I can see doubling bus service - heck, nationwide usage is up around 20-25 percent - but why are we encouraging people (ST) to travel from far away to work in the city instead of encouraging them to live closer to their work in denser urban areas?

Mind you, when we replace the state Viaduct, we're going to have to double local bus transit just to deal with the multi-year construction period.

Still, congrats to the ST Board today. On to November!

Please please please forgive us and please please please continue to enlighten us.

We're stupid!

We just don't know any better!

None of us have any education!!

We can't think about things ourselves!!!

We need you to tell us all about the new taxes!!

We need you to tell us how to live!!!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE "ACCEPT OUR APOLOGIES IN THE COMMENTS"!! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEASE ACCEPT OUR APLOGIES IN THE COMMENTS!!! We'll never question your sick perverted wisdom EVER EVER EVER AGAIN.

Please forgive me, in the comments.

It's your blog, of course, but I am just apologizing and begging for forgiveness. In the comments. Where the little people hang. The little, ignorant people who do not understand your infinite wisdom on all things transit, abortion, and plastic bags.

Please Erica, PLEASE forgive me. Please accept my apology in the comments.

I didn't think they'd get their shit together and actually do it this year. I'm glad they did. I'm a little worried about the timing. Personally, I think they'd have an easier time passing it after they actually get the airport link open and running next year. (Portland shows us that it is easier to pass additional lines once the first one is open.) But if it can get passed this year, that's great.

Although I have to agree that the smug "I told you so" is pretty unhelpful.

Anything that involves King County -- you know, where most of the people live -- "offends" the other counties. And don't ever expect to be able to move around Seattle proper on REAL rapid transit, because it's SO MUCH more important "to get light rail to Federal Way" (where it will be barely used by a couple hunded commuters a weekday, each of whom will still need a car to get to the station and for the rest of their sprawling lives).

ECB, you rule. Is our apology in the comments accepted? If not just tell us what to do, thanks. We really want our apology accepted (in the comments).

We'll never question your crap reporting and foolish opinions ever again. that is, as long as our apology is accepted in the comments.

No one's getting screwed here, South KC pays for South KC, Seattle pays for Seattle, and so forth. The awesome news is that if there's ever an ST3, all money raised in Seattle will have to build the intra-city transit network we all want :)

ECB is always right.

On rare occasions, she will accept apologies in the comments. This will be brought to your attention with bold "TOLD YOU SO" glimpses at her deep-rooted insecurities.

And the number of people voting in an unscientific poll reduces the margin of error not at all.

We have a winner. The stranger desperetly needs a new news editor.

Cressona, on the other hand...

Combine that with the fact that he only notified his fellow board members (and, as importantly, the agency's finance staff) about a $120 million amendment on the morning of the vote, and you begin to see how foolish he looked at today's meeting. Expect to see and hear more nonsense from him from now until November, and probably well beyond that point, too.

And a CORRECTION for Erica: The plan itself passed 16-2, but placing the plan before the voters (a separate resolution) passed unanimously. Sims and von Reichbauer decided they had already made big enough asses of themselves for one day.

Actually, I was a little surprised in the end that she did go along with it, considering that she co-sponsored Ron Sims's bus service amendment that ended up getting shot down. It was disconcerting that she would put her name on that embarrassing, little, last-minute monkey wrench.

Oh, and it's just awesome too that Ron's poison pill got rejected. Do you really want to be accepting amendments to ballot measures from the opponents of the ballot measures? Hey, why not let Kemper Freeman, Tim Eyman, and Doug MacDonald help craft ST2 too while you're at it?

Yay for rail on the ballot this year. Boo for the crowing from sore winners like the OP.

Tell you what, I'll be perfectly happy to admit that I was misguided in my support for Prop. 1 last year. I'll be perfectly happy to admit I was wrong when (and if) this new Sound Transit proposal passes in November.

Up until that time, I'd rather be focusing my attention on this year's ballot measure, not last year's. We can all take the bait and drive up Slog's traffic by engaging in an endless cycle of recrimination and "told you so's." But there's a more relevant matter at hand. I think we can do a little better than the "PUMAs" trying to refight Hillary's primary battle when the alternative is John McCain.

No On Prop Whatever!!!!

And I recently moved to Colombia City and found ECB's bike maps on the Wiki. Now I won't get run over on rainier.

Cheers, ECB.

You can rest assured that as a Seattle resident, not one dime of your tax money will go towards buses. Sound Transit's sub-area equity policy states that revenue generated within a particular sub-area (there are five sub-areas, one of which is Seattle) will only be allocated to projects within that sub-area. Seattle's sub-area (called "North King County") has allocated its entire budget towards Link light rail, not ST Express bus service. Therefore, while other taxpayers sub-areas will be funding bus service, you will not, because you live in Seattle. Hope you can vote comfortably for ST2 now.

And, CHEERS to Chris Gregoire too! I was doubtful Paula Hammond would vote for this package, but her vote shows that Gregoire wants voters to see her as the pro-transit candidate, in contrast with the asphalt loving, transit hating Dino Rossi.

However, I have decided to do the responsible thing and live close to where I work, in an actual neighborhood in an actual city rather than a taxpayer-subsidized commuter town. So I get jack from this package.

In a word, NO.

Oh, and CHEERS to Chris Gregoire too! I was doubtful Paula Hammond would vote for this package, but her vote shows that Gregoire wants voters to see her as the pro-transit candidate, in contrast with the asphalt loving, transit hating Dino Rossi.

Now let's win this thing in November. A win on ST2.1 will truly mark the end of the era of big freeways in Washington state.

Even if we faked some confrontational photos for the press so you can think they were still upset at us.

Bygones.

We're going to get all the roads, too. Don't even dream that we're not.

Oh and those who think Erica is being a b*tch, just remember who she wanted to be President. I am not surprised she posted such vicious filth.

But yeah, glad they pulled something out of their ass. I didn't think they could do it.

I am also with Cressanova, we need to wait until it passes before we can be happy. And who's to say you won't be suggesting we vote against it in 3 months???!?!

We wrote op-eds in the Times, we blogged every day over at Seattletransitblog.com

I'm not apologizing to you, we're the fucking reason it's on the ballot.

You're the most self-absorbed person in the world.

Before they gave in to the pro-roads lobby.

That was Plan B.

They listened.

It was the other counties, Snohomish and Pierce, that were the holdouts.

I was definately one of the skepitcal ones from last year, but I was also the one that said if Prop. 1 went down that the environmental community would carry the flag to try to put Sound Transit back on the ballot without the roads. I'm glad to say that we did, and along with EnviroWA, Sierra Club, Futurewise, CBC, Bike Alliance and WCV I think that the environmental community deserves some credit for this thing on the ballot in November.

Now on to November and let's win there too!

Eee Sea Bee: Are you going to any of the STB blog things? There's one tonight.