If You Build It They Will Use It

To those that scoff at urban and city transit and the effect it would have on traffic in Seattle, perhaps you haven't been paying much attention to the disruption caused when effective transit systems in other cities come to a halt, such as when the London bombings caused the shutdown of the Underground in July, or the recent transit strike in New York paralyzed commutes.

Effective transit systems attract users. People will leave their cars parked at home if they have a system that can compete with roads. One line alone will not do the job - you need a number of lines that reach out to enough neighborhoods and together create a transit system. Buses have to compete with cars on roads, and on their own they cannot replace the benefits of a transit system that runs on tracks above or below grade.

Even when the transit systems are in the headlines because of negative news such as a strike, it only reminds us of what we are losing when they are not available, and what those cities that don't have transit systems have been missing.

The city of Seattle has procrastinated far too long in creating such a system. It has faced nimbyism and crippling objection dressed up as perfectionism ("This isn't the perfect solution, we must find another solution", etc...). When voters have supported something, like a monorail system, they've had to vote in favor of it multiple times. The Monorail project was finally defeated after a fifth vote, nullifying the four previous votes in favor of the project. Few projects can survive that kind of path from idea to implementation.

So we're left with Sound Transit's Central Link light rail line. The project is currently being built, which is an extraordinary thing in itself for this area, and is expected to be completed by 2009. It will be a single 14 mile line with 12 stations. Only half of the line will be at street level. 2.5 miles will be through tunnels and 4.4 miles will be elevated. The line will soon after be extended one extra stop to the airport, making it 15.6 miles long.

Building a transit system these days is so much harder than when the London Underground or New York Subway was built. Costs are higher. Right of ways are much more difficult to obtain. Yet we do benefit from improve technology that help make construction and operation easier than 100 years ago.

The Central Link is just one line. It cannot be the only line - it must not be. The greater Seattle area in King County needs to be a part of a system that tentacles outward. There are definitely some geographical challenges that will have to be overcome in this hilly area dominated by Lake Washington, but these can be overcome. What is the most important need is for the area's residents to recognize that sitting in traffic while often inevitable for many commutes, would be totally unnecessary along the primary corridors if we only had a transit system that serviced them.

Where there is a will there is a way. We need to keep showing we have the will.