December 20, 2007

Idea for streetcar collision avoidance

SUV, streetcar collide; no one hurt


A sport-utility vehicle ran a red light Wednesday morning and was hit by one of the new South Lake Union streetcars... The crash at Mercer Street and Terry Avenue North happened at 7:28 a.m., when the SUV was going east toward Interstate 5.
. . .
The SUV driver told police he was maneuvering around a large puddle in the left lane of Mercer, then couldn't stop in time for a red light...
More

If we treat this the way the City treats traffic safety out in the residential neighborhoods, then the Mercer & Terry intersection should get a traffic circle!

It would probably only take a few months to re-do the tracks to curve around the traffic circle. Not much of an inconvenience, as that amounts to only a tiny percentage of the overall streetcar line -- the same way that tracks in the Westlake curb lanes aren't much of an inconvenience for bicycles, in the overall scheme of things. So win-win!

December 14, 2007

Business Time

Flight of the Conchords

December 13, 2007

"Extraordinary attempt by the Bush administration to kill off the fight against climate change"

Bush's negotiators attempting to derail next round of climate change action:

"If they get this text through, then it will give a free pass to any nation that wants to keep polluting."

The proposed US text uses phrases such as "as appropriate", "depending" and "may" in reference to emissions cuts, which would effectively make any agreement reached voluntary. Last night it was understood that the US move was being supported by Canada, but fiercely opposed by the EU and Britain.

More

Bali talks launch new process: World looks beyond the lame duck


December 6, 2007

Skid - Crash - @#^$!

I haven't ridden down Westlake since the SLUT construction crossed Mercer Street. Today's Mike Lindblom piece in the Times is not an incentive for me to try it now:
Cyclists, skinny tires, streetcar rails -- not a good mix

New streetcar tracks on Seattle's Westlake Avenue have turned into a trap for bicyclists.

The tires on a standard road bike are narrower than the 1 ¾-inch groove that holds a streetcar wheel. If a bicycle veers into that gap, it can easily get stuck, pitching the rider onto the street.

Seattle bike activists plan a wheeled protest next Wednesday, when the South Lake Union streetcar begins service from Westlake Center to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Despite the goal of Mayor Greg Nickels to triple bicycle use, the new streetcar line includes long stretches of track in the curb lanes of Westlake Avenue, where bicyclists normally ride. Many riders have adapted by riding on sidewalks, to the left of the tracks — or in the left lane, which aggravates motorists.

"The streetcar isn't operating yet, and we're already seeing people crashing," said Seattle Likes Bikes member Michael Snyder, who said he has heard of eight or nine accidents.

. . .

Alan Durning, founder of Sightline Institute, an environmental think tank, calls the Westlake situation one example of "bicycle neglect" — the American tendency to treat bikes as recreational vehicles, not primary transportation. A street posing similar hazards to cars would never be designed, he said.

More

Also in the news

Mayor Nickels want to give City employees "free bus passes." Very laudable. But free??? Someone's paying for it down the line, Greg-o.



December 3, 2007

SLUT is cruising South Lake Union...

... I have been informed. What a great acronym.

When the Waterfront trolley goes back into service, they'll probably rename it Waterfront-Harbor Operating Rail Express.

December 1, 2007

Today at my local Starbucks

Customer: I'm having a latte and a breakfast sandwich.
Cashier: What kind of sandwich was that?
Customer: Um- aren't they all the same price?
Cashier: We track them separately.
Customer: It's the pepper-bacon. You mean some manager might be saying 'Uh-oh, the pepper-bacon is trending down'?
Cashier: I'm totally not laughing at that.

November 13, 2007

Interest in truth?

Find out about those poor, maligned people working in the field of payday loans: the Predatory Lending Association.

November 1, 2007

From the people who brought you Mystery Science Theater 3000...

...Cinematic Titanic!!!



(H/T Generik)

No, Joe: Seattle City Council, Position 1

Freakshow 2007®

Joe Szwaja seemed like a good choice: liberal, teacher, environmentalist, surface+transit, living wages, unions, congestion pricing. The clincher were his strong answers to my community group's questionnaire on pedestrian and bicycle safety.

So yeah, on my absentee ballot I blacked-in the bubble next to his name.

Now I want my absentee ballot back, because Szwaja has gone negative in last-minute radio ads against incumbent Jean Godden.

It's basically a smear campaign, stating as fact ethics charges against Godden, when those charges have been dismissed by the Ethics and Elections Commission. Sure, it's under appeal—to keep it alive until Election Day. And who filed the complaint with the commission in the first place? A Szwaja volunteer.

Totally. Freaking. Despicable. VOTE EARLY AND GODDEN.

October 31, 2007

Zoo Society needs to park it

OK, we've finally received a decision on the Woodland Park Zoo garage:
Zoo garage plan shot down

A controversial parking garage can't be built at Woodland Park Zoo under the city's land-use code, a Seattle hearing examiner has ruled in a decision announced Tuesday.

The summary judgment is a dramatic victory for activists who have opposed construction of the four-level garage as too big, too expensive and unnecessary.

More

This sets up a problem for the Zoo Society's business plan. Like it or not, the modern zoo survives by boosting attendance -- new visitors and repeat visits. To accommodate this, these people need someplace to park. Well, there are only two real alternatives: transit -- 10% mode share on a good day -- and dedicated shuttles -- expensive to operate or pay Metro to operate, as well as being point sources for tailpipe emissions. I should point out, for these reasons, that Heathrow Airport won't be using shuttle buses at the new Terminal 5 (automated peoplemovers instead), and plans to eventually phase them out for the other terminals.

So, if the business plan requires "driving" attendance, but parking is problematic, two options remain.

1. New Zoo Society business plan. But they already did a plan, and the neighbors and now the City have seen fit to veto part of it -- which is their right, I'm not complaining about that.

2. Return to direct City management of Woodland Park Zoo. I think this is the thing to do. Not only because it is unfair to hand the Zoo Society the reins and then tell them, in effect, they can only hold on with one hand. But also because the Zoo is still a public park and internationally recognized conservation institution, and should return to giving 100% of its attention to those missions. Not catering to party and conference rentals, and prepackaged touring exhibits, in order to generate revenues.

October 30, 2007

Talk Radio notes

Erstwhile Air America host Marc Maron (the funny one) fills in for Randi Rhodes on Wednesday, Oct. 31 (Noon-3 Pacific online, 5-8 KPTK). Not bad for someone who said he was done with the network.

Also, erstwhile Englishman Michael Jackson returned to southern California airwaves yesterday on new Los Angeles talk station KGIL. The local liberal in a lineup that includes Larry King and Neal Boortz, Jackson is on 9-11am Pacific with a replay 5-7pm.

