If you’re not happy with Light Rail now, you’ll have to wait 6 years (barring no setbacks) to be more unhappy, as the University Link will connect downtown with the UW campus in 2016. Construction of Light Rail between SEATAC and Tacoma is also being discussed, mainly to keep other Puget Sound residents happy.

So, why exactly is the cost so high (sometimes three times the cost per mile of other US Light Rail systems)? I believe there are two reasons:

1. It was built to use federal tax dollars. This led to trying to create a plan that made it appear it would be better than rapid bus transit and thus getting it federally funded. Unfortunately, the numbers were kind of fudged. It would have been more helpful than rapid bus transit if it was planned with the intent to help commuters.
2. Seattle is hilly. There’s no way around this. Drilling is expensive and time consuming.

I don’t intend to imply that Light Rail is unnecessary and that rapid bus transit, or promoting car pooling, is the wave of the future. Those are good ideas, but I do believe mass transit is necessary in the Sound, as between Seattle, Tacoma, and the Eastside, there are over three million people, many of which work in the three major urban centers. I also will admit to being a little biased when it comes to Seattle Light Rail as it has probably added a few minutes to my daily commute. This annoys me greatly.

But instead of ranting about the turd King County Metro dropped on the Sound in the form of Seattle Light Rail (sorry, had to let some frustration out), I will offer suggestions for improvements. These improvements are guided by what I think should have been the goals of Light Rail to begin with:

1. Cheap
2. Gets cars off the road
3. Useful to tax payers
4. Environmentally efficient

With those goals in mind, here are some suggestions:

1. Copy others. This is obvious. You know, the whole learn from others/don’t repeat history line. While I appreciate Seattle’s independent spirit, it pains me to think there’s a much better Light Rail system a few hours south in Portland, a town that has a comparable if smaller metropolitan population. While it’s probably too late, it’s also possible Light Rail wasn’t the answer for mass transit in Seattle.
2. Change the way fares are paid. So why exactly must random police officers and metro officials hop on trains and ask people for their passes? Not only is this annoying as a rider, it hopelessly inefficient, hard to understand (I get asked how you pay a couple times a week), will not scale with greater size, and is needlessly expensive. Seeing as how Light Rail doesn’t take or give transfers, stations should be pay to get in. Very simple, easy to understand, easy to implement, and more efficient. Also, the fact that many people get free rides only lessens the great investment by Puget Sound taxpayers.
3. Parking. This might be the biggest complaint and most necessary change. Why will people, who have never been interested in riding your buses, take your train if they can’t get to the station? While no one expects parking downtown, many of the outlying stations have no reason not to provide more parking, at economical costs, especially Tukwila. I have no doubts that building a few parking garages would increase ridership.
4. Make the tunnels light rail only. Why why why do buses share the tunnel with light rail. All they manage to do is back each other up. Why can’t Light Rail just operate between downtown stations, and use International District and Westlake as connection points for buses? If the problem is fares, just make the downtown tunnel free, all the time. Is there cost to this? Yes, unless you follow my next point of advice.
5. Automate cars where possible. Are operators necessary? This is supposed to be a futuristic town. One that was able to build the Monorail in a year for a couple million for the 1962 World’s fair. Unfortunately, it’s over 40 years later and mass transit is just being implemented. To be fair, it has its own share of problems, is less than a mile long, and is elevated. Why not spark the imagination of the world by implementing autonomous rail (okay, they exist, but not in the US)? Sure, it could be costly, but it could just operate in the downtown tunnel. Which brings me to my next point…
6. Service downtown areas independently and more frequently. People are constantly trying to get to, from, and around downtown. The free ride zone is helpful, but wouldn’t it be more cost effective to have constantly running autonomous trains in the downtown tunnel? There could be a train every minute at every stop during peak hours. No more 10 bus pile ups only to not see another bus/train for 10 minutes. Also, being autonomous allows the trains to run all day, even if at longer intervals.
7. Add express trains (hopefully not light rail). The fact is the majority of people use light rail to get to and from the airport from downtown Seattle. While I understand people live between those two locations and need to be serviced, waits at each stop take way too long considering the trains’ sluggishness. The 194 can take me from ID to SEATAC in 20 minutes. I often have to spend an extra five to ten minutes on Light Rail (longer when it was stopping at Tukwila). The answer? Add express trains between the tunnel and SEATAC. Yes, you’ll need an extra rail, but they can run less frequently, and you’re guaranteed they’ll be used. And please, don’t use light rail. There’s about 15 miles to cover, which could probably take 10 minutes on a modern train system.
8. Worry about Seattle. So I understand Sound Transit operates Light Rail, and you have to make all taxpayers happy. Unfortunately they’re failing, and if certain taxpayers don’t believe they need mass transit, that’s fine. Seattle should be sure it provides the world class transit its residents deserve. I don’t want to promote creating yet another separate transit system, but as long as you operate the same technology, integration can happen down the road.
9. Lay tracks on grass. This is more an aesthetic touch, but being Seattle, you’d think making mass transit nature friendly and visually appealing would be a priority. Why not lay tracks on grass? Making it more a natural part of life allows for better integration. And hey, if you’re worry about cutting the grass, I’m sure the goats want some larger territory than the park above I-5.

