Now would be an excellent time to slash funding for Metro (by 17%), just we did last year in Pierce County (by 34%). So clever. What a fucked-up state this is turning into.

Time to shut down all traffic in Downtown Seattle with a partially-funded carbon-increasing capacity-reducing unwise Deep Tunnel of Doom!

Bikes ftw!

(cause the rest of you are SOL)

The really astonishing thing in this story, which Reuters damn near buried and Goldy gave more prominence, is that despite all the enormous growth in population and roads, we just topped a transit record set in 1957.

That shows clearly just how much dismantling of choices (particularly streetcar and interurban, I'd guess) has gone on in that time period—even now, with density and commute times being the primary drivers, we're just creeping back to offering appealing options to equivalent numbers of commuters.

@3 Trains vs. Planes for regional travel. That explains 1957. The Jet Age, and all that.

@1 Don't forget SnoHoCo's Community Transit cutting 1/3 of their service since 2008. That forced me to buy a car after 10k+ bus trips over 15 years. Never going back to standing in the rain waiting for buses that may or may not come.

I think Goldy's last sentence sort of erroneously implies that drivers aren't subsidized. I don't know what the exact costs are, but I'm sure the driving-alone-commute subsidy is double-takingly high.

@5 +1

Not only are the roads and associated infrastructure subsidized, but the health costs from pollution are enormous.

Because of my varied work locations and schedule, I rarely use buses. But even as a driver, I get tremendous benefit from buses. I want to cheer every time I see a bus. Every bus I see full of people means 50 less cars on the road.

If anything, buses should be more heavily subsidized. More buses = less traffic.

Sound Transit funding has to increase. I want to see light rail extend from Blaine to Portland. The number one complaint of businesses operating in this region is traffic. It inhibits employees from getting to work.

It also ceates a paradox. we are, arguably, the most environmentally-friendly part of the United States. And yet we all want cars, which pollute the air with CO2, the soil with carcinogens and spilt gasoline. They cause deaths from vehicular collisions. And it locks people who cannot drive, due to age or infirmity, from being able to lead independent and healthy lives.

We need to link the Central Link to Tacoma, and build a transit corridor running along I-5from the Canadian border to the Oregon border. We need to complete the Columbia River Crossing and connect to Portland's MAX. We need to extend another route between Seattle and Spokane. And this is way past overdue

U.S. population, 1957: 172 million
U.S. transit trips, 1957: 10.5+ billion

U.S. population 2012: 313 million
U.S. transit trips 2012: 10.5 billion

Wow!