I have more respect for leaders wo are willing to take a second (or third, or fourth) look at an issue and change positions, than those who are so inflexible that no amount of information will change their minds.

I was recently in Virginia and so much enjoyed riding the train into Washington D.C. Seattle is so far behind in this area.

I would have to agree with Ron Sims. The hybrid plan would be better. Perhaps, for a Tacoma-Seattle run, have Lite rail converge at the Sounder station(s) then take the sounder to Seattle and then jump on anther Lite Rail or bus to final destination. Ron Sims, I generally dissagree with you but not this time!

Thank goodness for the change of heart...the reality is that it is prohibitively expensive to retro-fit a City, or multiple cities. Back in '69 or '70 Voters went for busses, and modern busses can do everything light rain could do, and for much less $$$, and with appropriate flexibility. Fixed-track is too expensive, and once built, you are stuck with it! Let's face it, Metro Seattle is a lot different today than ten years ago and demographics will change again. Flexibility is the key, and it can be done for lots less money and headache.

I plan to vote against the measure because it doesn't do enough to address the core problem- moving more cars.

Sims is a weasel.

I am not angry at Ron Sims, thank goodness he stepped up and spoke out against something he does not believe in and neither do I. What I am angry about is what the governor said after Mr. Sims spoke up. She was angry that Ron Sims spoke up, he was not supposed to do that. He was supposed to remain quiet and not let us the citizens know what his concerns are. What does that tell us about our governor? I will not be voting for her in the next governor election. THis totally changed my opinion of her and what she thinks about all of the citizens of washington. It tells me that something very sneaking is going on.

I have renewed respect and admiration for Mr. Sims.

Well done, maybe other liberals will see the light too!

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Sims

Sims was persuasive.

The bad news is it looks like we still don't have a workable mass transit in the works, a mass transit including light rail, buses, and the Sounder. And ev[entually a subway.

The real problem is our expectations far exeeds our capacity to pay. Leslie Boss (above) expressed envy for DC's mass transit. But Seattle does not have access to the Federal coffers. We don't have the popluation/tax base to support something like BART. Or Chicago's L.

I really dont know how to respond to Mr. Sims. However this issue isnt just a Seattle issue. This is a Western WA issue. The "Corridor" may have the bulk of traffic, because that is where the roads are. If we looked at where that traffic is comming from and what is causing the traffic in the region we'd see that only part of the problems will be solved. I agree with Mr. Sims that we need to be more broad in our plan. I also agree that we need to move in a direction that is more enviornment friendly, but we also need to build new roads, NEW Freeways, and expand service.
What about a total bypass which goes from olympia around through enumclaw, North Bend, Monroe, Arlington, etc. Why has 405 to 167 interchange been delayed so long? How is this package going to deal with the road problems for a commuter comming from Enumclaw to seattle, Cle Elum to seattle or Monroe to Bellevue? What about the other counties who make up the BAD seattle commuite. i.e. kitsap, Island, Kittitas etc. This just isnt a tri county issue. This is a whole state issue. yet just a select few are to pay for it.
This state has a tendancy for the people to dictate what happens. What is a leader for when you have a mob mentality? We need leaders we can trust. Leaders who can and will look after what is best for the whole of the state. Right now we are again in a mob mentality where the people fight to see who wins. in the mean time our traffic situation gets worse. This state also has career politicians who never get things done. In the 36 years I have lived in WA State I have not been impressed with many leaders. Many of them are wishy washy, or sneaky. Looking after one particular group or identity. And we the people get screwed by nothing getting done. When will this state politicians start working as a team, thinking smart and create what is best for the whole instead of just trying to kiss ass to keep their job.
Our roads and transit are multiple years behind the times. Right now all we/they are trying to do is create a so called "Band aid" to appease. Anything we do is going to cost and cost greatly! We the tax payers must find a way to pay for it. I think it's time for someone in the community to step up get rid of all this politica. Red Tape and just start looking after the best of the people!

Ron Sims is an idea guy, not an implementor.

It is frustrating living in Pierce County and having the King of Seattle tell the rest of us what we should do.

This plan was developed over 5 or 6 years and Sims said nothing...he in his own words had checked out.

Let's see, Sims doesn't want light rail outside of Seattle, but wants the rest of us to pay for it.

Under Sims we'd have no light rail to Everett, no light rail to Bellevue, none to Tacoma.

Hey Ron. People live outside of Capital Hill. The light rail from Tacoma would connect Pierce County to the airport...not Seattle.

I hope people see past the few people opposed and vote against the status quo and VOTE YES on PROP 1.

The planet is burning! Adding a mix of light rail, Sounder, and bus services makes sense. But building 74 miles of new highway, which will simply be filled with more cars (history shows us that is what happens) and increase greenhouse gasses and planetary warming, is insane! A popular quote comes to mind--"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results."

The crisis before us calls for doing something different! It calls for courageous leadership, not more expensive bandaids.

We and the planet deserve a smarter proposal than this. And shame to the environmental organizations signing on to to this boondoggle.

I say, back to the drawing board! Come up with a plan that is not only transportation-oriented, but community-orientated--that makes intersection of home, work, recreation, and building community an integrated package.

Kyle

p.s. oh, and to answer your question about Ron Sims and his change of hear--I give him credit! The best leaders are able to re-evaluate their thinking and positions as evidence and circumstances change.

I'm very glad Mr. Sims had a change of heart and the courage to say so. We all hate to give-up on what seemed like such a "neat", silver-bullet solution but anyone who gets beyond the superficial and compares the the facts about how much light rail costs with how little benefit it yields would reach the same conclusion.

