Digitally manipulated photo showing what light-rail trains might look like crossing I-90.

A couple of things struck me about the above photo, found in today’s Seattle Times, as I peered closely at its details. First, those electrical power poles are really ugly. It had never occurred to me before that power poles with cable strung between them would be necessary to get light rail trains across Lake Washington, and now that I see the reality of the situation, I don’t like it. The low profile of the floating bridge is one of its best features; it distracts from the otherwise magnificent view only slightly. Adding power poles and cabling across the lake will add an unsightly grid to the horizon, no doubt spoiling the view from, say, Stan Sayres Park looking north, as well as the view south looking at beautiful Mount Rainier from Madrona. Perhaps someone with design sense will find a way to camoflague or otherwise beautify these structures.

Second, the digital artist has squeezed four lanes of westbound traffic into a space that currently only has room for three, not by magically adding concrete where there is none, but by eliminating entirely the right shoulder. Isn’t that convenient? However, there is a problem with this clever solution: cars break down on the bridge. In fact, cars break down on the bridge and pull into the right shoulder every week of the year. I’ve seen it. I’ve been driving this route for almost 18 years. If you take that shoulder away, you might as well kiss goodbye any hope of a trouble-free car commute. And from the looks of things there isn’t a full left shoulder, which means there really isn’t room to have four full lanes and a shoulder on the existing bridge.

So take this picture with a huge grain of salt.

And one more thing: I met I guy at a party recently who happened to be an engineer working on the structural retrofit of the bridge for the light rail expansion and it occurred to me to ask him, “Where else in the world are they running light rail over a floating bridge.” And he just grinned and answered, “Nowhere. No one’s done it. It hasn’t been done before.” Because, you see, there’s the problem of the expansion joints that connect the floating part to the not-floating part, and trains have real problems running over dips and such since that could throw them off their tracks. So the joints need to be redesigned. This engineer seemed pretty confident that it could be done and his firm has the designs to do it, he said. They were testing those designs already. The testing will take approximately three years.

And so it goes.

According to Google Maps, the distance is 1,710 miles and would take about 28 hours to complete without stops. Of the 12 steps from start to finish, the first five merely get you to I-90, a distance of less than two miles. Then at step six:

Bear right into the I-90 E entry ramp to Spokane – go 821 miles.

Step seven is equally momentous yet understated:

Take the I-90 E exit 456 to Sheridan – go 701 miles.

Step eight is more ordinary but failure to follow it will result in your entry into Iowa, something to be avoided on this itinerary:

Take the I-29 S exit 396A – go 182 miles.

And finally, the last four steps get you to the front door of your destination. Brilliant transportation planning.

Now, gasoline would cost roughly $200 to go the distance, and I don’t know about you but I can’t drive for 28 hours without stopping for the night, maybe twice, so add on another $150 for motel rooms. Then there’s food and drink, maybe another $50 (because you’ll be eating at crap restaurants that serve cheap food.) So, it looks like it may now cost up to $400 to drive there. After about a week, you’ll have been reminded of all the things that made you want to leave Omaha in the first place, so you’ll decided to drive back to Seattle. Ouch. There goes another $400.

Not so brilliant transportation planning.

We should have seen this coming. Gone are the days of carefree cross-country motoring. It’s cheaper to fly distances greater than a few hundred miles (for now). Passenger railroad service is laughable. What comes next? Has the great “not negotiable” American experiment in mobility-at-any-cost failed? My answer would be “yep, sure has”.

Update: In July 1994, we took a month-long road trip around America covering approximately 4,000 miles. The average retail price of a gallon of gas in July 1994 was $1.10, so we likely spent about $176 on gas during that trip. The average price of a gallon of gas this week is $2.95 which means the same trip taken today would cost us $472 just for gas. I’m not complaining about the price increase. I understand what’s going on. It’s a combination of supply and demand and oil company profit-taking (get it while the gettin’s good). I’m just saying that those amazing, long road trips behind the wheel of our own personal vehicle are going to make for some great stories to tell our grandchildren.

Well, the brake job turned into quite a nightmare. When it was all said and done, I calculated that I could ride a peak fare bus 543 times for the same amount of money it cost to fix the brakes on my 12 year old car. Ouch. Owning a car seems like a really stupid thing today.

See more progress on: fix seattle’s transportation problem

Yeah, that’s really going to solve the problem.

Light rail will improve saftey by adding more cross-walks, installing better lighting, and constructing new pavement and sidewalks. All utilities are to be buried underground and the entire stretch will be lined with trees and new landscaping. The trains will make commuters happier and bring more residents and businesses to the area. Sure, the trains will occassionally injure or kill a few motorist and pedestrians, but accidents will happen and do happen already. Let’s get over it and just build the damn thing.

Of course, the XLSUV still outnumbers them 100-1, even here in the “Evergreen State“.