October 26, 2007

Referendum 67: Approve

Freakshow 2007®

All that anti-67 stuff put out by the insurance industry? All lies.

September 30, 2007

Proposition 1 - Roads and Transit

Freakshow 2007®

Proposition 1 comes to the ballot to haunt Central Puget Sound voters like a Ghost of Infrastructure Choices Past. We could have approved the 1970s Forward Thrust rail plan, but didn't; we could have taxed ourselves over the years to provide needed highways, bridges and HOV lanes, but instead we shrunk the available revenue stream.

There's a great deal of guilt underlying Prop. 1 aka RTID aka Roads and Transit. Roads and Transit! It's the Frankenstein ballot measure for our age of sustainability awareness and urban angst. Our inner angel whispers from our left shoulder, Shame on you for not building rail in the past, vote Yes to atone for that mistake! And from our right shoulder our inner devil says And look at the miles and miles of new drivable lanes!

RTID seems crafted to be an irresistible, can't-lose public works juggernaut. Remember that T-shirt from the early post-Soviet 90s? "KGB-CIA: Together at Last." Roads and Transit is like that.

Here's the thing -- Prop. 1 is surrounded by a cloud of irrelevant or borderline hysterical arguments, interfering with voters' ability to weigh the question in anything approaching a dispassionate manner. There are basically five such arguments from the No side (I'll paraphrase):

1. 'Traffic on new roads will boost greenhouse gases.' True on its face, except you have to consider this reality: the roads will serve areas that are already populated (many of them outlying areas) and are currently beset by congestion. Rail transit is too expensive to provide alternative transportation to all of those areas anytime soon, if ever. No one is proposing depopulating those areas, so additional roads are necessary for the foreseeable future. And consider this: progress has seen the introduction of the hybrid car, and we seem to be headed toward viable electric and fuel cell cars. Odds are the CO2 curve will not continue as a straight line; if Peak Oil is accurate, how could it?

2. 'Highway and rail tunnel construction will create CO2.' This says the equipment used to excavate, carry away dirt and build the highways and transit exceeds the CO2 saved by transit. It is being circulated by CETA's John Niles and environmentalist Emory Bundy, two men with whom I normally sympathize. Niles is basically a scholar, and Bundy's environmental credentials are unquestioned (well, some question, but they shouldn't).
The irony here is that Niles and Bundy are right, in isolation. They've done the math, the math works for the most part. But here's the thing --like special tunnel boring equipment, highway building equipment has a specific purpose. If we don't build roads and tunnels here, that equipment will be used to build roads and tunnels somewhere else. In other words, reducing greenhouse gases is perhaps the most important priority of our time, but as far as Prop. 1 goes, CO2 drops out as a decisionmaking criterion.

3. 'The true cost is more than $18 billion.' Sure, if you include the interest. But you can say that about any major purchase. Under this argument no one should ever use a mortgage to buy a house; it would prevent us from building any public works projects, ever again. It's a cheap claim that doesn't hold up.

4. 'You can't trust Sound Transit.' People work at agencies, but agencies are not people. Anthropomorphizing agencies by ascribing 'dishonesty' or 'evil' to them makes no sense. The Sound Transit board is not all the same people as in the early days of mistakes/willful deceptions about costs and ridership. The staff is not all the same people. 'You can't trust Sound Transit' implies a conspiracy, but how could all those people keep something that big a secret? Especially politicians.

5. 'There are cheaper alternatives.' Like Bus Rapid Transit? Maybe if done right -- but you'll need to build a network of buslanes, like Prop. 1's HOV lanes in that they too will generate construction CO2 and have a higher true cost. Plus, 4 miles per gallon on a hybrid bus is still 4 miles per gallon.
There are also people who, like me, are aware of seemingly futuristic transit technologies being developed elsewhere in the world. One such, PRT, has been possible for some time but is only now being successfully implemented -- by Europe. PRT is going to revolutionize attitudes toward public transit as well as move people with greater energy efficiency. But however strong that promise, or that of other innovations, it is irresponsible to put current public policy questions on hold for the possibility of something better in the future.
Patience, innovators. It's not like the transit networks won't have holes left for new technologies to fill. Public policy must be decided from the standpoint of the tangible things we know, right now, today, that address current problems. In the area of transportation, what we know right now are conventional transit technology and roads.

There. With the distractions identified, you can now decide how to vote on Prop. 1 by focusing on the only important question, the traditional public works question: do the benefits exceed the cost? You're welcome.

Remember, it's public works, public economic goods being purchased. The benefits don't have to all be financial -- social benefits count too. How these community benefits are valued is up to you.

September 18, 2007

Dreamliner's skin in the news

The second-ever post on this blog was about a conversation I had with a Boeing person who was worried about what happens to 787's carbon fiber in a crash (Cough, 3/18). Now the subject hits the Seattle Times business section:
Fired engineer calls 787's plastic fuselage unsafe

A former senior aerospace engineer at Boeing's Phantom Works research unit, fired last year under disputed circumstances, is going public with concerns that the new 787 Dreamliner is unsafe.

Forty-six-year veteran Vince Weldon contends that in a crash landing that would be survivable in a metal airplane, the new jet's innovative composite plastic materials will shatter too easily and burn with toxic fumes. More

September 14, 2007

APOTUS

Nothing much happened this week -- if you don't count me getting to meet Acting President of the United States Martin Sheen, today at the Plymouth Housing Group annual luncheon!!!

September 8, 2007

Cyclist killed by driverless dump truck

At least that's what you're led to believe upon reading last night's Post-Intelligencer web story (today's print edition, B1) about the fatality accident at Eastlake & Fuhrman:
"A bicyclist was killed instantly and another was rushed to Harborview... after a dump truck turned into them Friday afternoon..."

This is typical journalism practice -- it's the motor vehicle that hits you; its driver is one degree of separation away from the accident. Or in the case of Casey McNerthney's story, all the way down in the eighth graf (out of of eleven), where the existence of a driver of the dump truck is finally acknowledged.

The driver "was not cited, police said."

Here's the biggest, screaming, maddening, backhanded smear in the story: "Neither was wearing a helmet". As though a helmet is going to help you survive being run over by a dump truck.

Imagine the reporter writing Neither was wearing a helmet, tsk tsk. Because that's what that little sentence means -- it's the automobile-dominant-society's check on whether the pedaling oddball was following the equipment rules, which is totally irrelevant to the matter of who committed the moving violation. In this case, the fatal collision.

