Home › Forums › Open Discussion › I hate the new bus only lane on 99 South – made my commute 20-30 minutes longer!
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August 7, 2012 at 2:12 pm #765996
dyn99ParticipantWe don’t need to subsidize everything for everyone. There are ultra low interest loans available to anyone today, and a big income tax credit. BECU is offering a new car loan at 2.74% currently. If you can’t qualify for that, you shouldn’t get a loan underwritten by taxpayers instead.
Between the lack of gas and the low payment, there is no reason not to do it for a small business. If the Leaf is too small then get one of those hideous looking Prius Wagons.
She is plenty capable of buying a more fuel efficient vehicle. When it comes down to it, she doesn’t want to. That is why the tax is necessary. To give people the economic incentive to change their behavior.
August 7, 2012 at 2:33 pm #765997
DrivenInsanceMemberOr we could just tell our elected officials that the people they represent would like to use the busonly lanes as HOV lanes with a 3 person minimum. As for cheaply getting a charger installed at your home or business (free) – Ecotality North America got a grant from the federal government to install chargers and study the usage. From what I understand, they will install a charger at your home/business for free if you allow them to monitor your energy usage so that they can create a report on where chargers should be installed and the type of usuage for electric cars. BUT the free installation is only going to happen for a few more months.
August 7, 2012 at 3:13 pm #765998
hammerheadParticipantI have no desire to have any tax incentive given to me if I buy an eco friendly car. I don’t think one should be offered that. All vehicles tear up the roads, yes some more than others.
There is NOT ONE eco friendly car out there that can carry my crew of 5, 4 vacs, all the supplies that go with my day of work, NOTHING. Not even a hybrid Ford escape.
While my business is the most important thing in my life, it supports everything I do for my rescue work and again that will always come first. Again there is NOT one eco friendly car out there that can hold 40 cat carriers/traps to do my rescue work. For me that is more important than “driving green”.
FCAT
August 7, 2012 at 4:05 pm #765999
dyn99ParticipantThere you go. That’s why we need the tax then. Some people won’t change their behavior because of it, but many will.
The only other option is to bulldoze buildings and build bigger roads. That’s not going to happen either, so we’re just going to have to deal with transit.
August 7, 2012 at 4:34 pm #766000
DrivenInsanceMemberFirst try to incentivize people before penalizing them. In CA, certain electric cars qualify for the HOV/Carpool lane regardless of number of occupants. Problem in Seattle is a refusal to incetivize those people who can’t take the bus/ride a bike to use more energy friendly modes of transportation. I am happy with either carpoolers or electric vehicles using the bus lane, but people aren’t going to change unless there is a reason to do so.
The bus-only lane has got to go.
August 7, 2012 at 5:24 pm #766001
DannyQMemberThis post is humorous. Not in a bad way at all. But let me break this down to you.
This goes for not only the supporters of the 3rd arena, the protesters of it and those who drive or take the bus, so pretty much everyone.
First of all, I agree with amalia, “If you drive, you ARE traffic”. With that being said, be smart about it. Don’t whine about sitting in traffic because you leave at an inconvenient time. I know that for my start time at 7AM in Downtown Seattle, as long as I leave by 6:30AM, I won’t have any delays. If for any reason I leave after 6:30AM (Because of an irresponsible tap of the snooze alarm one too many times) then I have to wait on the highways just like everyone else.
I would never and have never get stuck on the bridge for 30 minutes or longer to go such a short distance because I know all of my alternatives and practice very defensive driving. Yes, I know your thinking it…I am the jerk that will speed down the bus lane to get around the slow people who don’t know the meaning up getting places.
August 7, 2012 at 5:38 pm #766002
dyn99ParticipantMove to Bellevue if you want the bus-only lane to go. They have really nice big wide streets and parking lots to match.
The city’s population has increased by 20% in the last 10 years. Guess how many lane miles we’ve added?
0. In fact…negative, because our idiotic Mayor keeps turning 4 lane roads into 2 lane roads and building bike lanes.
So people are going to have to take buses or rail. Which we don’t have enough of, and are also too expensive and slow currently to motivate people to take.
We just can’t keep adding people into this city with cars and make it work. So cars need to get more expensive to drive and we need to come up with ways for people to get around in something other than a car.
August 7, 2012 at 6:28 pm #766003
kgdlgParticipantArguing for the bus-only lane to go away to make driving easier is like arguing for making candy cheaper for obese people.
We should not be making it easier for cars and harder for buses.
Your ire is misplaced. Remember when SDOT asked everyone to change their driving patterns last summer when the viaduct construction started? Traffic was non-existant because a bunch of people collectively tackled a problem by changing behavior – by biking, by working from home, by leaving at different hours, by carpooling. It. Is. That. Simple.
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