OMG! Seattle INCREASES public transportation!?

This I've got to see in person. Here is the main site and here is the route:


Call me crazy but I'm not sure that route is going to help too much. You're cutting right through a section of Seattle that doesn't have a lot of people living in it. The whole North half of the route is not a very populated/popular area. Plus, the housing there is fairly expensive and I'm pretty sure the bulk of public transportation (PT) riders, for now, are not the ones who left their C-class Mercedes at home (congrats to you if you do, though; PT should have nothing to do with socioeconomic status).

Other then the kind of goofy route, the fare is low ($1.50) and the website says it does connect the other PT systems which is a start:

The Seattle Streetcar's South Lake Union line has eleven stops conveniently located a short walk from other transportation hubs connecting the entire the region's transportation options, including: Metro buses and Sound Transit buses, trains and light rail; Ferry service; Taxi; Flexcar; Park and Ride; and Monorail.

The big upside is that the South Lake Union Trolley has a great acronym. Part of me wonders if someone was smart enough to "accidentally" give it such a funny name to possibly get it into people's minds.

Someone: "Wanna drive there or ride the SLUT?"
Someone else: "Is that a serious question? SLUT, of course!"
The first someone: "Alright, let's go SLUT it up!"

That was fun but I digress... So they have a great nickname, the fare is low, they connect other modes of transportation, and they look pretty neat:


All this is fine and dandy but there's a big problem in the mind of those who would like to see a massive increase in PT options like this one (especially in Seattle). The Seattle PI says that this could lead to new networks of PT: "We now want to talk about a network that connects neighborhoods to downtown." But those are talks, not plans. There is now this fancy, new trolley system covering areas where the ridership is, naturally, going to be pretty low. These are not congested areas, they are not huge urban centers (in terms of living spaces), and they probably didn't need this route to begin with. I suspect that they will see much less people riding the trolley as they anticipated and will use it as a reason to avoid future PT plans. The purse-string controllers will go "see, you silly Seattlites, we told you PT was stupid... look, no one is riding the one we gave you $52 million to build."

Seattle is a beautiful city caught up in a lot of goofy crap. It has two of the most amazing sports stadiums in the country and two disappointing sports teams with a pretty weak (in terms of numbers and overall fanaticism) fan base (come see the maniac Charger fans and you'll see what I mean). PT gets cut and cut and cut and people wonder why no one rides the buses and monorails (the monorail goes from the friggen Science Center to the Westlake Mall... not useful). Ineffective leadership, poor money management, and almost zero cultural diversity, Seattle simply needs a huge injection of something other than heroin.

So what to do? Why not make Seattle the shining example of a green city? Lots of rain to use, it already looks great, and the whole place could use an identity. I mean, it's already called the Emerald City. Make an environment for architects that fosters green design, legislate strict LEED enforcement, add a greentech museum... none of this is hard and none of it is all that expensive. Tax breaks for adding EV charging stations, same for alternative fuel stations.


*sigh* complaining about Seattle makes me miss it a little bit... coming home soon.

Google is Great... New Google Transit "review"

I love Google. In fact, I love it so much I feel like it's going to leave me. I love it so much, I can't live without it. Docs and Reader and Maps and Gmail. On my computer and on my phone... I just don't know what I'd do without it. And I only use probably 25% of what they offer. Please don't make me pay a subscription fee, Google, please.

I'd have to pay it. I'm just being honest.

OK, get all the awkward, uncomfortable laughter out, time to get to the topic at hand. Google Transit. I started this blog entry before I had even used it because I know it's going to be friggen amazing. So, I'm going to walk through it and take you with me.

Link to Google blog entry

Link to Google Transit

Availability: 10 states, 20 cities including San Diego and Seattle (how convenient for me). I'm going to use the San Diego one because I know the system better and I know that Seattle's transit system BLOWS.

Let's get me from my favorite coffeeshop, Twiggs, to Qualcomm Stadium, home of the football team I just can't get myself to care about....

...holy isht, that was easy! Type in your address and destination and in a second, the route appears.


You can switch between taking transit and driving to see the difference in time taken:


Wow, 48 minutes vs 12 minutes. Big difference but this does not include the cost of parking combined with the enormous hassle of parking at and leaving Qualcomm NOT TO MENTION the hassle of trying to drive while you're seeing double, eyes blurry from the tears of defeat, trying to keep it between the lines to avoid a DUI.... if you catch my drift. Subtle, I know.

