Seattle shifting to mass transit, more people going car-free

I just read that article yesterday. I remain impressed that it's going so well.

One thing that caught my attention was that they said they're already straining resources as far as bus drivers and overnight maintenance. I hope the city makes efforts to shore up their recruiting, retention and maintenance infrastructure. When a system gets screwed up for want of operators or broken stuff it can take a long, long time to win back the riders' trust.

I've seen too many cities set up such that mass transit can't work correctly, and it nearly always goes back to bad politics. Simple corruption or old petty fights. You can't take the subway directly to any of the airports in NYC, for example.

 

Not saying it couldn't happen, but when I was living in Seattle the city/county/transit agency had gotten their act together starting in the early aughts. When cities like Portland, San Francisco, Vancouver, etc we're building up their rail systems, Seattle was blowing it's money and political will on the monorail. I think it provides a daily reminder to transit leaders that flashy projects don't have as much staying power as good ones.

Instead, Seattle has done a good job integrating all of their non-car transport options. You can bike to your nearest bus or light rail stop and take your bike on the bus/train. The ORCA card works seemlessly between bus, train and even ferry. Many downtown businesses and the University of Washington give a transit pass to their employees and students. They have done a really great job of diving into the details and making it work on multiple levels.

I personally didn't go car-free in Seattle (I had a pesky habit of going to the Cascades or the Olympic pennisula to hike), but I had a friend who did. It's not only possible, but likely to become the default for many Seattleites in the near future.

 

Portland has also done similar. Their "Orca" card is called the "Hop" card. IMO Portland has an excellent public transportation infra-structure with a good public bus network and an expanding light rail system.
Portland also is IMO a bicycle supportive environment with bike paths, lanes, etc....

I think with the expansion of suburbs, and the businesses within most suburban districts, you have living environments that by virtue of the density of their available goods and services are very supportive of a non-automobile possible existence.

On the negative side?
We've created landscapes now that repeat like a loop in a Twilight Zone episode. Where if you have a vehicle, you can drive from nearly one identical environment to the other. Passing repeated Starbucks, McDonalds, Chick fil A's. But this repeated density of available goods and services does mean you don't have to drive nearly as much as in the past. If you live in any modern suburban district, you probably aren't more than 5 minutes from anything you might need or think you need.

With more and more entertainment being hand held or in the living room on a large screen TV, the reasons to travel any distance for anything really dwindle.

It's probably not a popular opinion in a Prius Chat environment, but I really enjoy driving. On the weekend a trip to the coast or a drive down the Columbia River Gorge is one of my favorite past times.
But on a day to day basis?
It would probably be very possible for me to survive walking, biking or using public transportation.

 

We have that in Northern Virginia we kicked hybrids out of free HOV and now we have $50 dynamic toll (in traffic) to get into DC or HOV3. We got subway, rail, car pools, buses I think we are 60% mass transit into DC or something Traffic still bad. Getting over Potomac is a bottleneck causing much of the problem though, so I guess that part of it. Of course many people not going into DC so that is just one destination

 

I generally favored the idea of giving hybrid buyers a perk, using the HOV lanes without passengers back in the beginning. It helped sell a few more, got them established in the market and now they're well developed. I didn't mind when the trick was repeated for EVs.

Recently I've felt that market is also well established, and there is clearly enough demand.

Today I'm in favor of tightening up the passenger requirements. Eliminate the loopholes and save HOV lanes for highly occupied vehicles.

 

the good people of san f'n Cisco really used to go ape over EV giveaways. Not just carpool lanes, You could cross the bridge for freeeeee ..... but once the giveaway ended, several of the partakers didn't bother keeping their EV's anymore. True believers

.

 

We've gone to downtown concerts via transit three times now, in the last year. It's definitely not as convenient, takes longer. But all in, it's less stressful, a bit of exercise, and no parking costs/worries.

Thanks to the NIMBY attitudes, the skytrain station at our end is over a kilometer distant, off in the boonies at the edge of civilization. Actually BEYOND the edge, lol.

When we moved here about 30 years back, but there was an avenue a few blocks over with a broad median, expressly for the skytrain. We didn't know the plans when we first moved here, but learned about it over the years, were looking forward to having a nearby station. Sadly that never happened.

 

you can pretty much go anywhere in boston on mass transit. (for that matter, you can walk, it is so small)
the bigger issues are getting around the city from the three outer directions, there's not much available except some bus routes.

we definitely need some circuitous trains, and more park and ride areas.

 

This is a great trend!

We recently visited London and my mind was blown as to how well thought out their public transportation system is. Not only the tube...but how the tube system connects to train stations, airports etc....It is an extremely efficient and well thought out system. The whole syst

My daughter recently completed a semester abroad ( based in Spain )..but traveled all over Europe on public transportation. Her comments are similar to mine.

My daughter also attends college at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The city has a pretty basic light rail system in place now and that (along with buses) allows her to get around the city pretty well. Buses are not optimal...but fortunately the light rail system is currently expanding after an extended delay with residents in certain areas ( they were forced to tunnel in one area to get around a particularly 'not in my backyard' area where the residents were dead set against it ).

I'm a believer in public transportation. I think part of the problem is that the typical american hasn't really experienced what a well thought out public transportation can be. You truly don't need a vehicle. Or they don't care because they have their vehicle and refuse to try it, etc...

And as some have commented above, even though some American cities have great public transportation...there is still the problem of how to get from city to city. Europe absolutely has this figured out....we do not ( yet ). And I don't see a European style system ( with the option of high speed trains, etc... ) happening any time soon.

 

I got across Canada in 68 for around $90 on the train, courtesy of the armed forces.

Nowadays it's thousands, just a tourist thing.

 

we have amtrak in the northeast. it works pretty well, but isn't much cheaper than flying. it does save the airport time and connections.
if you live in the city, or commute, public trans is great for a lot of people.

for may though, a personal vehicle is much more convenient.

 

Actually, intercity bus service has had a bit of a resurgence in the past decade or so and actually services quite a few metro areas:

Map from: http://www.kfhgroup.com/aibra/maps.htm

While its not as comprehensive as Europe, there are several areas of the country (such as the NE corridor, PNW, California, etc) where you can feasibly go city-hopping without using a car.

 

Kfh and AIBRA are pretty nifty and it's a good thing to make them known here.

One could imagine this getting blended with traditional taxis and Uber(like) services in a GPS-based phone app.

"Hey phone, I want to go to B (phone already knows you're at A). What are my options, ranked by cost and time?"

 

hipmunk.com does a fair stab at this part with their "agony" ranking system. They've been adding more transportation systems into their search tables but they aren't comprehensive yet. Still mostly ticketed air routes and train lines, but new stuff pops up every now and then.

 

Yeah, first time going east, I took the train ticket. Then heading west at Christmas: they just gave me the $90, so I decided to fly stand-by. I'm not sure what was more punishing: it took about 24 hours, hoo boy.

 

When is the last time you rode a Greyhound or similar? I rode one back and forth to college back in the day (400 miles) and it was not a pleasant experience.

 

we have bus service out of boston. most of them break down or burn on the way to their destination