The effect is to put some of the blame on the victims. Where it does not belong, because the facts are right there in the story:
The truck apparently turned right into the cyclists at the intersection [photos in Monica Guzman's bulletin]

I know that intersection, thousands of local riders know it. You approach from the south in a bike lane of less-than-ideal width. Then when you get to Fuhrman you're in a double danger zone: drivers from the University Bridge as well as Eastlake want to turn onto Fuhrman; they are in a hurry to get to Montlake, or on their way to Capitol Hill or eastbound 520. They are looking for gaps in car traffic, not for YOU on your two wheels. You are an inconvenience at the entrance to their shortcut.

Cyclists who look at Guzman's photos know what really happened yesterday. The northbound dump truck driver sped to the intersection. Two cyclists were in the bike lane in front of Romio's Pizza, and as the driver passed them we know they immediately disappeared from his/her memory, because he/she then turned into their path and drove the dump truck over them.

And yet, "the driver of the truck was not cited."


Addendum

To SDOT-- save the paint and leave out the sharrows! 99% of drivers don't know what they mean; if they did it would change nothing.

To all Seattle cyclists-- obey the freaking traffic laws; red means stop!

September 6, 2007

Seattle City Council, Position 7

Freakshow 2007®

Here are your choices: David Della, who never met someone else's accomplishment he wouldn't claim for himself; Tim Burgess, a pro-life anti-gay marriager who claims he doesn't support the fundamentalist ultra-right-- nor, apparently, a problem with taking their money in exchange for trying to do as little as possible to earn it.

Sorry, Della, no more chances.

Sorry, Burgess, I just don't trust you.

I wonder if perennial candidates Mr. Mouse or Mr. Duck are willing to be drafted for a write-in campaign.

August 24, 2007

New sidewalks -- but not for YOU

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels rolled out a new initiative on sidewalk construction today -- but this new development is literally about development. Or more accurately, redevelopment.

It's yet another anti-community, responsibility-evading government response in the many-year attempt to get the City of Seattle to do something about funding the basic public infrastructure that sidewalks represent.

Nickels's plan: require sidewalks be built in front of most new residential construction, as well as major renovation/expansion of existing homes.

Who benefits? Transportation and infrastructure interests in the city budget that are not pedestrian related. Nickels's plan does nothing to address the inequity in funding between roads (one big pot of public money) and pedestrian facilities (homeowners must pay out of pocket, and compete against other neighborhoods for grants).
And they all look just the same

The particularly distasteful and outrageous aspect of Nickels's plan is that it shows how he continues to have his eye on just one objective -- enriching developers through redevelopment projects. His plan means that if you need sidewalks on your street, the solution is for you to move somewhere else: sell to a developer who tears down your home, and replaces it with a new cookie-cutter "Northwest Style" townhouse cluster (curse you, Carlson Architects) with a sidewalk out front.

The cost, of course, is passed on to the new buyers -- not you -- and the money goes into the developers' pockets.

That's the price of sidewalks under this municipal regime.

August 17, 2007

Seattle City Council, Position 3

Freakshow 2007®

As I mark my absentee ballot for the August 21 primary election, the only race that gets me frustrated is the Position 3 city council race. With a slate of FIVE whole candidates, you'd think the odds would be pretty good there'd be at least one appealing person running.

But no. Reading their official Voters' Pamphlet statements makes one wish for a stiff drink. Or a Magic 8-Ball.

1. Venus Velasquez: has run before and lost. Sorry, no points for living with all the other insiders in Mount Baker, or for listing parenthood as a qualification for office. Come on -- Britney has spawned.

2. Bruce Harrell: has run before and lost. First endorsement he lists is actually the Alki Foundation. Chump.

3. Al Runte: Give me a freaking break.

4. Scott Feldman: He's so well spoken I actually had to read this a second time. Alas, his two showpiece issues are:
  • the Viaduct -- he wants to tear it down and build Surface+Transit. Fine; but that was the March 2007 election.
  • the Sonics -- he will "fight" to keep them in KeyArena. Feldman must be the only person on the planet who hasn't noticed that one side has already made up its mind against that possibility. Plus, I sense that 90% of Seattlites simply have stopped caring about the NBA.
5. John Manning: Ex-cop who had an anger problem -- former councilman ('96-'97) who resigned after being arrested (twice) for domestic violence. Later convicted and served 30 days house arrest. And 2007 is not even his first try at a comeback -- that was in 2003.

I will probably skip over this race, but 'know what? Manning might be the surprise in this one. He ought to be hungrier than his uber-mainstream opponents. People can change but, quite simply, he has the most to prove by changing. For the others the job is just another tick-off on the resume, while for Manning it could well be about his life. Redemption can be a powerful motivator.

July 19, 2007

A chip off the old fiasco

The Seattle Department of Transportation's motto (when did they get that?) is "A vibrant Seattle through transportation excellence." NO, REALLY! I'M NOT MAKING THAT UP! Stop laughing, it's mean.

The latest bit of excellence recently took place in Carkeek, Broadview and Maple Leaf: street chip sealing, scheduled for the second week of July. Chip sealing is an innocuous-sounding process for extending the life of pavement; tar is sprayed on the existing asphalt, then rock chips are layered-on. It's like Oily Roca.

I know about this because Greenwood streets underwent Chip Seal Hell 5-6 years ago, turning neighborhoods into combat zones for months. Here's how SDOT is describing the process today:
The maintenance work will involve the application of emulsified asphalt followed by rock chips on the surface of the street...
Within several days after the street is sealed, our mechanical sweepers will sweep the street to remove any excess rock.
...
DRIVE SLOWLY (no faster than 10 mph) on the new surface for several days. This will prevent loosening the aggregate in the newly resealed street.
Bicyclists and motorcyclists should use extra caution due to loose rock.

Source

OK, this is where I pull out the red card: in Greenwood we never saw any mechanical sweepers. For a couple of weeks we would occasionally see a pickup truck with guys with brooms who would sweep up some of the rock. But no one actually changed their driving habits, resulting in rock being dislodged on an ongoing basis, for about a year. Loose rock piled up, especially at intersections. We never saw the guys with brooms again.

Oh, and telling bicyclists and motorcyclists to use "caution" is a massive understatement. SDOT should really tell you "stay off the streets unless you want your tires and drive trains covered with sticky rocks" (and remember, in this part of Greenwood there are no sidewalks to ride on). And the aforementioned piles of loose rock continued to present hazards for at least two years. It was like my street was both paved and unpaved at the same time.

From their blythe description of it, it doesn't sound like SDOT learned anything from the Greenwood chip seal operation. If you live in Carkeek, Broadview or Maple Leaf, I'd like to hear from you how it's going on your streets.

July 18, 2007

Quick question for SDOT

Quick question for the Seattle Department of Transportation, as well as the Pedestrian Master Plan Advisory Committee: How do you expect to implement any plan effectively, if the City's answer to the sidewalk-repair part of the equation is You Pay For It?

