To consolidate, disseminate, and gather information concerning the 710 expansion into our San Rafael neighborhood and into our surrounding neighborhoods. If you have an item that you would like posted on this blog, please e-mail the item to Peggy Drouet at pdrouet@earthlink.net
The first step of dealing with boondoggles is to admit that you have a problem. And since Seattle has itself a first-class boondoggle in Bertha,
Seattleites have been waiting for someone with some semblance of
authority to make that admission. Furthermore, they're waiting to hear
what, if anything, we're going to do with the mess if Bertha fails in
her mission. Finally, Mayor Ed Murray has answered those questions.
Kinda.
"Whether it's a tunnel, or whether it's some other
type of tunnel or some other type of arrangement that we come up with
for the central waterfront, the important thing is we find a way to make
this corridor work."
Okay!
So to review, Seattle is either going to end up with... a) A tunnel b) Some other type of tunnel c) Some other type of arrangement
What safe roads look like.
Sweden is on its way to reaching zero road deaths per year. It’s an
incredible feat, coming from a peak in road deaths in the 1970s. In
1997, Sweden implemented its now-famed “Vision Zero” plan in hopes of
eradicating all road deaths and injuries, and it has already cut the
deaths by half since 2000. In 2012, just one child under seven years old
was killed on a road, compared with 58 in 1970.
The Economist earlier this year took a look
at the data: the number of cars on the road and the distance driven
have doubled since the 70s, yet just 264 people died in road crashes in
Sweden last year, a record low. That represents just three deaths per
100,000 people, and compares to 5.5 in the European Union and 11.4 in
the US. (See this European Commission report for additional data.)
How has Sweden done it? “We are going much more for engineering than
enforcement,” Matts-Åke Belin, a government traffic safety strategist, told CityLab recently.
Sweden has rebuilt roads to prioritize safety over speed and other
considerations. This includes the creation of “2 + 1″ roads, three-lane
streets consisting of two lanes in one direction and one lane in the
other; the extra lane alternates between directions to allow for
passing. That design saved roughly 145 lives during the first 10 years
of Vision Zero, according to the Economist.
Sweden has also created 12,600 safer pedestrian crossings with
features such as bridges, flashing lights, and speed bumps. That’s
estimated to have halved pedestrian deaths over the past five years. The
country has lowered speed limits in urban, crowded areas and built
barriers to protect bikers from incoming traffic. A crackdown on drunk
driving has also helped.
Others are studying the Swedish model. New York has also adopted a
Vision Zero plan, which includes the implementation of slow zones and
increased police enforcement of speeding laws. As a result, it’s never been safer to cross a street in New York City. Just 131 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents this year, a record low.
Is it possible to get road deaths even closer to zero than Sweden has? Many experts are betting that driverless cars are the answer to that.
Passengers wait for a
train at Sihui East station in Beijing. Officials raised subway fares as
much as fourfold in what they said was an effort to reduce
overcrowding.
When a single mother was crushed to death while trying to get onto an
overcrowded subway train in November, it pointed to a problem that
transit officials in the Chinese capital had already promised to
address.
They did so this week, raising subway fares as much as fourfold in what they said was an effort to reduce overcrowding.
That response, not surprisingly, has not been overwhelmingly popular.
"I still had to spend 15
minutes lining up outside my subway stop this morning before I could get
into the station," said Zheng Shenchen, who lives near the Tiantongyuan
North station at the end of Line 5. "It looks like the government just
needed an excuse to raise the price for subway tickets."
Pan
Xiaomei, a single mother from Chengde, Hebei province, died in early
November, on a day when a record 9.3 million passengers flocked to
Beijing's subway system. Government restrictions that day kept half of
Beijing's automobiles off the streets to keep them clear for dignitaries
in the capital for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Pan,
33, was crushed after becoming trapped between a moving subway train
and the safety door on the platform, after apparently failing to get
into an overcrowded car.
Ridership
that day wasn't significantly higher than the system's recent average
of more than 9 million riders. (By comparison, New York City averages
7.7 million subway riders daily.) Beijing's subway system has
experienced explosive growth in recent years — and has become
notoriously overcrowded as a result.
From having five subway lines
that ran about 87 miles in 2007, when the city's anywhere-you-can-ride
subway pricing was introduced, Beijing today has 18 subway lines that
cover more than 327 miles, after four new lines went into operation
Sunday.
But with the expansion has come more riders, making the experience of riding a subway during rush hour nigtmarish.
A video from the official China Central Television documenting the
scene at Beijing's Xierqi station during morning rush hour went viral
last year. A subway worker whose job is to regulate passenger flow on
the platform was pushed into the train several times by riders rushing
to get in.
When local authorities said they planned to raise
fares, solving the congestion problem was touted as one of the major
benefits. A higher price "can help divert more passengers away from the
subway to the buses," the state-owned People's Daily said in July.
Before
the fare hike took effect Sunday, Beijing charged a flat fee of 32
cents for all rides, regardless of distance. The new fares begin at 48
cents and can go as high as $1.45, depending on how far a passenger
travels.
Zheng, 26, who works for an Internet company 12 miles
from his apartment in north Beijing, now pays more than double the old
fare for his 50-minute morning commute. Still, he has no plans to take
another mode of transportation.
"Taking the subway is the fastest
way for me to get to my office," he said. "Taking a bus is simply not an
option with the traffic congestion on the roads in Beijing."
When
the public hearing on the subway fare hike took place in late October,
10 people were chosen to represent commuters. Such a hearing should have
been "a chance for ordinary people to exercise their democratic
rights," wrote Zhang Hongliang, an economics professor from Minzu
University in Beijing, in a blog post at the time. But in China, he
said, the only choice is "which price hike plan is better."
Many
young migrants in Beijing such as Pan and Zheng rent affordable
apartments at the end of the subway lines to keep the cost of living
down, while having the convenience of an easy commute to the city.
Zhang
Jian, who works at a stock brokerage in Beijing's central business
district, moved with his girlfriend to an apartment building next to the
Liyuan subway station in Beijing's eastern suburbs three years ago
because the rent is only $209 a month.
Although his daily expenses
on the subway almost tripled after the fare hike, Zhang, 27, still
wouldn't consider moving closer to work.
"If I move, the
difference in rent is much more than the additional money I had to spend
on subway tickets after the fare hike," Zhang said. "Taking the bus
can't guarantee I get to work on time because of traffic congestion on
the road, so I just need to face the higher subway fare and deal with
it."
htmarish.
