Comments on Streetcar Collisions: Less Hysteria, Please

Hysteria?

How many crashes per month did the old George Benson Waterfront Streetcar average? How about the 17 which runs along the same route on Westlake and 71/72/73 on Fairview?

I don't know, but I bet they average(d) less than one a month.

Given the number of people I've seen walking on the tracks or idling on them in their cars as they wait for the light to change, I'm waiting for something to happen. Not hysteria, just an observation.

There are people lining up to ride the SLUT in that picture...it's obviously a forgery. =P

It'll get even worse if you get light rail.

Christ, are people seriously that bad at driving that they can't avoid something on rails? It's not as if a (bright purple/orange) streetcar moves unpredictably.

I hear a large truck shut down an intersection near Southgate Mall and caused a lot more damage today ...

Real cities that already have rail report accidents like this,

"another idiot ran into a train today..."

I'm with you Erica on the hysteria. How many bus/car accidents are there each month?

so not quite sure what to do here. you make a reasonable argument that i agree with.

i think the sys admins need to have everyone change their passwords. someone has obviously hijacked ecb's account.

But you give no credit to the Times the unhysterical headline: "South Lake Union accident takes red streetcar out of service"? Why am I not surprised?

Manufactured and outrageous hysteria? Why that's Erica's beat, how dare they trample on her turf!

The same thing happened in Portland when their streetcar first opened. Eventually people become less stupid and quit parking their cars where they can get hit. As far as light rail in Portland goes, the MAX has killed 20 people in a little over 20 years. Seattle local media will no doubt stay busy with "rails of death" stories.

tell it on the mountain!

In fairness (if Erica cared about such a thing) the P-I headline was very small and the story very brief. And it was straightforward and factual: not hysterical, certainly not "screaming."

Seems there's only one hysterical person here.

i don't mind so much if useful transit hits cars...

I think I've posted this link in a long-ago streetcar thread, but...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CV2rdGX4JYc

It's video from another U.S. city showing some cars hitting a light rail system.

You're never going to totally eliminate stupid drivers.

I'm old enough to remember when light rail was called "street cars" and people actually had enough sense to stay out of the way, on foot and in vehicles. We have light rail here, and watching people interact with those steel behemoths is truly amazing. And, of course, there are also the bicycle riders who don't realize the tracks are just the right width and depth to trap their tires.

Remember when we hardly went more than 2 or 3 days without a camper or truck on fire somewhere on I-5 in the city limits .... wasn't that pretty common?

I'm all about mocking the SLUT as a useless, slow, ridiculous waste of tax money, vanity project for Paul Allen, etc.

But in fairness, it is usually dumbass car drivers that go out of their way to get hit.

I was driving through eastlake a week ago and watched a near SLUT/truck collision. Heavy traffic. Dumbass in a pickup runs an orange light, but in the traffic there's not enough room to clear the intersection. So his ass is hanging out in the middle of the intersection, right across the tracks of the oncoming SLUT. The SLUT had was going slow enough (isn't it always?) to stop before it crashed into the truck. But then the SLUT was blocking the entire intersection, and nobody could move in any direction till dumbass in the truck got out of the fucking way.

I was actually kinda hoping the SLUT would have knocked that goddamned pickup into Lake Union. Would have served him right.

Everyone knows - if you get in the way of a Streetcar it's ALWAYS your fault. They can't stop on a dime and they can't turn. Open your eyes fools.

100% the car drivers fault.

Erica, you should check out the Fremont book the Fremont Neighborhood Council is selling. It has photos of mangled cars and mangled streetcars around the early 1900s when all of Fremont's transportation was primarily by streetcar.

Streetcars bang into things because they are (duh) in the street.

I like how Erica's posts all have their own argument started before anyone has even commented. Chip, meet shoulder.

@21 - just think of it as evolution in action, as the SLUT crushes the opposition ...

@18, yeah, but I-5 actually has people on it.

#16 - thanks, that video was amazing.

Wonder what kinda hit your insurance takes for ramming into one of those things. They can't be cheap to repair.

I was just thinking today, as I drove down MLK, and saw the usual number of Really Stupid People Who Wander Randomly Into Traffic, that when light rail comes in, we will no doubt have accidents, and there will be much hand-wringing and crocodile tears.

In fact, if I remember correctly, that was stock material for the incredibly disjointed and borderline racist emails that used to get sent out about the evils of surface transit back in the "save our valley" days.

Wow, an ECB post with a valid point!

yeah, "and just HOW many collisions are there involving cars every day?"

Hey!! Maybe there are some people who get paid to find out facts about local city stuff and somehow write it up and stuff!!
Maybe they could tell us!!
Anybody like that around??
I think they're called "reporters" -- my Momma told me this used to be a job before we had "advocacy journalists" who prove things by asking questions. Weird. Isn't asking questions the best way to prove something on the internet??

The thing is, it's so fucking obvious to anyone with eyes that this whole SLUT thing is a total joke that the media is just piling on. If anyone actually thought this was adequate or sensible public transport of any kind, the headlines would go the other way. But it's not. It's a goddamn Allen/Nickels suck-and-fuck tugjob and everyone knows it.

It deserves mockery and scorn because it exists.

Wait until the Central Link is running and we start averaging one homeless man dead per week. Then I bet we'll see hysterical headlines.

An appropriate figure of merit might be "smashups per passenger mile".

We know the smashup count.

How many passenger miles to date?

A warning to all you doubters and haters: be careful, lest the SLUT hung you down, too.....

Transportation is dangerous... but it beats huddling in a cave.