Seattle gets a “c” for congratulations

Once again, Seattle deals with Snowpocalypse. In 2008 during the last storm, the snow probably cost Mayor Greg Nickels his re-election big after he gave the city a “B+” for its response. Why do they struggle so much with snow? Does it make sense to invest the resources for something that doesn’t occur too frequently? I couldn’t fathom the stories of nine-hour commutes on I-5.


















Image courtesy of West Seattle Blog .

One story that warmed my heart: Light rail was right on time! Yesterday, Erica C. Barnett at Publicola talked about the trip HERE. Today, she reported it was “smooth sailing this morning too, as light rail whizzed past swerving cars and icy streets into downtown Seattle on its regular 10-minute-headway schedule.”

From Publicola:

As Seattle Transit Blog noted in the post we linked in Fizz this morning, light rail from SeaTac to downtown has been running like a dream throughout the snowstorm, with only occasional delays (20 minutes this morning between Stadium and SeaTac stations, for example). That’s in marked contrast to Metro—which hasn’t been able to run even snow routes at full capacity due to packed ice on the roads—and driving (last night, it got so bad that some idiot drivers were actually abandoning their cars on I-5).

My commute this morning? Ten minutes through the snow to the station, the usual five minutes’ wait at the station, then 20 minutes by rail into downtown Seattle.

I’m pointing this out not to gloat (although I did show remarkable foresight in moving to Southeast Seattle) but to point out that rail, unlike buses, doesn’t get stuck in traffic or weather. Just another reason to expand the system throughout the city.