Committees with more degrees than I have socks have looked at this. How do you develop mass transit that works? A solution must start with the automobile, and our love affair with these metal cocoons.
In the past, you could be strung up or shot, for stealing another man's horse. I'm certain we feel that way about our cars.
We unblinkingly spend $20,000 to $40,000 for new cars. That says something about our commitment to the automobile. If you don't understand that passion for a car, you are unlikely to design a competitive system.
We have to look at the many ways we use our cars, and where transit might be a viable substitute.
One such use is the job commute. Even that is not simple. Do we all live in the same location, and work at the same company all our lives? No. What data exists on how often people change homes, jobs, and why? Where do businesses typically relocate, and why? All these factors should affect system planning.
Cars allow us flexibility of movement in a changing world. They allow us to decide to move to another community or to change jobs, often miles from our old one, prompting another change of residence. Transit planning has to look at all these variables.
Other car trips are to the grocery market, picking up food for dinner, going out to dinner and attending a concert or the theater, and vacations. Can transit compete for any of these trips? Some, perhaps, but not all.
I've tried to paint a picture of how complicated this problem can be.
Laying tracks and assuming people can't resist hopping a train is not enough. I'm not suggesting our planners aren't looking at these issues, only that it has to be a systemic study of how and why we drive our cars.
Interstate 5 and I-405 represent major transportation corridors. Logic suggests that a rail system - a monorail for my money because it doesn't interfere with surface traffic - should run north and south, probably from Everett to Tacoma.
A high-speed rail system should also run from the Canadian border to Oregon, as well as from the coast, east to Spokane, with major stops along the way that interface with the monorail system in Puget Sound - all as part of a state system.
Cloverleaf monorail loops with smaller cars would run from the I-5 and 405 trunk line into neighborhoods like Capital Hill, Queen Anne and Magnolia, Wallingford, Tukwila, etc.
Feeding those loop lines would be small commuter busses like those used at the airport. The busses would run on a set route, but would be able to move off that route to pick people up at designated stops using electronic notification and not requiring people to walk long distances in our wet winter months.
Visualize lacing up a logging boot with hooks on either side of the centerline. You loop the laces back and forth from side to side, pulling both sides of the boot together. That is how we could link our long, narrow corridor in Puget Sound.
Any system has to encompass speed, flexibility and connectivity to compete with our cars.
We might not use the system to run to Taco Bell, or to go out to dinner, but we might use it to get to a Mariner, Sonic or Seahawk game.
We might take it to a U2 concert or to Bumbershoot, but only if it's quick, convenient, flexible and affordable. The high-speed train could take us skiing.
There are a couple of other problems: bureaucracies and money. A Blue Ribbon panel reported in 2000 that over 450 agencies make up state transportation.
In Puget Sound, we have the big three - Metro, the Monorail Authority and Sound Transit - each competing for scarce public dollars and wanting to be the hub of the system. Backed by groups, unions, construction firms and manufacturers of equipment, all with a stake in the outcome, they pump money into political campaigns to influence decisions.
A holistic approach to our traffic problems is unlikely in this environment. We may need a transportation tsar.
Money has to come from gas taxes and tolls on major highways and bridges. There's no free lunch.
One last point: I've heard public leaders suggest punitive actions, usually economic ones that always hurt low income earners, to force people to use a currently less-than-perfect transit system.
Our short history should tell us that you don't get in the face of Americans and challenge them with ultimatums. We are a fiercely independent culture, and nothing will kill mass transit faster than challenging people.
Successful solutions seek agreement, not confrontation.
Mike Davis is a freelance columnist living in Magnolia.[[In-content Ad]]