The former Chairman of the ST Board once wrote "light rail will not ease congestion, yes that's a fact". ST would rather you don't know this but deep within their own EIS reports you will find data saying the same thing. In a nutshell light rail will only carry 1% of the trips in this region, as it raises the percentage of trips made by transit from todays 2.7% to 3.4% in 2030. (Buses will still carrry the bulk of transit riders)

But for a real surprise check-out pages 4-139 and 4-241 in the EIS for Central Link where the energy needed to construct light rail, and the energy it would save once operating, are reported. ST obviously wanted to bury this data because simple division shows it would take 94 years for light rail just to recover the energy needed to build it. In other words building light rail will make global worming worse, not better, for generations to come.

So while the concept of light rail is emotionally appealing the reality is not.

I think Ron Sim's is right on the issue, but wrong on how he has handled his communications on it. I understand a gradual re-thinking---but he was still officially "no comment" until just a few short weeks ago--he should have freely explained his change of heart sooner than he did. It took a lot of politial courage for him to ultimately do this, and eventually, he did--but he should have done it sooner. Keep in mind, what he is proposing would likely cost MORE, not less, than what is on the table for us to vote on. But what he is saying is that "a litle of this, a little of that" would make much more sense than a large light rail system, and he is right.

A COURAGEOUS DECISION! A GLOBAL RECONSIDERATION AND WOULDN'T THE TITTLE "GOVERNOR SIMS" MAKE SENSE SOME DAY? NOW LET'S GET A REAL FUTURE TRANSPORTATION PLAN.

I agree that light rail is NOT the answer. Living in East Pierce County and commuting to North Thurston County, Prop 1 will do NOTHING for my commute. But I'm expected to pay for it? Much easier and cheaper to move to Thurston County - which I will do if this passes.

Duh. I did a 'transit ralley' with my then 7th grader. It was to show them how many places you can go the bus. What it did teach these 'tween's is that you can't get there from here on metro.

My son just started a job that is a 15 minute drive up the freeway, but a one and one half hour trip each way by bus (with two transfers) in addition to walking over a mile.

Hello? Improve the bus service. Seattle is NOT the center of the universe, and all roads do NOT lead to it.

Frankly, I think all roads and tracks should go around seattle. Who wants to go there anyway?

I have lived in W.Wa. from Arlington to Olympia, prop1 fails to address the whole region's commute.
First problem the plan is based on the currant transit failures. The plan should be based on our transit hot spots, they haven't changed much; all 4 major airports, all those damn malls, military bases, the ports, silicon valley north, and our surviving industrial areas. The other side of the problem is where are these people coming from. Prop1 is a complete bust on this side of the problem.
I salute Ron Sims for saying prop1 is a bust.

Ok, it's good to see that Ron Sims has finally opened his eyes. That's great. Frankly, he should have when we overwhelmingly voted down the taxes that fund light rail when we voted down the infernal cars tab tax.

So, now that he's against just light rail, how about doing something about it? Prop 1 does nothing but raise our taxes again. It's infuriating that we have to tell these rank incompetents (mostly Democrats) running this state that we want ROADS.

We haven't built a new highway in almost 50 years...and 50 years ago, the population of the Puget Sound area barely reached 1 million. In the 80's we created a bottleneck in Downtown with the contruction of the Convention Centre. In the 90's we finally finished a 20 year construction project on 405, only to see the population surge as the Eastside boomed. We need road capacity! The Viaduct, 520, 405, 1-5, 167, 18, ALL of these need drastic expansion.

Liberal, environmentalist pipe dreams rooted in fantasy do not fix problems. We have a population of over 3 million in the region, and it is growing exponentially.

I live in unincorporated King County and no the light rail will not help me in any way. What I am really upset about is that when I looked at my absentee ballot, I don't even get to vote on this! Does that mean that I won't have to pay the taxes if this passes? I think not! Are we going backwards to being taxed without being represented?

A leader is one that does not "pocket" at the expense of others ... Ron Sims is no leader. This was a politically motivated stunt to be part of the Hillary 08 team. He screwed over his fellow counties to the north and south and all the rest of us by having us waste years putting a package together only to sabotage the package and the region in the very end. A real leader should have stood up two years ago and said, "this isn't working for me, it needs to look like this". That is courage and leadership. Regarding prop 1, if you can get past the ridiculous lies of the no campaign and their phony numbers, then you can see that this proposition actually benefits the economic corridors of the state while reducing our carbon footprint. To throw the whole package out when you've already built the spine for light rail could qualify as a definition of insanity. Light rail will move 9000 people per hour -each way--of rush hour commute, that's thousands of cars off the road every hour. Saying no gives us nothing, in fact it creates more pollution and will continue to be worse as another million people move into the Puget Sound over the next decade. Now is not the time to be myopic and squabble over the little you don't like, but realize that the package is a balanced compromise that will improve our congestion in the long run and give people a chance to leverage all the benefits of light rail and express bus service. Lastly, Ron's idea about congestion pricing is not new to the region; however, Ron forgot to tell you that congetion pricing works best when a city has all the mode choice options ... we don't. Prop 1 isn't perfect, but no plan ever will be and saying no is far from perfect. I want choice and my employees need choice - I'm voting yes!

You know how bad this plan must be to have Mr. Sims to speak out against it and to put his politically future in jeopardy.

Sims spoke out to gain political favor from the Sierra club in Wash. DC ... Ron no longer cares about King County, he has moved on to the Clinton 08 team. This plan is sound and needed, but like many of the folks at the Seattle Times, Ron just lacks the courage to grab hold of a regional vision.

I voted for David Irons.

King Country seems to vote on automatic (or else the voting machines are rigged). Time and time again Dem-o-Libs raid the treasury, under perform or create vast unworkable "projects" the divert billions, yet people dutifully fill in the ovals and punch the cards.

I am voting no but not because of Mr. Sims! I don't trust what he will do now. I'm sure he has somthing up his sleeve!!