I went to the Transportation Choices Coalition (TCC) open house yesterday. It was a lot of waiting from 5-6pm drinking good wine and talking with individuals that were there. Then there was about 15 minutes of talking from the special guests namely Mayor Nickels. Here is a quick summary of what was brought up in the very brief talks.
Sound Transit and many parties are trying hard to get extended light rail onto the ballot for 2008 for obvious reasons.
The Seattle Streetcar is going to be expanded, they are working on a map right now. They will be waiting to see who steps up with dollars though. Sponsors are going to be a key perhaps in the direction it is expanded to? They are working on a map now as we know already.
As most of us know the 520 and Viaduct are big issues currently being worked on. It was mentioned that progress is occurring on both of those big projects. Not much detail, but Carless In Seattle has a summary of his experience there.
I wasn’t as aware of this, but Vulcan has a good working relationship with TCC and there is a lot of collaboration in each project in relation to transportation. Good to hear! Wish others would do the same. There was also a push to donate to TCC if you have the opportunity to do so, they do a lot of work with very few people and dollars. I think we all agree their efforts are needed for the future of Seattle.
“They will be waiting to see who steps up with dollars though.”
Didn’t our govenor give a few speeches warming to the surface Viaduct replacement along with the “thousand little pieces” fix to ease traffic? She’d be saving a whole lot of state money on not replacing the Viaduct – and rail of some fashion would certainly qualify as one of those pieces…
if i hit the lottery, i’m going to “step up” with my winnings and have the city put in my own personal streetcar between my apartment and my favorite drinking establishment :)
(just trying to lighten things up a bit)
“The Seattle Streetcar is going to be expanded, they are working on a map right now.”
I thought there was a study of the effectiveness of the streetcar expansion? Don’t we wait for the results of the study to decide if this is a reasonable way to expand transit? Or do we just ram it through regardless, because Vulcan wants it?