It's exactly that kind of thinking that's gotten us into this mess in the first place.

And anyway, there's a ton of immediate additional bus service that comes along with Prop. 1.

Brendan, sounds like your understanding of urban planning is comparable to Sarah Palin's understanding of foreign policy.

My "elitist" argument aside, though, where are these exurbs of which you speak? Downtown Bellevue, the Microsoft campus, Northgate, Federal Way? Maybe if we just stop light rail expansion, we can stop thousands of people from commuting to work in Redmond? Oh, never mind. I think that would require a time machine.

Y'know, the same Brendans types who are griping now that Sound Transit is too regional were probably griping earlier this decade that the Seattle monorail wasn't regional enough.

Stop the presses - I agree with Cressona 100%. Suburban cities aren't the exurbs.

While I'd like better local mass transit, that was never Sound Transit's mission (and, I would argue, where ST went wrong was when they decided to turn light rail into a project that was more oriented toward encouraging development in Seattle than meeting regional transit demand, but I digress).

Now if ST were going to Arlington, Monroe, North Bend, Black Diamond, Maple Valley, et al, that'd be different. That said, if you want people from the aforementioned areas to use rail once it gets to their nearest suburban city - you're gonna need park-and-ride facilities or they'll just drive all the way to their destination (and I suspect Cressona and I will part ways here!).

That is not true. Transit systems in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong turn a profit. They have much more transit-oriented development than the US will ever have, of course.

I was there, behind ECB, and this doesn't represent the gist of the questions.

But, hey, reality is all about cynicism in a McCain/Bush/Palin kind of world, right?

Stop being selfish and think about the future...