On a messy snow day I took the 358 bus downtown. It was pretty well patronized, but getting home the coach lost traction and swerved slightly half a dozen times. I complimented the driver on his skill. There were few cars on the road, so though slow, the bus was the best choice to get to my appointment. My run wasn’t even that much slower than normal.

It did get me thinking, though, about what our local transportation system could and should look like in the near future. It should serve everyone, no matter the weather, no matter the time, no matter the social or economic level or age or disability. In other words, it should do all we expect cars to do so we won’t have to own one if we don’t want to or can’t.

I want to see us fully connect our streets to one another to produce a fully integrated grid, as I argued in “Patterns”. I don’t generally want to see any more pavement, as you may have gathered by now, I do want to see our grid optimized for the use of cars, but as importantly, for pedestrians. Driving a few extra blocks burns a bit more gas, usually perceived as unimportant, but walking a few extra blocks is perceived as onerous- a much larger input of time and effort- and may turn one away from bothering to walk at all.

King County Metro runs our local busses, of course. There are eighteen routes  which serve Shoreline and Lake Forest Park, six Community Transit routes, and two Sound Transit routes connecting us to places as far as Renton, Overlake, and Everett. There’s more to come, too. In 2013 we’ll have Metro’s Rapid Ride E Line, a replacement of route 358. How it is both to “replace” the 358 yet be faster than the 358 I’m not sure, but that’s the promise.  You still have a chance to influence its design. There will be an Open House January 25 at the Green Lake Presbyterian Church, 6318 Linden Ave N, Seattle 98103, you can take their online survey, or email them at haveasay@kingcounty.gov or call the message line at 206-263-9768.

What I’d really like to see is all our routes modified as needed to serve the longer, nominally faster ‘express’ routes so all modes work together as a true system. The “E Line” will go down Aurora Avenue and the Link Light Rail looks like it will go up I-5. I’d still rather see the Link on Aurora and BRT go down I-5, or even our other major North-South corridor, 15^th Ave NE to properly serve Ballinger, North City, and the Ridgecrest/Briarcrest business area. That would, by the way, put it closer to Lk Forest Park, too, better serving yet another city in our region.

These modes by themselves won’t assure a good transportation future. We need to tell them what we want. It’s easy to build a ‘line to nowhere’ and you can put anything in you like, but if it’s not open at least twenty hours it simply won’t work to its greatest potential. The point of all those nonautomotive modes of transport is to take the place of cars. Not that it is likely to reduce perceived congestion, of course, but the point is to guarantee every citizen equal access to mobility and to do everything in our power to reduce our environmental impact so our kids will have a world worth living in.

Metro's contact page is here, Community Transit's is here, and Sound Transit's is here, and don't neglect your local City Hall- Shoreline and Lk Forest Park have some influence on transportation, too. As to weather? Well, nothing’s perfect. Mother Nature doesn't take suggestions. Even trains can be affected by ice and snow, particularly when the ice brings down branches on power lines. That can be fixed. All of this can be fixed. We’ve done more and bigger than this before and it’s time to do it again.