Now That We’re On The Subject Of The Tunnel…

Scott Bernstein, the big brain behind Chicago’s Center for Neighborhood Technology, has a guest post up at Slog laying out five reasons to oppose the deep-bore tunnel.

Those of us watching from afar are dismayed to see the tunnel is on the table, and the surface/transit option is not. A tunnel doesn’t give Seattle what it deserves, and you still have a choice.

The five reasons:

1. First, the tunnel proponents project growing traffic, but all measures show traffic declining.
2. Second, proponents state that economic growth requires new capacity, but growth occurred in the face of declining traffic.
3. Third, government performance + public support +investment outcomes go hand-in-hand.
4. Fourth, the tunnel costs an extra $1 billion for no additional return.
5. Fifth, you don’t want to lose your world-class reputation for addressing energy and climate change.

Closing with:

Seattle was the first city in the country to require citizen participation in local planning; to take traffic-calming to scale; to have a free downtown transit zone. Choosing the surface option now is an investment that will pay dividends well into the 21st century. Green-light the surface, red-light the tunnel.