

How Seattle is winning the war on cars: make driving a car into the city a living hell, and actively peruse road expansions that make commute times worse to move people over to mass transit. Mass transit use up, quality of life down. I've grown up slightly outside of Seattle and have been working at some startups, but I'm leaving at the end of this year.

Are there any specific actions Seattle has taken to make the driving experience worse?

Yes, lots of actions. I'll name just a few but this is FAR from exhaustive:

- They have eliminated car lanes in favor of bike lanes that are typically not highly utilized - even in neighborhoods far from the downtown core, street parking is being eliminated for bike lanes, and is making even simple tasks hard and hurting quality of life (e.g. taking the kids to the dentist but not being able to park anywhere nearby).

- They have reduced speed limits in many places and therefore added travel time everywhere. This includes thoroughfares obviously designed for high throughput (e.g. WA-522, Lake City Way).

- Next month, the main on-ramp at Mercer Avenue onto I-5 will begin to be metered, which is going to be incredibly painful given that traffic is already super bad on Mercer (as always they are claiming it will "improve safety").

Re: Seattle Is Winning the War on the Car Commute

#38

Post by stephengillie »

eksu wrote: post #26
news_to_me wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, this is just evidence to expand public transit even more. There's only so much road space, and as the population grows we need to more efficiently utilize it – busses and rail are some of the most efficient ways. While we always need to support some car use cases, public transit is really the long-term solution to traffic.

I would love to have good public transit, but being someone who bused from 2008 until 2015 it will never happen. Busses in the city are plagued by our homeless. A lot of the busses simply don't feel safe, especially if you're a female traveling solo. The exception to the rule seems to be the 'commuter' busses, double deckers that go to park and rides straight downtown, but park and rides are full by 6:30 with not eno…

.

Re: Seattle Is Winning the War on the Car Commute

#39

Post by news_to_me »

chroem- wrote: post #34
news_to_me wrote: post #32

A lot of the anti-transit comments here are simply saying "yeah but it's hard to get to X place by transit" (particularly Microsoft). This may be true now, but from my perspective only underscores the need for even better coverage — for example, ST3 reaching Redmond will help enormously for people getting between Seattle and Microsoft. In general, focusing on transit at the expense of drivers is simply the smart thin…

>In general, focusing on transit at the expense of drivers is simply the smart thing to do Light rail will not reach Snohomish County until the mid 2030's. That is not an acceptable answer.

So what, we don't invest in light rail at all? That's why we're in the traffic mess we are now — because voters 30 years ago didn't prioritize long term improvements.

Re: Seattle Is Winning the War on the Car Commute

#40

Post by hermenaut »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #15

Psst, Seattle also has a reliable, free, and open source pair of apps for knowing where you bus is and when it’ll arrive. These apps are built and maintained entirely by volunteers. (In the case of iOS, this is basically just me.) If you have any background in iOS or Android development and want to help improve your own commute in Seattle, come check out our projects and pick up a bug or two. Hundreds of thousands of…

Thank you
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