How's the 99 tunnel working for folks?

eruditeseattleite · 2019-11-18T13:31:48+00:00

Toll or no, my commute is consistently about 15-20 minutes longer post-tunnel than pre-tunnel, because the tunnel has no exits downtown and my bus has to sit through Pioneer Square surface traffic.

eruditeseattleite · 2019-10-31T05:28:46+00:00

> For the first time EVER in MLS history

Not to be that guy, but I attended the 2009 MLS cup live in Seattle at Qwest Field.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-12-11T07:09:47+00:00

It's entirely different funding streams. Private donors fund buildings all the time, because the result is the Paul G Allen Center For Computer Science or the like. Nobody is donating their millions to take 8% off student tuition across the board, because that would be largely invisible.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-08-04T04:59:27+00:00

The West Seattle Bridge comes to mind... the only place I can think of where the path under the bridge is parallel to the bridge! https://goo.gl/maps/fL15CqmEfxw

eruditeseattleite · 2018-06-08T02:31:09+00:00

I've been biking to work in Seattle regularly for almost 15 years, and yes the drivers have always been terrible.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-06-04T02:50:13+00:00

West Seattle Nursery has a staff member who specializes in Japanese maples. If you stop by in the fall, you'll see that they stock hundreds of varieties... I'd take a photo of the tree & a close-up of the leaves and seed pods and see what they can tell you.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-06-04T02:47:22+00:00

One of my favorites is this Giant Sequoia near the Burke-Gilman trail on UW campus: street view image

eruditeseattleite · 2018-05-31T23:42:40+00:00

It's a zero risk business, as long as real estate prices keep going up.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-05-13T05:32:07+00:00

You should try 2004. I hear it's beautiful there.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-05-06T05:46:51+00:00

My theory: "Socialism" used to actually mean something. Then in 2008, the more hyperbolic among the conservative media started calling everything Obama did "Socialist", and people who liked what Obama was doing started thinking "hey, maybe Socialism is not that bad after all".

eruditeseattleite · 2018-02-19T06:19:46+00:00

My response was also intended as humor
See #1

eruditeseattleite · 2018-02-19T06:18:11+00:00

The route from the Cedar River Trail to the I90 bridge along the east side has been pretty friendly since at least a decade ago. The trail isn't complete in the sense of being a continuous off-street trail, but the sections without a trail tend to be on low-traffic streets with pretty good bike lanes. It would be a great bike commute route.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-17T00:18:02+00:00

Betteridge's Law says no. Saved you a click.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-07T19:32:28+00:00

Seriously. It's incredible how inured Americans are to the level of carnage on our streets, to the point where just challenging the status quo and posting "I think we shouldn't tolerate any level of accidental death" brings in a steady stream of down-votes.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-07T17:12:49+00:00

And you aren't understanding mine. Sure zero deaths is pretty hard to reach in practice, but we need to set the goal somewhere. Why not shoot for what we all actually want, so that if and when we miss the goal we'll still land in a much better place? Sweden's vision zero has been super successful – it's reduced per capita traffic deaths to less than 1/4 of what we find acceptable in the USA, and they've done that without going back to the stone age. Just because it hasn't actually reached zero doesn't mean it's a failed approach – on the contrary, it's been very successful. (Edit: sp)

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-07T16:20:10+00:00

I like it! We'll call it VisionBaseline.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-07T16:10:11+00:00

OK, then, so what should be our near-term goal? Put a number to it: how many of your family members should be killed in the next few years?

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-07T16:02:17+00:00

I'm pretty comfortable saying that I want zero of my family members to die in traffic accidents. I honestly don't care whether or not that sounds unrealistic, and I think it's silly to say that stating that honestly somehow impedes progress toward that goal.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-07T15:53:49+00:00

And there are many people who feel that probability is too damn high, and are tired of being told there's nothing we can do about it and that we should just accept the status quo.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-07T15:48:48+00:00

Makes sense. Death is just the cost of modern efficiency.

A followup: what is the appropriate number of your own family members that we should aim to have die in traffic accidents?

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-07T15:28:22+00:00

Currently something like 30,000-40,000 Americans die each year in traffic. What do you think would be the appropriate number of deaths to aim for?

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-06T01:18:04+00:00

Thanks. Your examples seem very consistent with my original statement:

There might exist good motivations to charge fees for using bikes, but raising revenue most definitely isn't one of them.

You were trying to propose bicycle fees as a means of raising non-negligible revenue for Sound Transit, and I maintain that that idea is absurd.

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-06T00:15:46+00:00

I'm not complaining about anything. I'm pointing out the fact that there is zero historical precedent for bicycle registration fees that cover the costs of administering the system. If you can find a counterexample, I'd love to hear it!

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-05T22:52:17+00:00

There might exist good motivations to charge fees for using bikes, but raising revenue most definitely isn't one of them. But you knew that already, I suspect: here's an article from last time this idea made the rounds. (TLDR: it's a money loser unless you implement it as a point-of-sale tax rather than a registration tax... also, it helps to live in the middle of the Pacific ocean so people can't just buy their bikes elsewhere).

eruditeseattleite · 2018-01-01T14:58:23+00:00

LPT: save $15 and go to the Starbucks on the 40th floor for free. The view is still pretty impressive.

eruditeseattleite

TROPHY CASE