In all seriousness, I have to wonder if the “No on Prop1/ST3” crowd is blind, or has no commute, or knows no one who commutes in this area. Having lived on the Eastside for almost 20 years now, I have seen 405 go from very congested for a few hours a day, to a parking lot for nearly half the day. This is lack of public planning and lack of imagination at its finest. Rail is how the rest of the world moves tons of people quickly, reliably, and efficiently. Go to Asia, go to Europe, heck, even go to NYC and see how rail works. We’ve tried the “add more lanes” approach and guess what, we’re all clogged up again. Those of us who’d like to have an alternative to sitting in traffic going no where deserve one.
To those that would argue ST3 is too expensive, I ask: what is and has been the cost of clogged roads for hours a day? What’s the cost to businesses having their good and employees sitting in this mess? What’s the cost to tens of thousands of commuters’ quality of life? What are thousands of hours of time free to spend with our friends and family worth? Opponents either don’t have to sit in this every day, or actually benefit from it, perhaps invested in the auto/fossil fuel industry. Also, do opponents think it could actually get cheaper to kick the can further down the road? Think of how cheap this solution would have been 10, 20, even 30 years ago? Every year we wait to tackle this problem it gets costlier.
Some of the ubiquitous anti-ST3 signs say “fund education first.” I’d bet my last dollar that the same people making that claim also vote against education and library levies. Heck, next time one of those is up for a vote, they’ll just update their banner printer to “fund transit first.”
A final point – there is a real irony in the placement of so many of these signs. Check out the ones across from Fred Meyer on 120th Avenue NE, then, just look a little further at 405, dead stopped or crawling.
Do it now, it won’t get any cheaper, and the cost we’re already bearing by not doing it is horrendous. And to you No ST3 people—try commuting for a week like the rest of the poor schlubs on 405. Try stepping outside this region to one with real transit and then see how stone-age and insufficient our infrastructure is. The investment is long overdue.
Leo Gilbert, Kirkland