Sidewalks? They're your problem
By Elizabeth Rhodes; and Diana Wurn
Seattle Times business reporter; Special to The Seattle Times


Sidewalks: Lots of people love having them. Others just wish they had them.

And most don't think about who takes care of them.

In Seattle, that will change this month when homeowners with a sidewalk damaged enough to be a tripping hazard find an informational flier attached to their door telling them it's their responsibility — not the city's — to repair it.

Depending on the severity of the problem, that could set them back thousands of dollars.

More

Imagine the uproar if the City were to suddenly announce you are responsible for repairing the street in front of your house -- the funding inequity between streets and sidewalks is clear.

July 12, 2007

Let's do it!

This guy took good notes on yesterday's Randi Rhodes Show:
Would you like to see Harriet Miers, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove being led to jail by the Capitol Hill Police and the House’s Sargeant at Arms? Would Friday be good for you?

Two Words: INHERENT CONTEMPT

Inherent Contempt is a little used, little known tool that the House or Senate can use. It requries only a majority…which we should easily have in the House. Under the inherent contempt power, the individual is brought before the House or Senate by the Sergeant-at-Arms, tried at the bar of the body, and can be IMPRISONED... More

Start dialing.

Feet v. Drivers

Today's Traffic Unsafety Award winner is the 30-something white guy in the silver Mercury SUV, who yesterday (July 11 at 4:40 pm) turned right onto Western Avenue from Madison Street and declined to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk. Georgia license #G13 0794, this middle finger is for you!

July 9, 2007

". . . Client."

Hey all you Marc Maron Seditionistas: click here to listen to Iris Bahr as "Svetlana," on WNYC's Studio 360 (July 6).

July 7, 2007

Bicycle Safety

I'm always on the lookout for new safety technology for my bicycle. It's the one area where I am more likely to shell out a few extra bucks as far as cycling gadgetry goes. Shave a few ounces off with some new clipless pedal? Um, no. But $44 for a durable, bright LED road flare? Yes, please.

I read about the the new device, intended to replace polluting, chemical emergency flares, in the Seattle P-I in May. Made by the PowerFlare company, it's a hockey puck-sized thing containing an array of LEDs, encased in a rubber cage. There's a video on the Powerflare site of one of them surviving being run over by a fire truck.

So what the heck, I ordered one. It arrived a few days later, and I zip-tied it to the inside-left of my Tubus rear rack. I used it on the glum, showery afternoon last week, and it performed well. Of course, the real test will be the first evening we go back to Standard Time (aka Seattle Night Time).

What's really great is the variety of modes, here's a video of two of them:



Powerflares come in CR123 lithium and rechargeable (if you by a six pack of them) versions.

July 3, 2007

Question for the Prez

Sir:

Regarding your commutation of Scooter's sentence-- if 30 months is excessive, what would you consider not excessive?

Because, let me tell ya that zero is right out as far as I'm concerned. So how about we split the difference?

Fifteen months it is!

Sincerely,
David S. Gow, MPA

July 2, 2007

Time Out

Today I'll just pass along this photo sent by friends leading a tour in France: storks feeding their chicks in a rooftop nest in Strasbourg.


Alain Lemennicier

June 27, 2007

I Saw What You Did

Here's how it is: I've decided if I see you endangering pedestrians or bicyclists in my town, I'm going to put it on the record. Here's our first offender:
Date: June 26, 2007 at 5:45 pm.
Location: N 71st & Greenwood Ave N.
Vehicle; driver: orange Volvo S60, WA license "NURSJEN", Barrier Motors license plate frame; blonde 30ish woman.
Violation: Two women with small children enter marked crosswalk, crossing west-to-east. As they near the center left-turn lane, northbound NURSJEN momentarily decelerates, then floors it. Smooth, throaty hum of Swedish engineering (Didya spring for the 300hp 2.5 liter?). Women shake their heads. The move saves NURSJEN no time, as she is soon caught in the usual peak-hour backup at 80th St.

NURSJEN -- helping to make the streets that much meaner. Proud of yourself?

June 8, 2007

Tragic, awful news

Hansa, Woodland Park Zoo elephant, dead at 6
Woodland Park Zoo's baby elephant dies


I got to pet Hansa on the trunk when I went behind the scenes of the elephant barn, on my last day at the zoo in 2004. Her death really feels like a punch in the gut.

May 30, 2007

Adversarial relationship

This morning's KUOW report on the dangerous 47th & Admiral Way intersection is further testimony to the fact that the Seattle Department of Transportation only believes its engineering criteria, not the experience and eyewitness accounts of actual people.

SDOT is hopelessly mired in bureaucratic inertia that holds internal procedures as more important than serving the public. When will elected officials reform this agency?

May 28, 2007

The coolest guys at 2007 Folklife

Funky drumming plus bagpipes!

May 24, 2007

My point exactly!

It's like I've been saying:

Many Americans would fail a standard DMV test

One out of six drivers on the road today would not pass a written driver's license test if they were given one today, according to a national survey conducted by GMAC Insurance.
...
Questions included such things as "A traffic light with a flashing red signal means?" and "If, while driving, a tire suddenly blows out, you should..."
Source

One in six! Imagine if we could take the keys away from 17% of drivers: fewer collisions, more pedestrians and cyclists stay alive -- and bye-bye congestion.

Of course, also less revenues for city and state treasuries from traffic tickets. So don't hold your breath on this ever happening.

May 17, 2007

Is this 'limitless' energy?

Al Globus of the National Space Society writes about Solar Satellite Power:

The basic idea: build huge satellites in Earth orbit to gather sunlight, convert it to electricity, and beam the energy to Earth using microwaves. We know we can do it, most satellites are powered by solar energy today and microwave beaming of energy has been demonstrated with very high efficiency. We're talking about SSP - solar satellite power.

SSP is environmentally friendly in the extreme. The microwave beams will heat the atmosphere slightly and the frequency must be chosen to avoid cooking birds, but SSP has no emissions of any kind...

More

May 16, 2007

Pioneer Square Literature Patrol

I just had a copy of "Yiddish Policemen's Union" signed by its author, Michael Chabon. I just happened to be in the Mystery Bookstore, and in he walks.

He's there right now.

May 11, 2007

Streetcar may need city loan

Licata proved right about operating costs

Seven months before Seattle christens its new South Lake Union streetcar, the expected operating costs are increasing.

And the income from train and station advertising, though robust, is going to arrive more gradually than planned.

So, Mayor Greg Nickels is asking the City Council to give the streetcar a line of credit -- up to $3 million -- to be repaid within 10 years...
. . .

