That's what Mike O'Brien, Director Chair of the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club, had to say about Sound Transit's potential plan to go to the ballot this year at a transportation forum hosted by Friends of Seattle this evening. Not quite what I want to hear from the Sierra Club, but better than I thought.
Here are some other soundbytes from tonight's forum:
UPDATE: Here's a story on Crosscut about the forum from its moderator.
On Sound Transit going to the ballot in 2008
"We have the opportunity to have the broadest possible electorate [for Sound Transit in 2008], a lot of young people will be voting, and young people believe they will actually live to see some of these projects built."
Greg Nickels, Seattle Mayor and Sound Transit Board Chairman
"Sound Transit in 2008? Yes we can!"
Rob Johnson, Transportation Choices Coalition
"I think Prop 1 was a forced measure, it was too big, and cost too much money, and we would be paying for it for too long. I think if we come back with a standalone Sound Transit package, I think it stands a darn good chance of passing."
Jan Drago, Seattle City Councilmember
"Commuter rail is the biggest story of this package. We're proposing a 90% expansion of commuter trips on the south corridor of Sounder. [That's thirty trips a day vs eighteen now, eight cars to a train vs. seven now]."
Greg Walker, Sound Transit Planning Group
On the 520 Bridge
"We [environmentalists] want lanes 5 & 6 [on 520] to be transit only. We can give a discount to carpools, but if we have tolls, we have enough pavement to handle the traffic."
Rob Johnson, Transportation Choices Coalition
"I want to put the rails in there when we build the new bridge. We don't want to have to close those lanes down later to put rail in. It can't be that much more to put the rails in the concrete when we build the new bridge."
Mike O'Brien, Sierra Club
On congestion pricing
"I believed if we couldn't find the money to fund the Viaduct, if we couldn't find the money to fund 520, if Prop 1 went down, then we would get to the point that we would need to fund these projects with some other kind of money... I think that [tolls] will be life in the Puget Sound region, and I do believe that it will eventually be a region-wide system."
Jan Drago, Seattle City Councilmember
