For nearly 4 years my
emails to the Sound Transit Board, the WSDOT, Bellevue City Council, Seattle
Times and many others concerning East Link have been ignored. That’s why I was so pleased with the
Building a Better Bellevue lawsuit challenging the Federal Transit Administration
(“FTA”) and Federal Highway Administration (“FHWA”) “Record of Decision” (ROD) approval
of East Link. It forces ST to
defend in a federal court actions that give a whole new meaning to the term
“incompetent”.
I believe this lawsuit
will show ST made a monumental blunder when they selected light rail for
cross-lake public transit instead of a bus rapid transit (BRT) system. (The fact the ST board, many of whom were appointed with few transportation qualifications, could have this decision supported by purported
transportation “experts” in the WSDOT says a lot about that organization’s competence also.)
Their original decision
was followed by years and hundreds of millions spent promoting a totally flawed
transportation program. They made promises for light rail capacity that simple
multiplication showed was impossible along with ridership projections that
ignored the fact that the vast majority of cross-lake commuters wouldn’t even
have access to light rail.
Their own studies showed
they lied when they claimed that a 4th lane added to the outer
roadways could accommodate all the Bus and HOV traffic. As a result East Link would devastate
the area along the route into Bellevue, eventually lead to gridlock on I-90
Bridge and do nothing to ease congestion along SR405 and I-90 corridors.
The 12/07 and 12/12 posts
on this blog show Sound Transit’s response to the BBB lawsuit is devoid of
substantive justification for their actions. They have already wasted hundreds of millions and forced
thousands of commuters to needlessly endure years of increased congestion. The sooner they recognize that
fact the sooner eastside taxes can be used to reduce eastside congestion not
increase it.
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