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.

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.

In other news, this xkcd cartoon reminded me of my participation in the World’s Largest Marshmallow Fight (ever) at Oakton Park in Skokie.

And in case you’re questioning whether this really existed:

In Illinois, 2,500 kids showed up at a park one winter to throw “snowballs” at each other. What they threw were 130,000 soft, sweet ones. Organizers were trying to get in the Guinness Book of World Records for the “World’s Largest Marshmallow Fight.”

- http://www.homeschoolgazette.org/FlabFacts.html

And its cold. Like low 30’s cold.

Here’s the part where I plea for some mercy from Zeus, but I can’t come up with anything clever, because well, if I were to be in Chicago, things would be much worse. Ah, stupid optimism.

(insert witty transistion here)

For whatever reason, the topic of why people blew on video game cartridges has come up a few times the last couple days, so I decided to investigate the true reason.

It appears issue of the cartridges was partly due to the accumulation of dust, as according to Videogamey,

“Though they were considered to be practically indestructible compared to scratch-prone CDs, video game cartridges would sometimes simply stop working. Especially in the NES and Sega Genesis era, an aging, dust-prone game console would sometimes simply not boot up the cartridge you inserted.”

Dust accumulated on both the cartridge and system, and the process of taking cartridges out and putting them back, was probably what was actually getting things to work. It is true that blowing increased

“conductivity on the cartridge contacts by lining them with a thin (on in some cases a thick) layer of moisture by way of human breath (spit, bacteria, and whatever else is in the person’s mouth doing the blowing … yuck).” (DP Mythbusters)

However, if you’ve seen the cartridges and system, the contacts were fairly large, so its likely there was an accumulation of dust that was worsened by the accumulation of crap from your mouth, which in turn degraded the contacts even more.

cue shooting star

Event: Earlier today, I was forced to walk up a non-functional escalator. In theory, the always-forgotten, never thanked, heavenly, automagical steps should become just another stair case when not operational. Physically, this is true. However, I ride a few escalators every day due to my commute requiring me to take the Tunnel to and from work, and I’ve found that whenever going up or down a non-functioning escalator, I become increasingly dizzy.

Theory: Even though no one else has shared this experience, I know its true. I believe its because of the vertical lines that are ingrained within the escalator steps and because of the large width of the steps, which causes an abnormal walking pattern.

Implications: Don’t walk up non-functioning escalators while intoxicated or carrying live animals. Those lacking in sobriety will only lose additional use of their motors skills, while those carrying live animals likely will not be able to complete both tasks at the same time. Specific animals to be wary of while in this situation: snakes, panda cubs (they might sneeze, and you’d likely miss it), and babies (especially if they can talk).