The Seattle Times reported on the upcoming meeting in today’s newspaper. As one proponent of the trail has said, the plans for a trail and/or rail take twists and turns every week. The plans keep changing, nothing is for certain and nothing should be taken for granted. Ron Sims is for dual use of a trail and rail, the port commissioners want to put rail first.
The Cascade Bicycle Club has campaigned hard to have a meeting with the council to make their desire for a trail known. Check out the link to the club for a brief history of the trails issues. From Cascade Bicycle Club’s website:
“King County conservatively estimates that 2,400,000 trips are taken on regional trails each year. The Burke-Gilman alone sees about a million trips per year, which breaks down to 3100 every weekday. 47 percent are commuters riding to work. Imagine the possibilities if we developed a trail for $60 Million on the Eastside within one mile of 500,000 people, who want to commute to Bellevue, Kirkland or Renton.”
You as a citizen have this opportunity to be heard. For more information about the rail/trail line, check out The Eastside Trail Advocates website. This group is very active in support of a trail and is very knowledgeable about the issues. In another article early next week, I will post the dates of other meetings coming up on the eastside over the next couple of weeks. You can learn more and become involved.
Kirkland Highlands Real Estate Buzz
April 26, 2008 at 11:36 am
[...] more about the meeting and the issues, check out this post on my Kirkland blog and this article in this morning’s Seattle Times.There will be several meetings coming up on [...]
April 26, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I’d be interested in hearing your opinion Debra. Do you know anyone who would use that trail to commute? I’m all for trails, but know NOBODY here on the Eastside who would be using such a trail to commute to work. In my humble opinion, using the route for (light) rail would do much more to ease traffic congestion.
All in all, I am for dual use.
April 27, 2008 at 11:48 am
Hi Joe,
I think it is a question the Cascade Bicycle Club could answer better than I can. But I have a question, who would use the rail line? There haven’t been adequate studies done to prove that the rail line will resolve transportation issues in a cost effective manner, just because it’s there. I believe the project will cost far more than $250 million I have heard and end up not being used all that much to justify this expense.
Those of us who support the trail do not want to eliminate better transportation, but look at the rail line as an ineffective means to an end.
That coupled with the rail line crossing school crosswalks, wetlands, parks, etc. makes me think this is all happening because the county is grasping at straws. Prop 1 was defeated and now the council is grabbing onto something to show they are in favor of improving transportation, without really knowing the true monetary cost, the realistic level of ridership, and the impact on neighborhoods.
There are meetings coming up over the next week in which a lot of these issues will be discussed. I will post an article tomorrow about the upcoming meetings. Feel free to come to one of the meetings.