As Will mentioned a few minutes ago, a group of state legislators have settled on a proposal to replace the 520 bridge between Seattle and Medina (a leaky, crumbly deathtrap to be sure). But the plan, rather than accommodating light rail and neighborhood needs, mostly bulks up the old design: big cloverleaf exits, wider roads, and a second drawbridge over the Montlake Cut.

The proposal has already racked up enemies in Seattle. Speaker of the House Frank Chopp (D-43) and district-mate Jamie Pedersen cast the two dissenting votes against the plan on the 12 member group. Meanwhile, City Council President Richard Conlin is ready to fight the proposal in the legislature. “If we are talking about something to last 50 to 100 years,” Conlin says, “we should consider making it a worthy investment instead of having people stuck in traffic for that length of time.”

Conlin has long held that the 520-bridge replacement must accommodate transit, such as light rail. But so-called Option A, preferred by Olympia lawmakers, would only provide onramps and exits on the south side of the ship canal, several blocks away from the light rail station planned at Husky Stadium, which is north of the ship canal. Connecting 520 buses to light rail makes sense for obvious reasons, and if McGinn gets his way—he wants light rail across the 520 bridge—connecting 520 light rail to the Husky Stadium would be more important than ever.

• OPTION M: What Conlin wants

Conlin prefers other alternatives—so called Options K, L, and M—that include off ramps and onramps from 520 to the north side of the ship canal. On the right, you can see option M. One challenge with Conlin’s preferred options: a second onramp would add an estimated $1 billion. But that figure comes from the state, which Conlin calls “just guesses.”

At 9:30 a.m. on November 24, representatives of the WSDOT will present the plans to the full council, followed by public comment. “My impression is that they are not going to find very many people happy,” Conlin says. “I don’t think it meets any of the communities’ requests.” He adds that “I am hoping [city council members] will be very engaged as the legislature convenes.”

Proof that no one is safe until we're all driving Hummer SUVs. KOMO has the photos.

Trips to the airport will get quicker for public transit riders in five weeks. Since Sound Transit opened its first light-rail line in summer, riding "light rail from downtown to the airport" has involved a bus ride—a few minutes to the parking lot, a five-minute wait, and a five-minute bus ride—from the terminus of the rail line in Tukwila to Sea-Tac. But that 12-minute trip will shrink on December 19 when Sound Transit opens the final leg of the route—reducing the final part of the trip to two glorious minutes. The entire trip from Westlake Station will take 36 minutes.

The Sea-Tac station is about 1,000 feet from the terminal, connected by a pedestrian bridge though the parking garage. There will be luggage carts, rain protection, cheerful gnomes, and a Manhattan bar, officials promise. It is pure magic.

The final leg of the light-rail journey took longer to open because the Port of Seattle revamped its station plans in 2001, following the 911 attacks, says Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray. Sea-Tac officials scaled back plans for a terminal expansion, so Sound Transit couldn't begin designing the last part of the light-rail line for about two years after the rest of the project was underway.

The light-rail line opens in entirety at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 19. Operating hours run from from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and from 6:00 a.m. to midnight on Sundays. Here's the schedule.

Deep-bore tunnel opponent Elizabeth Campbell alleged in a lawsuit filed today in King County Superior Court that the City of Seattle broke state rules when it agreed to digging a tunnel before studying the mega-project's ramifications. Campbell, who filed the suit herself, said the city defied environmental-impact laws when it signed off on an agreement to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a deep-bore tunnel. Campbell's suit asks the court to overturn the memorandum of agreement between the city, county, and state, saying the city "approved a course of action" when it passed the tunnel ordinance without preparing an environmental impact statement, which she claims violates the state and federal Environmental Protection Acts.

Campbell, along with her nonprofit group Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel (SCAT), also sued the state in early October, alleging similar environmental-impact violations. And on a somewhat-related note, Campbell and SCAT are planning to boycott and picket Ivar's restaurants because the CEO is a tunnel supporter.

A simulation to consider on this stormy afternoon:

City Council President Richard Conlin told me that I should really watch this video (which has been out for a while). "Yeah, it is going to sink," he says in this week's paper. "I have been in the pontoons and seen the water leaking in," he says. Conlin lays out his plans for replacing the bridge—and charming the legislature into paying to do it right—over here. You can also see what could happen to the 520 bridge in an earthquake over here. Good day.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, GO!!!

Bus Rapid Transit (or BRT) is much maligned by fixed-rail transit nerds. But on November 29, BRT will become become a reality when the first line opens.

In Snohomish County.