   

10. Expand quickly, even at cost. We’re in a rough economic situation where people are in need of jobs. While I’m not promoting New Deal era programs, I don’t see a reason why the University Link should take 6 more years. If you have workers, expanding quickly should be a priority. It creates jobs as well as promotes business and commerce and quickly connects much of the city. While gas is cheap, it will begin to rise as the economy gets better, and you’ll quickly see commuters garage their SUVs if they have valid mass transit options.

While I’m sure I’ve left a few key improvements out, I think this would be a good start.

Explanation:

So a few weeks ago, I decided to go deposit some checks (by the way, I hate checks, please don’t give me checks. You won’t end up on my hate list, but I will hate you in that moment) to my local Bank of America. The people were nice, and offered to set me up with a Washington Bank Account. I figured, hey, good plan, finally acting like I live in Washington.

And the lady signed me up, although there was some confusion over why I had accounts in Texas and Illinois. I sort of expected this, so it wasn’t a huge deal. I was sort of annoyed that the lady didn’t know Chicago was in the Illinois, and didn’t know where Illinois was, guessing that it was next to Wyoming… I won’t get into that…

So we set up my account, and she made me choose checks and a debit card. For whatever reason, she actually wanted to create more accounts than I had previously, all in Washington. An actual checking, a safe checking, and then linked savings for both. I figured, what the hell, this can’t be that bad. She also said any transactions would now be linked to my new account.

Things started to get a little worse when she mentioned that I’d need to change my pin and my online username. What’s worse, my online username was now twice as long as before.

The next week, I received an overdraft notice for $25 for a transfer that had completed the day BEFORE my money was transferred out to my new Washington account.

The day after, I received an overdraft notice for $35 for the transfer to MY NEW ACCOUNT.

What’s more, they did return the overdraft fees without much effort, but the lady had forgotten to close my old bank accounts. I had them closed.

A little while later, I need to pay my rent, so I go to my trusted BoA online bill pay to discover that Washington’s BoA online experience is MUCH crappier than the rest of the nation. In fact, it’s basically featureless and reminds me of online banking seven years ago. What’s more, the bill pay didn’t allow checks to individuals. Sadly, I had to go to a slightly worse bill pay on ING.

A week later, I receive another overdraft notice for my CLOSED bank account. Partially my fault, Puget Sound Energy tries to transfer my bill balance from my old bank account, and fails. I call in, and they don’t even see the overdraft, yet proceed to waste my time.

In conclusion, I wish I could close my BoA account. Unfortunately, my need for paper checks keeps me from probable bliss.

This is my first attempt at live blogging, and it really didn’t go as well as I had hoped it would, but the hour was entertaining…

2:00 pm
I’m going to try giving this live blogging thing a try.  So far, a surprisingly large turnout as we wait for Starbury to enter. Just some weird powerpoint with some “highlights” of Stephon…

2:02pm
The logo is real. Why, why Stephon?
I was referring to his head tat.

2:11pm
He honestly seems interested in the direction of Starbury. I guess its not too surprising that he’s sincere about it…  New book entitled Can I play? coming out soon…
I thought it fortunate that the one topic he was really articulate about was the Starbury Brand. Although this might be through training or a business requirement, at least he’s serious about it.

