Saturday, October 2, 2021

Just in Time to Welcome New Link Stations, a Challenge: A Week Without Driving October 22 - 29 with Free Advice for Mayor Durkan

RantWoman is fresh from the #WABikeSummit  #BikeWalkRoll event jointly sponsored by Amazon and WSDOT  Also, RantWoman has decided to welcome the Oct 2 opening of the next three Light Rail stations going North by offering unsolicited commentary about getting around as a legally blind non-driver. 

(IRK! RantWoman realized she wrote this post based on the pre-service change downtown bus network. When the new link stations open, LOTS of routes that used to run all the way through downtown now start or end at one of the new Link stations. So RantWoman's last few blocks advice is all wrong. Read on and enjoy anyway but stay tuned for a post-Service change version, and possilby not prettied up to shield the mayor from all the details of travel downtown.)


Coincidentally, RantWoman offers readers the following invitation to try to live a week without driving. Check out the Disability Rights WA invitation and signup challenging elected officials to sign up for a week without driving. RantWoman definitely also extends the invitation to staff members in elected officials' offices, people who work in government or private planning offices. In fact, RantWoman challenges anyone who does not already get along without driving to give this idea a try. And here. to get the idea started: suggestions about how Mayor Durkan might make it work.


Uber / Lyft and taxis don't count unless they are shared rides because they do not lessen vehicle congestion. Other members of one's household, faith community or social group do count. Carpooling counts because it imposes shared scheduling constraints. RantWoman is big on Biking Doesn't Work for Everyone so people who want to try biking are going to have to look elsewhere for advice. This post also will not cover issues like footwear, professional dress for all weather, hi vis for night time visibility or bags, brief cases, freight people need to carry. RantWoman Has Opinions. The opinions are just not going to appear here.


RantWoman also wants especially to cheerlead for families with kids to try going carless. Irrepressible nephew got his start early and by elementary school was already willing to help his class out on field trips. RantWoman would be glad to offer suggestions about how to make this manageable and is interested to hear realities like tired or nonexistent pedestrian infrastructure that make this unfathomable.


The invitation means it about one thing: there are plenty of transit dependent people willing to assist elected officials or staff who normally drive to plan their lives without driving for a week. RantWoman definitely encourages people to aim for the whole week, but if a week is going to be TOO MUCH, even a day will provide plenty of authentic transit experience.


With that as an intro, as a public service, RantWoman will now imagine some possibilities if Mayor durkan were to take up this challenge. Aside from a security detail in connection with death threats arising from a previous line of work, RantWoman imagines that Mayor Durkan probably has someone to drive her around and to do the kinds of between transfer errands RantWoman does all the time. Nevertheless RantWoman mentions this kind of errand as part of the picture. 


RantWoman doesn't know anything more precise about Mayor Durkan's address than "Laurelhurst" Maybe based on a previous media account of unplanned visitors and sidewalk chalk it's a part of Laurelhurst where there are sidewalks.  Nevertheless, RantWoman offers a routing that involves:

--get to a bus stop


--Get to the Light rail.


--Ride the Light rail downtown. Walk or do something a trip planner probably would not suggest to take transit to within a block of work.


RantWoman has little personal experience in Laurelhurst. One time RantMom, her church lady friend driver and RantWoman arrived much too early for a scheduled medical procedure. Instead of sitting in a waiting room and fidgeting our driver drove up and down some random Laurelhurst streets. RantWoman remember big houses set far apart. RantWoman assumes there were sidewalks but cannot remember for sure. RantWoman once during WTO had a role in helping plan a reception for representatives of some international NGO's and therefore showed up at the reception. RantWoman is pretty sure she arrived by bus and foot. RantWoman definitely remembers that there were not a lot of sidewalks and streets were windy and steep. So RantWoman found someone she know and asked for a ride home.


But back to a suggested travel routing for Mayor Durkan heading downtown to City Hall. RantWoman is going to leave the "get to a bus stop / light rail station" segments of the trip to Mayor Durkan. RantWoman suggests that Mayor Durkan aim for the Roosevelt station. Northgate is too far in the wrong direction from downtown and should be attracting lots of commuters from the N whose bus routes now terminate at Northgate. 


RantWoman is not too fond of Husky Stadium at any time of day but has no read on rush hour crowding. RantWoman thinks the University station will involve too much traffic even if a good bus connection runs near Mayor Durkan's house. This leaves Roosevelt Station which RantWoman is recommending sight unseen based on commute load considerations and the the proximity of Whole Foods, Bartells and some other retail for the kind of transfer point shopping RantWoman tends to do on the way home.


Ah, but this is morning commute and the next question: where would RantWoman recommend Mayor durkan get off the train?


If Mayor Durkan wants to use a 15 or so minute walk on each end of the trip as part of a fitness routine, RantWoman suggests getting off at Westlake Station and walking along either 4th or 5th Avenues to City Hall. 


RantWoman is less fond of whatever the University STREET station is going to be called because the hil to 4th Avenue is pretty steep.


RantWoman is definitely not crazy about the Pioneer Square station because elevators, because Pioneer Square.


But if Mayor Durkan really wants not to have to walk the whole way, RantWoman would suggest riding Link all the way to the international District station, coming out on Jackson St. turning LEFT and left again at 4th Avenue S. At the bus stop there, catch one of the northbound buses about 3 stops to within a block or two of City Hall.


One elegant point about this approach. Mayor Durkan can go home from the same bus stop by busing to Westlake station, and then reversing whatever she did in the morning to get to the Roosevelt station.


There. If anyone else wants to consultRantWoman... But first let's enjoy welcoming new Light Rail stations.

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