Quote:
Originally Posted by mooks28
It's one of the weird things about Seattle. I know the owners of the Bellevue Square mall across the lake in Bellevue (where Link is slated to go in a few years) have fought and fought light rail and don't want it anywhere near them. I think they've even taken Sound Transit to court over it. Maybe Southcenter was the same story?
It's a total cultural difference, I think. I certainly can't imagine any major mall owner in the Vancouver area saying no to a Skytrain station next to them.
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To be fair, I wonder if Vancouver would've been the same 20 years ago. Metrotown was built around the SkyTrain, after all.
Where did the routing for the failed Monorail go? Wasn't it a different and complementary route? I would've loved to see a true monorail system working in Seattle.
The Canada line is a completely different beast. I think what the Canada line proves, more than anything else, is that when it comes to choosing transit, one of the biggest motivating factor is speed. It's along a busy arterial and you need to make a water crossing or two by car. There's the region's largest hospital, a University, three shopping centres, City hall, and connections to almost every East West Bus route in the region. How can it NOT be successful?
I'm pretty sure people would still drive if it were significantly faster or more convenient to do so.
In Seattle, after regular business hours, I'd imagine the LRT isn't used much, mostly because it's relatively painless to just hop in the car. Also, because Seattle is quite hilly downtown, I'm sure some factor the walk into their equation.
Who wants to take the train when you'll have to walk uphill to your destination. The car's just more convenient.
Now, if they closed off some of the interstate exits downtown, and once they make the Alaskan tunnel all but bypass downtown ( is that still going forward ) you might see increased usage.
Of course, the university will add ridership, as well.
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