I say thumbsup on Google Transit. It is super-easy to use and makes taking the public transit as simple as driving your car. The biggest PITA comes from finding the routes and times. With this, problem solved.

GO GOOGLE!

Stigma can be a b*tch

This is a picture I took on the bus this morning. These, sitting by themselves without an owner in sight, are peach pits. They are saliva-soaked perishables left out in the open by an inconsiderate ASS. I could not believe my eyes so I took a picture and now I can't believe my camera.

Can I be honest? I love public transportation. I love the trolley that operates here in San Diego. Its air conditioning is cold, its punctuality is excellent and the ride to school is smooth. I also like the bus. Yes, I like the bus. I have air conditioning and satellite radio and a smooth ride in my car but I take the bus because I like it. Reading while driving is difficult and dangerous but reading on the bus is allowed. You don't get a lot of walking done when you drive but when you take the bus you're walking all the time. You are also forced to slow down, take it easy, let things happen. I'll be honest: these are all things I need to improve on.

The bus is also humbling. How do I know this? Because I shared a bus ride with two peach pits that some animal left on the bus for another person to pick up. I've shared the bus with newspapers left all over 5 seats for no reason. I shared a trolley ride with a man dressed in camouflage yelling about conspiracies at 7 am. I've sat next to people that smelled so atrocious that I would be surprised if the experience didn't contribute just slightly to the decline of my overall health.

There is a stigma attached to the bus for all these reasons but I just can't get enough. I don't like filling up my gas tank, I don't want to jockey for parking with college students and I drive like crap in the morning sometimes. Buses and trolleys and trains are running all the time, just waiting to pick someone up.

Try it out sometime; plan a route and take the bus. Look up the times online, grab your $2.25 and wait a few minutes. Think about the extra time it took you to get somewhere and wonder whether it was really lost time. Make this "lost time" count and see how you feel. Experience a little humanity from the front lines. Save the miles, save the gas, save the stress, ride a bus.

And thank the driver on your way out. The poor guy/gal has a heck of a job sometimes.

Old News Part 1

I signed up for Google News when I started this blog as a way to stay abreast on what was happening in the hydrogen world. It was not only indispensable for my productivity as a blogger but also useful for my self-appointed position as representative (diplomat? advocate? activist? fanatic?) of alternative fuels. It was my intention to stay literate on the technology and current on the happenings. After a while, once my blogging stopped abruptly, the reading went the same way. I still managed to collect all the Google News emails in my work inbox (all 357 of them) and always intended to go back and take a look at them. "Old News" is my attempt to make good on that intention. Yeah, you're welcome.... I know the world has been holding its breath :rolleyes:

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According to News Blaze (that's quite the site name):

U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman and South Korean Minister of Commerce, Industry & Energy, Sye Kyun Chung, today signed an agreement making South Korea the second country, after India, to join the United States in the FutureGen International Partnership. Korea has pledged $10 million to help build and operate the world's first zero-emissions coal-fired power plant and will sit on a government steering committee to oversee this initiative. Once operational, this plant will remove and sequester carbon dioxide while producing electricity and hydrogen, making it the environmentally cleanest fossil fuel fired power plant in the world.

How is that going these days? According to IndiaTimes:

Serious differences with US on patents may mar India's participation in the prestigious $2 billion FutureGen project being set up to generate power and hydrogen from clean coal technologies and sequestration of carbon dioxide. China and South Korea, two other key members, in this major initiative are in tune with India on the putting the patents to technologies, software and related know-how in public domain rather than US unilaterally taking ownership....The major provisions under the act provide for US Government "retaining a non-exclusive license to practice the patent throughout the world. The Government (read US Government) retains march-in rights".

Why is our government being greedy about the patents? Mostly because "US energy majors dominate this alliance." While it makes sense, conceptually, that the lion's share of the credit should go to the source of the most work, this kind of project should be so much more than just a patent argument. It is too bad, IMHO, that something this globally important could be stymied by the same mindset you see in daycare: "THAT'S MINE!"

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In other news:

...smoother and softer, and it saves the environment," the Indio woman said.

Nope, that article isn't about me, it's about a hydro hybrid bus being tested in N. Cali. What is so cool about it is that they have their own infrastructure to create the hydrogen from natural gas. According to their site (http://www.sunline.org/), the bus is still up and running. They even have an alt fuel station open to the public!