Metro Transit, which will operate the trains, plans to bill the city $2 million a year, compared to the city's original $1.5 million estimate. Startup costs will add $500,000, compared to the early estimate of $144,000. The current shortfall is about $1.5 million for the first two years of operations, said a City Council staff analysis issued this week.

Rising costs would mean that the streetcar would soak up a greater share of Seattle's Metro Transit allotment than earlier thought, limiting bus-service expansion to other neighborhoods.

. . .

City Councilman Nick Licata, an early opponent, has long warned operating costs would rise.

"I think it's unfortunately indicative of how we're not paying attention to the more basic services around the city. How did Seattle become unaffordable? It's through a number of these projects that benefit a small sector of the population." Source

Ehh, what's a few million between friends? I mean -- those poor gentrifiers.

May 10, 2007

Steel rails are high in irony

This article gives one pause:
Visitors and commuters to South Lake Union will enjoy lower parking rates and looser rules than in the rest of Seattle after the city installs automated pay stations this year...

Even as Seattle officials work to eliminate long-term spots and discourage commuters from parking in all other neighborhoods, in South Lake Union the city will sell 1,250 all-day spots at 75 cents an hour.

"We're not trying to encourage it, but it is going to be allowed," said Mary Catherine Snyder, who runs the city's parking program.

And short-term parkers will get a break, too.

In most of Seattle, the city charges $1.50 an hour... But at 750 two-hour spots near South Lake Union's retail core, city officials plan to charge $1.25 an hour.

. . .

...the city has set a parking occupancy goal as its threshold for success: 85 percent. That means at any given time visitors should be able to find a handful of open spots in a block. Source

Not only are taxpayers paying for the Streetcar, but now we're expensing parking revenues in South Lake Union and facilitating on-street parking??? These actions are at odds. One would think that our green Mayor would want to raise parking rates, decrease open spots and shorten terms, in order to encourage people to take Metro into downtown (light rail in the future) and transfer to the Streetcar.

Unless the Streetcar was really about gentrification, not transportation.

May 3, 2007

New baby Orca confirmed

"J42" -- it's the newest member of Puget Sound's J Pod. From the Center for Whale Research:

McKay breadcrumbs may lead to Reichert

CoolAqua connects the dots:
Rove assistant Leslee Westine becomes CEO of TechNet, replacing CEO Rick White, who is then recommended by Dave Reichert to be the new Washington State Attorney, right after Karl Rove's Office has just sacked the Washington State Attorney? More

May 2, 2007

A modest Palmer proposal

Don't worry Greg, I got the joke. Funny stuff! I always wondered how 'tokhes' is spelled.

April 27, 2007

SDOT games system?

A little bird recently sang me a song about the process for applying to the Seattle Bridging The Gap transportation and parks fund.

The initial step is for citizens to write down their ideas for projects on official Project Identification Forms, which will be sent to the Seattle Department of Transportation for exploration -- screening. In other words, it sets up a bottom-up process in which the citizens tell the agency what they want.

SDOT may have other ideas. It seems that residents of Greenwood recently met with SDOT staff to discuss how to fill out the Forms. Instead, the staffers presented the residents with SDOT's own wish list of projects, and suggested that those be entered on the Project Identification Forms.

No doubt some people agreed, while others wrote up their own ideas. But SDOT coordinates screening of the projects and final recommendations -- whose projects will SDOT be more likely to choose?


New today:
Decisions on levy campaign leftovers were political

"Bridging the Gap" levy election cash under scrutiny

When Vic Odermat wrote a $1,000 check to the "Bridging the Gap" campaign last fall, he did so to support a property-tax levy for Seattle streets and bridges.

The owner of Brown Bear Car Wash never imagined $4,000 from the campaign fund would go to the Irish Heritage Club and possibly pay for a trip to Ireland for Mayor Greg Nickels' wife.

"Oh my goodness," Odermat said, when he learned that $31,557 in surplus campaign money was doled out after the Nov. 7 election to some nonprofit groups and campaign workers.
. . .
[Deputy Mayor Tim] Ceis said decisions on spending the surplus were made by the mayor's "political brain trust," which includes Ceis and Nickels' aides Viet Shelton, Regina LaBelle and Michael Mann. The mayor was told of the payments, Ceis said, but was "not very involved" in the decisions.

Ceis said he never thought about turning the surplus over to the city to help with street projects at the heart of the levy's mission.
Source

Wouldn't it have been nice if the money had gone to citizen groups that want to plan pedestrian safety projects? Currently they are required to seek grants to hire consultants to do the work.

April 26, 2007

Cancel Bush's insurance policy

Dennis Kucinich has filed articles of impeachment (H.Res. 333) on Dick Cheney -- so where are the co-sponsors? By the end of this week I expect to see every freaking House Democrat from a safe district signing onto the effort. Jim McDermott, you first.

April 23, 2007

Bi-Uh-Oh-Diesel

From the BBC:

Ethanol cars may not be healthier
Ethanol vehicles may have worse effects on human health than conventional petrol, US scientists have warned.

A computer model set up to simulate air quality in 2020 found that in some areas ozone levels would increase if all cars were run on bioethanol.

Deaths from respiratory problems and asthma attacks would increase with such levels, the researchers reported in Environmental Science and Technology.

The EU has agreed that biofuels should be used in 10% of transport by 2020.

Mark Jacobson, an atmospheric scientist at Stanford University in California, used a computer model which took into account factors such as temperatures, sunlight, clouds and rain to simulate air quality in 2020 for two different scenarios.

In one simulation all vehicles were fuelled by petrol and in the other all vehicles were fuelled by E85 - a mix of 85% ethanol and 15% petrol.

If all cars were run on E85, he found that in some parts of the US there were significant increases in ozone - a pollutant with harmful effects on the human respiratory system - compared with petrol cars.

In the study, the increase in smog translated to an extra 200 deaths per year in the whole of the US, with 120 occurring in Los Angeles alone.

Increases in ozone in some areas of the US would be offset by decreases in other areas but overall there would be 770 additional visits to accident and emergency and 990 additional hospitalisations for asthma and other respiratory problems, the results showed.

Although ethanol was found to reduce levels of two atmospheric carcinogens, levels of others increased so associated cancers would be the same as with pollution caused by petrol fumes, the study showed.

Damage

"We found that using E85 will cause at least as much health damage as gasoline, which already causes about 10,000 premature deaths annually from ozone and particulate matter," said Jacobson.

"The question is, if we're not getting any health benefits, then why continue to promote ethanol and other biofuels."

He added: "By comparison, converting all vehicles to battery-electric, where the electricity is from wind energy would eliminate 10,000 air pollution deaths per year and 98% of carbon emissions from vehicles."