2:15pm
Explaining the Knicks. Refers to Duhon as the “other” point guard… Thinks his surgeries are the reason he’s out… Lots of laughs…
I was really surprised he was pretty open about the whole situation with the Knicks, but I guess he probably gets the question all the time…

2:22pm
Thinks he can play 6-7 more years because of his training… Wants to play in Italy… like college ball.
The obvious thing to mention here is that most NBA teams don’t want him around because all he’s proven is that he becomes a distraction. Sad, because he is incredibly talented, but the way he talks, he seems to have convinced himself its the Knicks trying to bring him down.

2:30pm
Haha… NBA owners, using the league to funnel money to buy planes, buildings, etc… Flip Saunders his best coach… Interesting considering he forced his departure. “Larry Brown, he’s crazy.” Did say Brown was a great coach and did grow after playing for him.
Some of this conversation was interesting, especially when he lights up when talking about finally realizing how the owners made money. One thing that was interesting was his discussion about D’Antoni, which sounded nothing like what’s been put out in the media.

3:00pm
I didn’t win a ball. Was interesting to see what someone who you read about in papers is actually like though… Other stuff was mentioned, but we were explicitly told not to publicize it.

This is what actually happened to me:

I’ve acknowledged this is a bad habit, and I’m currently trying to cut back. I’ve gotten it down to about 3 snoozes right now. By the way, my snooze time is 9 minutes.

For about two weeks, I did somehow have the snooze at 30 minutes (data points not shown in graph for my dignity’s sake), which needless to say, really made me think I had a serious problem.

Lessons learned:

• Don’t set snooze for 30 minutes
• Don’t abuse the snooze

By sleeping.

You refuse to use salt? You are to clearing snow what Britney Spears is to parenting. But, although she may neglect and occasionally drop her children, the kids have a Kevin Federline to publicly appear to care for them. That’s right Seattle, things have gotten so bad you need a grossly underachieving and exceptionally horrific white rapper to lower your self-image enough only to remind you of your own absurd stupidity.

You’re scared of environmentalists getting on your case for polluting the Sound? Grow a pair. Rod Blagojevich could probably curse out little children on national television and get away with it. To tell you the truth he probably already has, but it just doesn’t get enough airplay because of all the other things he’s done without regard to others. With that kind of commitment to idiocy, you should be joining Tony Blair in accepting the Medal of Freedom for blindly following a coalition of the moronic.

I’m done. And am going to sleep.

To paraphase, the ice and snow packed streets of Seattle exist by design. The city wants to use rubber plows on its trucks to prevent damage to streets, preventing much of the ice from being scraped off, caking the streets with packed down ice and snow. Also, the city prefers to use sand in place of salt, as they claim it to be more environmentally friendly.

I let Seattle off because I just didn’t think they had the capacity in trucks or salt to get the job done because it rarely snows here. However, all the city’s streets have been been plowed multiple times. The fact that there’s an sheet of ice covering every street is downright depressing. And using environmental friendliness towards the Sound as an excuse for not salting is ridiculous. While there is some environmental effects, sand also poses its own issues, not to mention the fact that most snowbound cities use salt or other chemicals. Also, I’d think the bus hanging over I-5, the rerouting and shutdown of half of public transit, and the seeming halt of the city would be enough to make getting streets clear a priority, regardless of the costs.

Rant over.

Things that have since come to my attention:

• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was aptly named (considering there was a lion, a witch, and a wardrobe… hey, it took me a while, lay off…)
• Noble mice are fairly annoying
• How could NONE of the Narnian’s not know where Aslan was? I mean:
  1. Its been a few hundred years
  2. I don’t believe Narnia to be an infinite land
  3. Shouldn’t Aslan care about what’s happened? And if he could stop it with all his magical powers (standing in one place for five minutes), why didn’t he before?

  Come on…

Other observations:

• Don’t get me started on Kung Fu Panda…: how unrealistic can you get?
• Building a power efficient and cool htpc for less than $500 is difficult: And either way, it won’t end up being a Mac Mini
• I’m debt free!: and now poor…
• This: Gotta love the inability to deal with semi-frozen water
• I haven’t left my apartment in four days and am running out of food: i hate snow. i hate oncall. i hate pagers. i hate you. (no, i don’t hate you, unless you’re on my list, but it was the logical progression)