While Seattle made waves with the opening of Sound Transit's first light rail line, Community Transit's Swift BRT line will introduce high-speed bus transit to Washington state:

Swift will serve a 17-mile stretch of the Highway 99/Evergreen Way/Rucker Avenue/Pacific Avenue corridor between Aurora Village Transit Center in the south and Everett Station in the north. [...]

There are more than 50 existing local bus stops on this route in each direction, however to speed service, Swift will serve only 12 stops each way. Every Swift station has a local bus stop nearby, so passengers wishing to reach other locations can easily transfer to local buses.

Swift stations are located about 1 to 2 miles apart. While more stations could be added in the future, these locations were selected because they serve popular destinations and/or transit connection points.

King County Metro's own BRT system, RapidRide, doesn't go into effect until 2010, with the first Seattle line opeing in 2011. With Metro's budget bleeding red ink, some folks are skeptical that all five RapidRide routes will open on schedule.

The Sightline Institute, a local nonprofit researcher, has issued a report that finds digging a deep-bore tunnel under downtown would likely run far over budget, costing the average Seattle family of four $700 or more. The group examines other tunnels as indicators: the Mt Baker I-90 expansion tunnel, the downtown Seattle bus tunnel, Sound Transit's Beacon Hill tunnel, and the Brightwater sewage tunnels.

Writes Eric de Place:

It goes without saying that no two tunnels are alike. The deep-bore tunnel will be unlike any other tunnel that has been constructed locally. Nonetheless, we can learn something by examining recent local projects, each of which grappled with specific geographic and historical issues. It is only reasonable to believe that the deep-bore tunnel will face its own unique problems. But, speaking personally, the fact that the deep-bore tunnel is something new and different makes me more pessimistic than optimistic.

The state legislature required city taxpayers to pick up the tab for any overruns; and the city council is expected to vote on Monday to declare the tunnel Seattle's preferred replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

The state violated environmental-impact regulations by seeking bids from potential contractors for a $4.2 billion tunnel under downtown without studying tunnel alternatives, says a lawsuit filed this afternoon in King County Superior Court. Elizabeth Campbell, 57, who ran a low-key campaign for mayor but lost in the primary, says she filed the suit against transportation department head Paula Hammond as a last-ditch effort to stop a deep-bore tunnel that costs too much money and diminishes traffic capacity.

“Going the legal route—that’s the only way to put a halt to it right now.” Otherwise, Campbell says, “It can’t be undone.”

The State Environmental Policy Act requires the state to study a project's effects and issue an Environmental Impact Statement “before government decisions are made that commit … to a particular course of action,” the lawsuit says. The state won't complete the impact statement until 2011, according to the suit. But on September 15, the state issued a 31-page request for qualifications from companies that want to design and build the tunnel. Seeking proposals from tunnel builders but not seeking proposals for alternatives, such as a rebuilt elevated freeway or a surface-transit option, the suit says, “predisposes decision-makers to choose the tunnel option.”

The suit says that the Washington State Department of Transportation is “making a mockery” of the process required to rebuild the downtown leg of Highway 99, which is now completed by the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Campbell, a Magnolia resident, filed the suit along with her nonprofit, Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel—known as SCAT. Campbell calls herself the “titular head of SCAT.”

Although Campbell wants to rebuild the viaduct, a scenario the Stranger finds appalling, the lawsuit seems reasonably grounded. Seeking bids from contractors without following state procedure for gauging the tunnel’s costs, traffic impacts, and environmental impacts seems both hasty and gives the tunnel an unreasonable advantage over alternatives, like a surface-transit option. However, the viaduct is crumbling—it threatens to collapse on drivers if anyone sneezes—and the state has an urgent interest making sure people aren't caught in a human juicer.

“The state seems to be trying to ram through a project without doing an Environmental Impact Statement and explaining the costs, risks and negative community and environmental impacts to the public,” says Cary Moon, director of the People’s Waterfront Coalition, which is not involved in the lawsuit.

“If the state isn't going to voluntarily share information about the costs, risks and negative impacts of a mega-project before they commit the public's money, then someone needs to remind them of the rules,” Moon adds. “The Seattle public deserves to know what the state plans to do before the contracts are issued and it's too late.”

The suit concludes by asking a judge to block the state Department of Transportation from taking any action that would “pre-judge” the decision on how to replace the existing Alaskan Way Viaduct. Campbell, who has hired the law firm Bricklin & Newman, says, "It has a chance of winning."