In principle, biofuels - ethanol and diesel, made from crops including corn, sugarcane and rapeseed - are a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional transport fuels.

Although they produce carbon dioxide, growing the plants absorbs a comparable amount of the gas from the atmosphere.

A government report said that biofuels could reduce emissions by 50-60% compared to fossil fuels.

Stuart Shales, senior lecturer in environmental biotechnology at the University of the West England, said there were companies in the UK producing biofuel but that the UK was lagging behind other countries.

He added that it would not be feasible for all cars to run on ethanol because too much land would be needed to grow the crops.

"What people are looking at are second generation fuels which will be produced from whole biomass, like wood, which can be broken down to fermentable sugars."

"This is the first time I've seen any research about ozone.

"The question I would ask is, has there been any respiratory problems in Brazil where ethanol has been used since the early 1970s."

Upshot -- building, using and innovating mass transit, and nonmotorized transport, are not diminished in importance.



April 18, 2007

April 16, 2007

The kid is not his son, either

Hey Mark Green and Air America -- legendary Anglo-American talk show host Michael Jackson appears to need a regular gig. I'm just sayin'.

April 12, 2007

Political Landscape, Part Two: Elections by numbers

Remember Poli Sci one-oh-something at the UW -- "Urban Politics"? In my day it looked back at history from an Eighties standpoint. The syllabus marched through time, from machine politics up to the Good Government era. There's no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the trash, was one soundbite.

Of course, from our vantage point in 2007 we can see what a quaint notion that was: the Resmuglican way would be to farm it out to a crony contractor for several times the cost of a public utilities agency.

An idea that I accepted without question was the idea of at-large city council seats being superior to district elections. It seemed so logical--why have just one member working for you, when you could have many? If one says No, you can go to others.

A fine idea, in theory. However it has been apparent for quite some time now that Seattle -- with ostensibly an at-large Council -- in fact does have districts. Not districts with identifiable geographic boundaries and balanced populations, but economic districts determined by the socioeconomics of Who You Know.

Just to illustrate, at one time, in the late Eighties to early Nineties, Seattle had two districts: #1 was Mount Baker, and #2 was everywhere else. At the time, the Mayor, most of the Council, a goodly number of municipal technocrats (yes, I still admire Galbraith), and private sector movers & shakers all lived in Mount Baker. As a result, policies coming out of the old City Hall, as well as what you read, saw and heard about it in the local media, all tended to reflect the views of the residents of the ridge by Rainier Valley. My thesis is that while the geographic distribution of political power was poor, participation by economic elites was broad.

Fine, I'm using some hyperbole, and the situation is less pronounced today; for example, Greg Nickels lives in West Seattle and Nick Licata is in Greenwood. But the reality remains that Paul Allen is in effect his own council district; real estate developers are a district; the UW Regents are a district; in a sense, everyone serving on the board of a major nonprofit or intergovernmental agency is a district.

What power does the everyday citizen have against all that? Just using the new Bridging the Gap process as an example (Political Landscape, Part One, 4/10), how will our needs be weighed against those of Allen's South Lake Union community (the Streetcar project took funds away from planned bike and pedestrian facilities)? Plus, bureaucratic inertia counts for a lot, and SDOT, which is screening Bridging the Gap requests ("Seattle Department of Transportation will then explore your ideas" - Dept. of Neighborhoods letter, 3/30) has enough for all the agencies in the whole wide world. The relationship of the public to SDOT has been one of supplicant to benign despot, and that isn't going to change overnight.

The time has arrived for clear, direct political accountability in Seattle government, and that means electing the City Council by districts. Divide Seattle into nine City Council Districts, but have three members elected per district in order to improve the constituents per member ratio. And cut the salary to $55,000, it'll keep them humble.

Then borrow a page from Parliament-style government and go to a Strong Council format. Give Councilmembers portfolios over City departments such as SDOT; while experts would still conduct normal operations, the Council would set strategic policies and goals. This would necessitate weakening the Mayor somewhat -- but that would be a refreshing change.

In the meantime, we'll still need to watch SDOT every minute with regard to Bridging the Gap, because the agency is going to be "exploring" (i.e. screening) the list of projects to be approved by the Mayor and Council.

April 10, 2007

Political Landscape, Part One: Falling into the gap

Last fall as Seattle voters considered how they should vote on the Proposition 1 "Bridging The Gap" transportation ballot measure (Wiseline Institute - 1, 2), the attitude I heard among The Folk was -- I'm going to vote Yes because we need it, but why are we having a special levy for basic facilities?

I too adopted that rationale, and so vote Yes we did, to the tune of 53.4%.

The thing is, what I don't recall from the Pro campaign was an explanation of how it would be implemented: How would needs -- especially for pedestrian and bicycle facilities -- be identified? Prioritized? Selected? Projects planned?

A partial answer arrived yesterday in the mail, in a big envelope from the Department of Neighborhoods. "Money and resources are available for groups and individuals to get involved in improving their neighborhoods," the cover letter begins. Involvement is great, but how about money for actual improvements? But I kid. Then farther down:
Funds Available from Bridging the Gap Levy! (Larger Transportation Projects)... Using the attached blue form, community members are being asked to identify specific transportation problems or concerns. Seattle Department of Transportation will then explore your ideas, and using a review committee of neighborhood volunteers, will make project funding recommendations to the Mayor and City Council.

It appears therefore that while there is one fund, which Neighborhoods is calling "the NSF/CRF [neighborhood street fund and cumulative reserve fund] and Bridging the Gap Fund," the selection process is different from the old Neighborhood Matching/Small & Simple process. This is good. Sidewalk construction and repair never belonged in the Small & Simple process, a competitive one that essentially played neighborhoods against each other. Your project is worthy, it says to some, and to others Yours is not worthy. Fine for community artwork, not fine for projects that are about making unsafe streets safe places to walk.

Small & Simple treats basic pedestrian infrastructure as a luxury, that neighbors must agree to, and then pay a significant amount (on top of taxes) to build public sidewalks in the public right of way.

Clearly, Neighborhoods is not an engineering shop, so that it will hand-off project requests to SDOT is good. It is also bad.

In certain parts of Seattle, if you want your neighborhood to be safe for walking, you're on your own. You have to apply for grants even to plan sidewalks, because you have to hire a consultant -- that's right, City engineers don't lift a finger because your needs aren't in their budget. Then when you have a plan, you still must scrape together funding, hope you get into an SDOT budget for a future fiscal year and then, maybe, part of your neighborhood will get sidewalks.

