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Letters to the Editor
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To the Editor:
What's with Emory Bundy? He's grasping at straws in his tirade against light rail.
People who already have light rail don't buy this hogwash. Last August in Dallas, Texas, a 77 percent majority voted to extend their popular light rail line. Now I read that suburban cities in the area are begging for commuter or light rail extensions to their communities.
That fact is that light rail will ultimately be capable of carrying over 30,000 people an hour one-way through the downtown tunnel, in contrast to perhaps 15,000 or so for buses. Right now there are about 70 peak-hour buses, yielding 4,200 passengers an hour at a capacity of 60 per articulated bus, with about 25,000 actual one-way riders per day.
My Metro sources say this could be expanded to 100 buses under current operations. Thus the current effective capacity is around 6,000 per hour, with ultimately 9,000, or 15,000 by crushing in 100 people per bus.
By contrast, each light rail car has a capacity of 137. The design allows generous floor space for standees, much like the SeaTac airport subway. Initial operations will be 12 trains of four cars per hour most of the day, or 6,576 people per hour, about the same as buses. Eventually, with 30 trains per hour or more, this becomes 16,440 people per hour, or around 32,000 crush capacity.
The 30 trains per hour do depend on an additional line or two with trains interleaved through the tunnel. I-90 is expected to be one of these lines, and was explicitly engineered to take light rail. With its own right of way (the current express lanes) you just put the tracks on top of the existing surface.
Bundy points out that there is always politics involved. But you can expect the politics to change rather dramatically when Link is up and running--when people discover how nice it is, just as they have in Dallas.
Dick Burkhart
Bundy Uses Half-truths to Slam Sound Transit
To the Editor:
Per your article "Bundy Tells Fremont Rotary: Sound Transit Misleads Public on Bus Tunnel" [Seattle Press online edition, March 7], it appears Emory Bundy is using a few half-truths of his own. First of all, only about one quarter of downtown Seattle buses use the tunnel. Secondly, he neglects one thing in the bus vs. light rail debate: that is Sounder Commuter Rail.
Sounder will be fully operational by 2003, with service to downtown Seattle from Everett and Lakewood. Sound Transit estimates it will be capable of transporting up to 6,000 people per hour in peak operation--roughly the equivalent of 107 articulated buses per hour. I don't know if this is an accurate prediction, but with limited service (two trains in the morning, two in the evening) from Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner, Auburn and Kent, the trains are already transporting about 1,800 people a day. A temporary station just opened in Tukwila.
Sound Transit has ordered 38 bi-level rail cars from Bombardier with seating for 164 in each. That's equivalent to 111 articulated buses, 11 more than what free-ride advocate Chuck Collins would order. Where it is practicable, where time is not lost due to transfer, buses could feed the commuter rail lines, thereby reducing the number of buses downtown. This could more than offset the number displaced [from the tunnel] by light rail.
Mark Stocker
Arm Teachers for Safe Schools
To the Editor:
A teacher brings a gun to school and is disciplined. A child brings a gun to school and children die. The law makes it illegal to have a firearm in one's possession on school property. Who will protect our children? It is for the sake of children we ban the weapons, yet more children die. Let the teachers be trained and allowed to carry weapons, or hire police that carry weapons.
The rhetoric "for the children" carries little weight when the laws prevent our children's safety. It is becoming reality that when guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns.
Roger W. Hancock
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To the Editor:
As the mayor and police chief continue to hold fast in their denial of their inactions during the Mardi Gras melee, officers have broken ranks and done the honorable thing by taking responsibility for their actions that evening.
The presence of the police officers in uniform at Kris Kime's memorial service sent a palpable message through the crowd that there were people within the police force who were sincerely sorry for Kris' tragic beating. They rose above the rhetoric of denial and political posturing and showed honest and sincere remorse. The only remorse the mayor seems to be showing is for the death of his second term as mayor. As he slept the night away, he no doubt was secure and smug in the knowledge that the WTO tactics of the police would be just fine.
Hopefully the family of Kris can take some comfort in the fact the whole community mourns with them. We all feel embarrassed for the police force that should have protected him as well as the thugs who perpetrated the crime. Police spokesperson Pam McCammon stated that if people didn't want to get beat up, they shouldn't have come to Pioneer Square. Her statement essentially stated that the partygoers at Mardi Gras should expect no police protection. Indeed, they got none, as footage of the night shows savage beatings by unrestrained thugs.
The same false logic could be applied to other situations. Perhaps people shouldn't drive because we all know that road rage is just a traffic jam away. Our school systems routinely have violence too. I guess we shouldn't expect protection there either. That kind of rationalization is what is the most shortsighted.
Kris Kime in no way deserved to be beaten to death. The police chief can affirm his inactions all he wants. To have a police force refuse to help while a man is beaten to death is simply unacceptable.
Richard Borkowski
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