If you think things are bad when it comes to transit in Vancouver, consider Seattle. Due to a shortfall in funding, an obstreperous state legislature, a regressive tax structure and the need to get ballot approval, voters on April 22 will be asked to choose between a 17 percent cut in Metro bus service or higher taxes. And this after six years of cuts, cost savings and fare increases.
So how bad are the proposed service cuts? The Seattle Transit Blog provides a helpful illustration:
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Go to the link here and use the interactive map to see what happens before and after.
Brutal.
As a clarification, if you do go to link and see the changes, and the map is very well done, this is just a map of the frequent transit network. You will see a lot of lines disappear, but not because the route is eliminated, but because the frequency is cut.
That’s misleading then.
The map should have different coloured lines for frequent and not-so-frequent routes, with the after showing , perhaps, thinner differnet coloured lines.
BTW – where’s the uproar over this – a transit funding referendum?
This is the way the US cities seem to do it all the time – ask a very specific question….
The map does day “Frequent Transit Network”, and it was created some time ago. People who are familiar with it know what it is. And the referendum is to allow King County to increase taxes to maintain current service which is the only way that current service can be maintained. The current tax base is going down. It was either a referendum or a cut.
That interactive map is an amazing tool. I would love if there were something like that for Vancouver. I know that we are not facing the same kind of transit funding cuts, but maybe…