Note that if you just want to be able to drive your car quickly around town, by way of whatever short cut strikes your fancy, SDOT is right there to serve you with planning services performed by a staff of necktie-wearing specialists, all paid for out of the department budget. And if the affected neighborhoods happen to find out about it, one of the necktie wearers will show up at their community meetings to tell them how silly they are to be concerned.

A hopeful part of the new process is that the Mayor and City Council will have the final word on projects. This takes the decision out of the hands of the SDOT bureaucracy and makes it a political process, meaning it might be more responsive to ordinary citizens. What we want is for the City's engineering specialists to, at long last, take pedestrian and bicycle needs seriously. Will the added political dimension accomplish this?

We'll pick up here next time.


Also today: Greg Nickels is out standing in his field (Newsweek).

April 6, 2007

Out on the Island

Here's the type of concern that reflects some of what I wrote about yesterday (There goes the old neighborhood, 4/5)--
Although Sound Transit officials might have outnumbered Mercer Island residents at Wednesday night's meeting about an Eastside light-rail proposal, the small group was vocal about discontent with the accessibility and effectiveness of a proposed boarding station.
. . .
"Once you put all your money into light rail, how do you get the people to the light rail?" asked Tom Donahue Sr., 69. "I want transit that moves people, not transit that makes people's hearts race just because it's a train."

Lucia Pirzio-Biroli, a second-generation Mercer Island resident, supports Sound Transit's efforts... But she echoed Donahue's accessibility concerns.

"Mercer Island is developing a dense downtown area and it [light rail] will serve it well," said Pirzio-Biroli. "My concern is that there is transit from the rest of the island and that the light rail doesn't just serve downtown. I think that's got to be part of the plan." Source

Hey Luddites, are these citizens "anti-rail" for asking these questions? Are they "transit bashers"? "Road warriors"? Tell me what is factually wrong about their understanding of service under the traditional rail concept.

April 5, 2007

There goes the old neighborhood

There are probably going to be howls about this from some doctrinaire, neo-Luddite quarters, but I'll go ahead and make the following statement.

I like trains.

I loved traveling on them when I was little (it was the late 60s, was that Amtrak?), and I was disappointed around 1970 when Seattle said No Thank You to the Forward Thrust rail system that eventually went to Atlanta. A few years ago I rode intercity trains in Europe, and I wouldn't have wanted to see the Continent any other way.

I also (here come the howls) don't object to the existence of Seattle's Central Link light rail. I have a problem with the cost, parts of the route, and a number of accompanying consequences. But it will function, and I certainly welcome the service it will provide to those who live and work near the stations. I predict it will have no trouble meeting its 45-50,000 per day rider projection -- in the first year it will probably beat that.

That said, I really feel badly for people like Jessie Jones:

Light rail is meant to bring redevelopment and prosperity to Seattle's Rainier Valley, but three years of construction has nearly ruined a small hair salon along the route.

Visions of Beauty has lost more than half its customers, predominantly African-American, since Sound Transit work crews arrived on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South (MLK) in 2004, according to owner Jessie Jones. She has cut hair there for 22 years.

Closed lanes and torn-up pavement have made her clients think twice about trying to get there. For a business already reeling from a decline in the neighborhood's black population, construction is making the challenge even tougher.

The shop used to open five days a week. Now, Jones cuts hair two days and works a second job. If the mortgage wasn't already paid off, Jones said, the salon would have folded.
. . .
To survive, she said she must "upscale" her salon, in an effort to entice new customers, including whites and Asians. She may repaint the brick-colored interior in bright white and maroon, replace the lighting and advertise more.
. . .
[Jones' son, Andrew Love] ...aspires to run the salon, remove some clutter in back and appreciate the follicular diversity coming his way.

"For us, it's just a matter to keep with it, to keep the lights on," he said. "I think things will get better, after light rail is finished." Source


Then there's Steve and Debbi Mullen:
At first, neighbors weren't so sure they wanted a Grocery Outlet store in their Madrona neighborhood. It smacked of cheap; they thought they wanted something more upscale.

Steve and Debbi Mullen, the husband-wife owners of the Madrona Grocery Outlet store, understood -- and were undaunted. While they invested in their local communities, supplying food for PTA barbecues, planning neighborhood celebrations, and donating money for Little Leagues, they kept educating increasing numbers of customers.

Then they took on another store -- in Rainier Valley -- that had seen sagging sales because of nearby light rail construction.

As the Mullens hoped, the locals began to embrace the concept of saving money on groceries and hundreds of other items not because they're of inferior quality, but because they are simply manufacturer overstocks.
. . .
"The store was doing really well under the previous owner -- customers were very loyal -- but then light rail construction started. It really hurt," Steve Mullen said, citing a 20 percent to 30 percent drop in sales.

When the previous owner decided to sell and retire, the Mullens were determined to turn the store around -- and hope to turn a profit when light rail is finished. The Mount Baker station is about 75 feet from the Rainier Grocery Outlet's front door.
. . .
"We're operating this store at zero profit to improve conditions. ... I didn't want this store to close," Steve Mullen said. "We had a store up the street that was doing very well, and the Rainier Valley store had strong customer loyalty and great potential. Once light rail is done, we think the area will revitalize really quickly."
Source


This consequence -- the impact on existing neighborhoods -- is the biggest problem I have with light rail. Not so much the disruption of construction, assuming things return to normal afterward, as Andrew Love and the Mullens hope. But odds are they won't return to normal, because one of the selling points of light rail has always been the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) that comes along with it. Fine. I like the little urban villages, their little shops and cafés -- although I am long past tired of the repetitive, cookie-cutter deployment of corrugated metal + shingles (and sometimes brick) "Northwest Style" townhouse & condo clusters that are springing up everywhere like little bitter cress (shot-weed).

This would be a good time to mention that I have a special fondness for the North Beacon-Garlic Gulch-Mt. Baker area, because I grew up there.

I don't think merchants in the Valley were fully apprised of the complete implications of TOD. It means higher densities and therefore the potential of more customers, yes. But it also means higher land values, higher property taxes, and higher rents. For many retail businesses, already fragile, and those operating on narrow margins -- such as grocers -- TOD really should be TOR: Transit Oriented Redevelopment.

In some cases it means Better For Business, But We Didn't Mean Yours. Sound Transit has offered assistance to imperiled businesses to cope with disruption from construction -- but what about after that? Will the City step in with innovative zoning that could keep small-business rents affordable? Will design review be given teeth?