If Seattle residents make Mike McGinn the city’s next mayor, he will give them a chance to vote on a light-rail line connecting Ballard and West Seattle, he said at a press conference today. McGinn would place the measure on the ballot within two years of taking office—most likely meaning the November 2011 election—asking for hundreds of millions of dollars.

“If city voters support the plan, and agree to raise their taxes to fund it, we will get it built as quickly and efficiently as possible,” McGinn wrote in a statement. “Neighborhoods like Ballard, Belltown, Fremont, Queen Anne, and West Seattle are geographically too far to be served [by] the Central Link light rail line,” he said. “We owe it to the residents of these neighborhoods to provide them with real high-capacity transit choices.”

McGinn’s proposal is somewhat unusual, in that he pledges not to create a new city-run agency, instead relying on the regional Sound Transit and King County Metro, both which serve areas larger than on city. However, there is precedent. The First Hill streetcar line, approved last fall by voters in the Sound Transit 2 package, will be paid for exclusively with Seattle tax money, but Sound Transit conducted “a lot of the initial planning studies for it and where it would go,” says Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray.

Sound Transit is studying several light-rail extensions. However, the slated date for voters to approve those plans is 2016, Gray says. And McGinn argues that, without an expedited vote, it could take 20 to 30 years before light rail reaches Seattle's western neighborhoods.

McGinn proposes frugal construction by “heavily leveraging existing city right of way to create transit only lanes and corridors.” He notes that Portland just opened its fifth light-rail line, requiring only three years of construction and $575 million.

Mayoral contender Mike McGinn seized on an article in the Seattle Times last Friday that reported his opponent, Joe Mallahan, would “study and maybe oppose Sound Transit's future streetcar across First Hill and Capitol Hill.” McGinn held a press conference this morning (which I couldn't attend) to lambaste Mallahan for hypocrisy. In a news release, McGinn noted that Mallahan has pledged support for a deep-bore tunnel under downtown because it’s a “done deal.” But, he points out, voters had shot down a proposal to replace the viaduct with a tunnel in 2007 and funding isn’t in place, so a tunnel isn't really a done deal. But voters approved the First Hill streetcar as part of the Sound Transit's light-rail package last November (to make up for a First Hill stop removed from the light-rail plan), so the streetcar is signed and sealed.

Map on right: The blue lines show potential routes for a First Hill streetcar line.

McGinn's campaign points out that 8,448 people live within one-quarter mile of the proposed First Hill line, and it would carry up to 4,000 riders daily.

But the problem stems from a potential lack of funding, Neuman says. If bids to build the streetcar exceed voter-approved funding of $120 million—and overruns fall on the city—then Mallahan would oppose the project if elected mayor. However, she says, if bids come in under the $120 million allocated to the project, he wouldn't stand in the way.

“But Mr. McGinn is simply playing political games on this issue when he doesn’t even know how much the cost of the project will be,” Neuman says.

McGinn has not yet returned calls seeking comment. But in his statement, he said that "First Hill has 10,000 residents and 20,000 workers who have been promised better transit for 13 years. It's time to keep the promises made to them."

But this appears to be a political show. In bad economic times, the bids to build a streetcar will probably come in on budget. The more pressing question is where will we build a First Hill streetcar. A group of Capitol Hill housing activists, nonprofit developers, and residents have banded together to form the 12th Ave Streetcar Group. As their name suggests, they want half the streetcar line to run along 12th Avenue. It would appear McGinn's camp may support that option, too: Here's a blog post on McGinn's Great City website about the plan. Indeed, an aliment that reaches beyond hospital district of First Hill makes sense—helping develop the street as a business and residential strip—but the hospitals may argue that's not the transit they were promised.

Amtrak announced today that it will double its train service between Seattle and Canada by adding a second daily route to Vancouver, BC. Right now you can only take a morning train to get there, but when the service expansion begins a week from today, an evening option will also be available.

This comes just in time for next year's winter Olympics in Vancouver; and while it is only a pilot program for now (beginning August 19 and running through March of next year), Amtrak officials are hopeful that the service will become permanent.

I drove up to Canada a few weeks ago, waited in line at customs for two hours, had my trunk searched on the way back, and wished the whole time that I could have taken a more convenient method of travel. People in Europe and Japan are still laughing at the fact that it takes over four hours to go from Seattle to Vancouver. But hey, it's a start.

"I know a lot of those people over there; the transit nerds, the virgins," said Will Kelley-Kamp, smirking. The blogger and longtime transit ally was describing the crowd who showed up to last night's Link light rail pub crawl.

