“Car-Free Days” on Alki Ave SW

[Zenguy]

JayDee, sorry your glass is always half empty.

My post does say from downtown to the airport not West Seattle to the airport and the trian will take the same amount of time regardless of traffic.

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[Lex]

Super Hero Nickles..and I mean that as a joke..strikes again. Once again he has lot his mind with this decision. is it me or should he not be focusing on more important matters ie..hiring more police to mirror the increase in our population. Fixing the roads in west seattle. Working with Metro to improve our transit to and from west seattle, getting a solution to the via duct… and the list goes on…or my favorite workign with Ron Sims to give us our money back from tabs years ago that never went to the monirail project…..Nickles you dont’ deserve to live in west seattle when you continue to make these bone head decisions!!! i’m so going to celebrate when he leaves office

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[Jerald]

I picture the mess of people driving thru sidestreets to the beach, then having to turn around at the closed off part (like by Tully’s). Or are they closing access to the entire area? If I wanted to go there I’d just drive in as close as possible and park on the side streets, where most people have to park anyway on a normal day.

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[JayDee]

I wouldn’t mind if the point of the “Car Free Days” in Alki Ave was similar to the “Car Free Days” on Lake Washington Blvd–which is a relatively bucolic street that is difficult to get to even if you want to go there. This street is an ideal bike street for those very reasons. You can get to the areas it services by myriad other ways.

Alki Ave/Harbor is serviced by an off-ramp on the West Seattle Fre…I mean “Bridge”. All of the non-WS folk who haven’t rec’d the press release will wondering what’s up that weekend when they get turned back. Others will go to Alki via Admiral, a major arterial that normally does a wonderful job handling traffic. What does a “car-free day” do to “teach” or “instruct” these folks? That they shouldn’t drive to Alki? What does it teach locals?

Yes, I plead guilty to being “half-empty” in my outlook, but I would rather be wrong and have things go right than deal with other’s dreams of what is right for me. I ride the bus during the weeks and sometimes on weekends because I have a Metro bus pass, and use re-useable bags because I remembered to bring them. That is my choice, and I don’t need experiments to prove it to me.

I understand that light rail will go from downtown to the airport in 25 minutes if it works as promised. I live in West Seattle, and light rail is but a pretty dream today. After the light rail is running, make direct bus connections every day to the ID station from the Junction, and light rail may possibly be attractive. But don’t ask me for higher property taxes without delivering the goods first. My two cents.

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[JoB]

Jaydee..

i remember hearing the same kind of talk in Portland before the light rail proved itself…

Vancouver, WA consistently voted it down… and as a result, during rush hour there is no “quick” way to get between downtown Portland and Vancouver…

and to get between downtown Vancouver and the airport… well that takes a leisurely drive along the river.. good for the soul but not very efficient.

too bad the monorail didn’t fly here… great concept and it would have made a world of difference to those who commute downtown.

hubby spends 40 minutes one way on a good day on a 15 minute commute…

if you use the bus system, you would love light rail… just think what you could do with the extra time…

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[Jo]

I really don’t understand the negativity and mayor-bashing about this car-free day on Alki.

It’s just one 6-hour day in a whole year. People can still drive to Alki, by going down Admiral, and park on one of the side streets (as they do now, and was pointed out in a post above.) Or they can drive to the Junction or Admiral Junction and take a bus, or the free water taxi shuttle.

How about looking at it as one BIG block-party. This could be great fun, if we choose to make it so.

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[JoB]

sounds like fun to me.

maybe an opportunity for a WSB meet-up?

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[hammerhead]

I couldn’t find a date as to when this is going to happen. It had better not be during the week. I have business and CAN NOT use a bus. This is not fair to those who have to drive there car for work purposes. Sorry if I missed the date. The economy is rough enough on my business I don’t need for it to get any worse.

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[JoB]

i think it’s sept 7.. which is a sunday.

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[roundthesound]

My neighbor came home last night when she saw the city had put one of those ‘no parking’ signs for car free Alki day at the end of her driveway she became furious. She stopped her car in the middle of the road blocking traffic while she got out and threw the sign at the end of my driveway almost hitting my car. The no parking sign is now lying in 2 pieces at the end of my driveway. She then proceeded to start yelling at me like I had put it there, maybe she hadn’t noticed the 400 other no parking signs up and down the street. She told me she was going to call the cops and then she stormed inside.

I wonder if this is what the mayor had in mind when he planned these car free days to bring the community together? Not even 5 minutes earlier my other neighbors and I had discussed the BBQ and pool party we are planning for Sunday so I wasn’t sure to add this comment to the crazy neighbor thread or the car free Alki Day thread.

BTW, if your trying to promote people to use the bus and walk you might want to choose a road that actually has a year-round bus, not just the WT shuttle, that runs on Sundays…

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[Sue]

roundthesound – I agree with you about the bus service. I have no intention of going anywhere near there with the Sunday bus pathetic schedule. Those water taxi buses hold like what, 20 people on them? If that’s the only reasonable option (without my having to change buses), you’d be lucky to be able to get one one. Would be fun to be stranded at Alki with no way to get home, and not even be able to call a cab!

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[roundthesound]

Yeah, the shuttle only runs when the water taxi is running so in the winter you’re kinda screwed. I was so excited when I moved to Alki because I saw the bus stop across from my house, I wish I would have looked at the schedule first. 2 runs on Saturday and no service Sunday, why bother? I can’t even get to Alaska Junction without having to switch buses, how is this supposed to be appealing? 5 min car ride as opposed to a 20 min walk to the 56 bus stop, switch buses at admiral, then take another bus ride to the junction, what a difficult decision.

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[Author]

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