Certain howling Luddite stalkers are going to accuse me of "transit bashing." Is what I'm writing anti-rail (and why would rail care)? It would be, if I were advocating not completing Link, or stopping the construction and tearing it out. Jeez, that would be stupid. True, before the final-final decision was made to start the Link project I advocated for my preferred TRANSIT mode, automated peoplemovers, as well as pointing out the economic consequences. But that was the public decisionmaking process; that was neighborhood democracy. Seattle is going to have light rail, let's use it if we can, and enjoy it if we can (of course, the matters still remain of what we're going to do about congestion, and transit for areas outside the Link corridor -- people who are paying for Link but not getting a benefit).

So howl away, Luddites. I maintain that we must have realistic, civic-minded thinking. I'm looking beyond the mere acquisition of a sleek new train, and at long-term economic effects on real people.

April 3, 2007

Game 2

Tonight's Mariner game was again encouraging. The team displayed smart baserunning, and the ability to get hits down the stretch. The one weak link: Jarrod Washburn.

I've had this philosophy that of the five pitchers in your starting rotation, the guys in the 1 - 3 spots ought to be able to deliver their first times out. If your staff can't start the season at least 3-2, there's a problem.

The Ms are 2-0 so far, but not because of Washburn. He threw 104 pitches in a little over five innings before he was pulled, leaving with a 4-2 lead. But two of his four runs were unearned -- basically, he left with a 2-2 tie. Not good for a #2 starter.

Julio Mateo -- come on: 1 inning, 3 hits, 2 runs??? Almost Ayalaesque.

Fly away

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Mariners (as I am every year) after the way they went to town on the A's yesterday. Ichiro transitioned smoothly to center field; 12 Ks for Felix; Sexson stepped up the way he needs to. Plus, it was only the second-ever Opening Day shutout M's win, the other being Game 1 of 1995 -- and look what happened that year.

A good way to start the season.

One down note: this year's crop of Mariner TV spots are terrible! Time to put Copacino+Fujikado on the hot seat.

Different pages

Here's a good one from yesterday's "Getting There" column in the Post Intelligencer:

Question: Richard Eadie wants to know if the bus tunnel in downtown Seattle is on track to reopen in September.

Answer: Sound Transit spokesman Geof Patrick says work to reconfigure the tunnel to carry both buses and a light rail line is on schedule. The train tracks already have been installed, and crews are working on other things such as lighting.

Metro Deputy General Manager Jim Jacobson said the bus agency and the city plan to keep the traffic plan for the tunnel closure in effect for at least a year... the city and Metro want to continue evaluating them, given that work on the viaduct -- regardless of which option is chosen -- is expected to snarl downtown traffic.
Source

But there was this April 1 post by Roger Pence in the Balanced Transportation for Seattle group:
As rail traffic increases in the downtown transit tunnel, bus traffic will decrease. The buses will go upstairs. As we have seen over the last 18 months, that should not have a negative effect on surface traffic
Source

Last I heard, Pence is a Sound Transit community outreach staffer. Left hand, meet right hand. Why exactly is Sound Transit resisting the regional transportation commission bill? Maybe ST and Metro (and Pence and Patrick) ought to share notes; a lot of unpleasantness, as well as SB-5803, could be avoided.

March 22, 2007

Papers, please

I'm concerned about Real ID, although not quite to the degree of some of the Black Helicopter crowd. But I am one of those people who refused to join the Safeway Club for the longest time--hey, my money ought to be enough to earn a discount, dammit.

However, the Bush drive to get law-abiding citizens into the big database via their driving licenses is something even some state governments are opposing--albeit under the excuse of resisting an unfunded mandate. Maine and Idaho have already opted out, and Washington may join them. In fact, I have what some might consider a radical proposal.

Washington should abolish the Driving License.

Yes, because Real ID will be abused to exert state control over individuals. But also because the ostensible purpose of the Washington Driving License--to ensure a sufficient level of competency among drivers--is clearly an abject failure. I won't turn this into a detailed screed, I'll just ask you, dear reader, to look at your fellow drivers. Should most of them have a license? I rest my case. Clearly, most of the money we spend in testing and licensing is wasted.

My solution is not to license people at all, but rather to deal with unqualified drivers via law enforcement. Insurance would still be required. But, you are asking, what about licensing and registering cars? I'm not suggesting abolishing the entire DMV, just their jurisdiction over people; the DMV would still license and register cars, since those need to be taxed, and for local law enforcement purposes as well.

The beauty of what I am proposing is that it will work whether or not Washington opts out of Real ID, in that the state can fall back on the optional, non-driving State Identification Card. If Washington opts out, everyone who needs identification can still get the SIC. But if Washington is somehow compelled to comply with Real ID, it could pay for it out of savings from abolishing the Driving License; civil liberties groups would be satisfied, as only people who agreed to get an SIC would go into the federal database.

People who decline the SIC can still satisfy needs for proof of identity by using photo credit cards; I'm sure the credit card companies don't misuse cardholder data. Plus, there's the Social Security Card -- face it, don't we all chuckle at the Not For Identification line?

March 18, 2007

Cough

Carbon fiber is an exceedingly cool construction material, and what Boeing is doing with it for its new 787 jetliner is amazing.

But have you ever thought about what happens to the carbon fiber in a catastrophic plane crash? According to a Boeing engineer I spoke with last year who seemed quite eager to expound on the subject, the carbon fiber explodes into a cloud of dust.

Something to think about.

March 12, 2007

Vote No-NO by tomorrow

And don't follow this guy's advice:
Seattle voters, you've got two votes on the March 13 Viaduct ballot. Use them both to tear down, once and for all, the fantasy of the Gregoire / Chopp waterfront freeway expansion. "No" on the Elevated of course, but "Yes" on the Tunnel, even if you prefer streets + transit, retrofit, or something else. Even both fail, don't give Gregoire / Chopp a higher vote for their elevated monstrosity. [Emphasis added] Source
Vote for the tunnel to show the State you're really, really against a rebuild--even if you want Surface+Transit?

That's like voting for Nader instead of Gore to show how much you're against Dubya.

March 9, 2007

Weeping Willow

Did you know Jack Mathers, of Jack's Fish Spot at the Market
(Seattle's best chowder), also fancies himself a rock star? He has a
music video on You Tube, here 'tis:


March 8, 2007

Musings, Part One

Although I am supporting the Surface+Transit option for the Seattle waterfront, I sense that the agenda of some of its backers is to reduce road capacity for the purpose of giving drivers no choice but to take transit. I also sense this faction thinks people who say they need to drive are either lazy, or need to lead less hectic lives.

On the other hand, one person's "social engineering" is another person's legitimate public policy goal.

And still another person's "best practice."

Further still, I sense (my finger is on the pulse of The People) that there is a collective civic rush to snap up rail transit systems as soon as possible, before Smart People can invent something that would be more useful. Why is the last real transit innovation the 1901 roll-out of the Wuppertal monorail?