I emailed the following
to the Seattle Times in response to their request for feedback regarding their
“Livewire Event” forum. I posted
it since they will likely ignore it.
Livewire Event Forum Pessimism
Justified
While I did have the
option of attending your Oct 29th “Livewire Event” forum I chose not
to do so. The participants' Oct 27th
Times Opinion page suggestions for reducing I-5 congestion showed they were
unlikely to offer meaningful “solutions” to our area’s congestion. I referred the Times to my 10/27/15 post “Why I’m pessimistic
about Seattle Times Livewire Event” on my blog http://stopeastlinknow.blogspot.com
explaining my concerns.
The article in the Oct
30th Times and the videos of the four participants discussing “Solutions” to
the area’s congestion justified my pessimism. One participant espoused the benefits of “retiming signal
lights”, something apparently already planned for downtown Seattle. The other suggestions involved “
driverless smart cars and other technology improvements, providing a transportation system that "serves all users" (whatever that entails?), questioning the need
for so many people to have cars, and “car sharing”.
What was a disappointment
was the failure of Thanh Tan, the moderator, to even raise any of the issues
from the emails I had referred her to. I was also disappointed that Mike Lindblom’s Oct 30th
story about the forum made no mention of the fact that none of the forum
participant’s suggestions would have any significant effect on the congestion he
lamented on Oct 26th Times front page.
In conclusion, the fact
the forum was sponsored by Sound Transit “explains” the forum participant’s
comments. The fact that the
Seattle Times moderator did not chose to “question” their “solutions” is
unfortunate but no surprise. The
likely result will be Sound Transit will continue with their plans for spending
billions on Central Link extensions that will do absolutely nothing to reduce
I-5 congestion and increase rather than decrease I-90 congestion.
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