Monorail Recall
Jeesh! Just when you thought the monorail project was moving forward, an anti-monorail group wants to put a stop to it. Charging that voters aren't getting what they were promised, the grass-roots group Monorail Recall is going to try to get 54 thousand signatures to put monorail on the ballot for the fourth time.
They argue that a shortage in the monorail's car-tab tax revenue, which has totaled a third less money than was planned, is grounds for repeal. State law allows voters to dissolve the monorail in the event of "significant financial problems."
Seattle Monorail Project officials say the tax shortage is manageable. They say they are "closing the gap" through innovative financing plans and potential cost-saving ideas, such as converting portions of the 14-mile line from dual tracks to a single track.
I find Monorail Recall's efforts a little hard to believe, since the monorail has already been approved by voters three separate times. Seattle absolutely needs a user-friendly mass transportation solution. Rather than kill the project, I really think we should challenge the Seattle Monorail Project to come up with appropriate funding to make this work.
I won't sign the petition. Will you?
Seattle Times - special monorail section
Monorail's Stark Reality is Beginning to Set in
Seattle Monorail Project is Doing things the right way
Monorail on Track
Ex-Mayor Rice questions plan for Seattle Monorail project
Taxing Topic for Freeriders
Comments:
Just a question: can we really afford it? 1.3 billion dollars… to shuttle 69,000 riders around?
See, the opposition to it is simply that the results don’t justify the costs. It’s a boondoggle.
If a monorail could be operated efficiently enough to operate at budget, then a private company would want to own it.
Look into how expensive cab rides are to the airport, even supershuttles. That the cheapest price they can offer because to ask for less would mean operating at a loss… and going out of business (firing all employees).
But the monorail is going to operate at a continuous loss: it will be a financial drain… HOW can it be worth it?
There’s a million good things we can do in Seattle, but we can’t afford every one. The city managers had opposed this idea fro mthe start, even the most liberal city council members could not see way to subsidize it practically. But the voters, who don’t think about efficiency until it’s too late, voted for it.
Thing is many many people who will in no way shape or form benefit from it will be paying: and this includes both rich and very poor folks.
The only ones who will get true direct benefits are the companies that build it.
"Five million fewer car trips a year. The Monorail Green Line will live up to its name by reducing environmental problems, not contributing to them. It’s expected to have 69,000 riders every weekday, which in turn will reduce car use by around 5 million trips a year. That’s worth saying again: take the city of Seattle and subtract 5 million car trips a year.”
But deeper digging reveals that even under the Monorail’s own most rosy assumptions, those are not 69,000 riders, but rides (i.e. 34,500 riders making round trips) and not “every weekday” but “every weekday” in the year 2020, and these projections were made years ago.
To the uninitiated, [5 million] probably seems like a large number. The reality is that Seattle residents and visitors make about 1.7 million car trips EVERY DAY and over 600 million per year. So the impact of the Green Line on car travel is worth, at the most, about three days of car trips, or less than 1 percent of all daily or annual trips. Since the SMP has at least a few transportation professionals on its staff, the use of the 5 million figure indicates that public relations has trumped technical veracity.
Point well taken Bleeding Heart. The problem is there are often things that should be done, not because they make financial sense, but because they are the RIGHT thing to do. The new hybrid SUV is a great example. The extra cost for the car won’t be made up in savings at the pump by a long shot. But if you are putting out fewer emissions, using less fuel, and making the world a generally better place to live, shouldn’t you do it?
This town needs mass transportation if it’s going to continue to grow and thrive. This may not be the ideal solution, but it’s a start to one.
As to your point about people paying who won’t benefit...isn’t that what the whole federal tax system is about? I can’t count the number of things the government spends money on that I don’t directly benefit from. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do them, now does it???
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