And with scenes like this, he was at least half right. The crawl was organized on facebook by some of the folks from Transportation Choices Coalition, and although more than 90 people registered in the “yes” and “maybe” columns, only about 30 showed up. But hey, everybody loves to say they take public transit.

I missed the first leg of the crawl, which began at the Beacon Hill Pub. It wasn't until I had put back a couple of Boundary Bay IPAs and a fucking delicious piece of cheese covered focaccia bread at the Columbia City Ale House that the crawlers met up with me. They were slightly giddy from their stop at the Beacon Hill Pub and, quite frankly, the historic nature of the event. I mean, it was the first ever Seattle pub crawl that required light rail!

Down in Columbia City, the event coincided with the monthly meet-up for the Seattle Transit Blog (their candidate write-up is here). Politicians in attendance: Mike McGinn, Mike O'Brien, Dow Constantine staffer Chris Arkills, and Jessie Israel.

As expected, conversation at the bar was mostly centered around transit issues and politics, and there was even a train driver who showed up to talk about the Link and show off his user manual. But the transit and political nerdery slowly seeped away as people snuck off to Lottie's Lounge for tequila shots, and eventually descended into debauchery, hooliganism and piggyback bike riding for the dozen of us who continued on to the crawl's conclusion in Tukwila.

And that is one of the great things about the new light rail: we went to a bar in Tukwila. I've never done that before. The place was called Trudy's and I drank $2.50 cans of Rainier, shook my ass on a carpeted dance floor, and had a ten minute conversation with a beautiful prostitute who was visiting from Las Vegas about how much she liked Seattle's trees and water and how much she hated Tukwila. The bar's DJs also raffled off free bbq sandwiches every ten minutes.

Unfortunately the night's planners were a little too optimistic about the rail service. They said the last train would leave Tukwila at 1:00 AM, which didn't make any sense, and as Will and I hustled back to the station at 12:45 we could see the final train speeding north toward its destination at Mount Baker station.

On the bright side it meant we got to go back and close down Trudy's, but on the dark side it meant a pricey cab ride back into the city. But now we know, and knowing's half the battle.

Says the republican:

Some critics of the program remain. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) told the New York Daily News, "Here we are incentivizing the purchase of cars, [and] we're taking money from our grandkids by adding to the national debt...Why not incentivize demand for boats? Or how about RVs?"

Dear republican, recall this:

Under current tax law, it's permissible to write off $25,000 from your taxes in the first year after the purchase of a 6,000-pound truck or SUV. (Then there's the gravy of 20 percent a year after that.)

And what was the Bush thinking:

In hopes of encouraging more business spending to help jump-start the economy, President Bush's new Economic Stimulus Plan would triple the equipment deduction currently available to small business owners (from $25,000 to $75,000) — enough to make some of the largest, most luxurious SUVs fully deductible.

Really, luxury cars for small businesses?

Thanks to a generous tax credit, Karl Wizinsky is driving a very large vehicle these days—a 2002 Ford Excursion.

"It doesn't hurt to have a larger vehicle, but I wouldn't say it's a requirement of my business," he said on a cell phone while driving the Excursion. "But I ended up saving $32,000."

The first light rail death was not an accident.

Seattle Times

The death of a man who jumped in front of a Sound Transit light-rail train Monday has been ruled a suicide, according to the King County Medical Examiner's Office.

The victim was identified as James J. Bohrer, 40.

On all of the walls of the underground station in Pioneer Square, posters advertising the emptiness of Montana:

The posters are colored in a way that produces a dreamy effect. Each is a view of reality from the distant regions of sleep. The dream affects everything. The buffalo seem to be sleep-grazing; the mountains are lost in a slumber that no amount of human noise (a train, a plane, a car) can disturb. The posters appeared just in time for the arrival of light rail. It's as if the advertisers expected the light rail would make clear the distinction between the being in the city and being in the wild. Here (the underground, the trains running back and forth), more than anywhere else in Seattle, you could finally understand the meaning of Montana and the reason why you needed to wake up and go there.

Put your bike on the bus! Maybe you knew this already, but I didn't. Metro has changed its rules so now you can load your bike on the bus in the Ride Free Area and in the bus tunnel. From the Metro guidelines:

Bicycles may be loaded and unloaded anywhere in the Ride Free Area (RFA) during off-peak hours. The only restriction for bicycle loading on surface streets in the RFA is Monday through Friday during peak hours (6 - 9 a.m. and 3 - 6 p.m.).

This is good news. To catch the 2, I used to have to ride my bike past the downtown library, up that steep-ass hill, and wait on the freeway overpass for the bus. No more!