FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions)

“A Greater Seattle” home page Mass Transit home page My Monorail web site Rapid Transit Subways Monorail Maglev Trains Surface Light Rail Elevated Railways Link Light Rail Express Buses Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Local Bus Services Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) Bikeways Vocabulary Links to other transit sites Contact me Q. I drive and will never use transit. Why should I have to pay transit taxes?
A. Even if you never use transit, you will benefit from a good mass transit system. Many people will find they can save time and money by using public transit, and leave their cars at home. Fewer cars on the road means the traffic gets better for those who still drive. So the taxes you pay will help you save time and money in driving, and make your drive less of a hassle.
 
Q. Why are their so many different transit agencies. Wouldn't it be better just to have one system for the whole region?
A. Each county has its own transit system, and the City of Everett has theirs. Then Sound Transit was created to provide regional express service inclouding light rail.
 
I think eventually we will have an overall agency operating or coordinating mass transit throughout the region, but for now, for historical reasons, we have several agencies, with considerable degree of local control, but with a high level of cooperation between them. I think that they are doing a good job of coordinating their operations to provide good service between systems.
 
Q. But if Sound Transit is supposed to provide high-speed regional service, why aren’t they building monorail lines?
A. My opinion is that they should be building monorails. Unfortunately it appears that their only concept of high-speed, high-capacity mass transit is light rail. The board members are familiar with light rail all around North America and they are not familiar with monorail, which is mostly for amusement rides in the United States but has a lot of use for public transit overseas.
 
Q. So why not build light rail lines? What are the advantages of monorail?
A. Monorail is cheaper, faster, and safer than light rail, along with other advantages. For more about monorail, please go to my monorail site.
 
Q. What is the controversy about light rail and the Downtown Bus Tunnel?
A. A tunnel was built under Downtown Seattle for buses. This reduced the number of buses on surface streets and provides faster bus service through downtown Seattle for buses.
 
Now the tunnel has been modified and is used for both buses and light rail trains. The use of the tunnel for light rail resulted in reducing the number of bus routes using the tunnel. Future light rail expansion, and the number of trains, is expected to eliminate all bus service in the tunnel.
 

Return to my Mass Transit home page Return to “A Greater Seattle” home page

Contact me

©2003 Robert M. Fleming Jr.

This page was last updated 16 May 2018.

Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional