The Alaskan Way Viaduct Solution: Seattle is the definition of stupid (neighborhood, live)

[tada]

Whether they build a tunnel or another lane on I-5, they are still stupid for being so inefficient with spending.

[jinj]

They want to replace the viaduct that carries 3 lanes each way, open to all cars/buses/trucks with a tunnel that has 2 lanes each way, where one of those lanes is for car pool/bus only.

So they are spending $4billion (which will turn into $10 billion) to reduce capacity by 66%.

Does this make sense? No.

But Mayor McNickels and his buddy McSims never make sense.

[Jake840]

I think one of the reasons the tunnel has a lower capacity than the current viaduct is because it will have NO exits/onramps into the central area of Downtown Seattle. The tunnel will be for thru traffic only. So people who want to get into downtown will exit before or after the tunnel. People heading into downtown from the north will exit at I believe Denny (can you imagine the traffic nightmare!) and people heading into downtown from the south will exit near the stadiums. They will probably have the option of going to the east by the stadiums or taking the new waterfront street where the viaduct was. I am guessing the new waterfront street will still be WA-99 as well as the new tunnel.

Who knows if it will help traffic or not. It is similar to what happened with the Narrows Bridge. Everyone was questioning why they were building a new bridge just to add 1 lane (will be a carpool lane eventually) in each direction. But once the bridge was built everyone was pleased with the results.

[JDTD]

Well...at least they did "something" for a change (I don't know what yet, but...). It usually takes so long for anyone to make a decision around here that it ends up costing about twice what it would when they initially started talking about it (does that make sense even?). I personally think that, if they put their little heads together and made some common sense decisions for a change, a lot could be accomplished. You know that genius cousin that everyone has who has absolutely no common sense? Yeah...

[mikec34]

Originally Posted by seattletransplant2

Spend 4 billion on a tunnel, when there is traffic at all hours of the day on every major roadway in the city.

How about spending that money on ACTUALLY FIXING SOMETHING. Like widening 405.

Oh that's right I should take the bus.. Why is it, I feel like I'm living in communist china? Why should I be forced to take mass transit.. What if I don't want to sit near a bunch of smelly possibly sick people in extremely close quarters?

I am a democrat, but this area takes it WAY too far. This is beyond rediculous.

So I ask, why do you let the government get away with this bs?

Many major cities in "communist china" have better mastransit than Seattle. Sorry to burst your bubble. Seattle's isn't nearly as bad as Phoenix, so look on the bright side.


They were widnening the 405 from Renton to Bellevue last year. Didn't they ever finish that??? Now it should only take 20 minutes per mile heading north bound on the 405 during rush hour!!

[pwright1]

Hooray for the tunnel. The viaduct is the most unattractive, noisey, stinky, loud piece of crap in Seattle.

[Peripateticshutin]

The politics: Suburbanites care about I-405 and traffic -- but not so much about the viaduct because they don't use it much.

Seattle dwellers don't care so much about I-405 and traffic -- but they use the viaduct (or simply because it runs through Seattle and there are things under the viaduct that they care about); so it's their priority.

WA govt is consensus and referendum driven (and we can laugh cynically at some of that, sure). There's a higher population in Seattle than in the suburbs and it's higher profile; so, the politicians pay more attention to what the Seattle constituents want.

Personally, I'd rather we get the light rail option for the commuter issues rather than widen the freeways.

However, even though I don't use the viaduct, I find that statistic about it disturbing -- it sounds like a big public safety issue.

Actually, rather than comparing it to Communist China (where the govt just arbitrates the public projects) -- WA is more like "Democracy gone wild! (Spring Break edition)" because the plebiscite will favor Seattle over the suburbs unless the suburban population ever outnumbers the city. This can be expanded to explain the Eastern WA complaints that state government favors the more densely populated and affluent Western WA areas over them also.

[jinj]

There is no reason to tax cars more to pay for buses and rail.

King county is going to increase car tabs for rural county residents who never go into Seattle, this time.

Then comes the 520 bridge, I'll bet we are all taxed again.

[W & C]

Originally Posted by seattletransplant2

Oh that's right I should take the bus.. Why is it, I feel like I'm living in communist china? Why should I be forced to take mass transit.. What if I don't want to sit near a bunch of smelly possibly sick people in extremely close quarters?

I agree with seattletransplant2. I hate it when I'm in New York and have to take the 7 train to the ballpark, looking like I'm riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some ***** with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing.

sincerely,

John Rocker.

[toughguy]

Originally Posted by jinj

There is no reason to tax cars more to pay for buses and rail.

King county is going to increase car tabs for rural county residents who never go into Seattle, this time.

Then comes the 520 bridge, I'll bet we are all taxed again.

Thats their loss, maybe they should come visit the city once in awhile. You know, the city that contains the enormous tax base that subsidizes all the little towns and truck stops east of the Cascades.