East Link’s Fatal Flaw
East Link violates a fundament transportation dictum, “you
don’t install light rail and bus service on the same transportation
corridor”. If you want to
use light rail, you need to have the capacity and the accessibility to transport
large numbers of commuters. A
Paris subway route for instance has 10-car trains running every 4 minutes. It is accessible to huge numbers of
riders because of the population centers around the many stations it
serves.
By contrast, East Link, at best will consist of 4-car trains
with minimum 7-minute intervals.
The only access point for the vast majority of cross-lake commuters will
be the South Bellevue P&R. This
P&R will never have the capacity or the accessibility to attract a large
number of 405 and I-90 commuters.
East Link will result in the vast majority of cross-lake
commuters forced to use the outer roadways. Sound Transits own 2004 analysis concluded their proposed
addition of a 4th lane to the outer roadway for both bus and HOV
traffic would not provide needed capacity.
Unfortunately, the media, BCC, KCC, eastside legislators,
and other organizations refuse to recognize this reality. I suspect the influence of the
Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and their labor
unions along with the millions spent on light rail advertising is contributing
to this reluctance. In any case,
if ST is allowed to proceed it will result in billions spent on a transportation
project that will cause gridlock on 1-90, devastate parts of residential
Bellevue, wreck havoc on downtown Bellevue and do absolutely nothing to ease
congestion on 405 and I-90
Bill Hirt
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