by Libby Carr
Campaign Manager
Century Transportation Campaign

Once upon a time, there was a city whose leaders thought: “What might we do that would put Seattle on the map as a World Class city and help ensure a brighter future for our fair city and the Northwest?”

The answer was to become the site for the 1962 World's Fair. Three of the components that captivated the interest of hundreds of thousands of world visitors were the Pacific Science Center, the Space Needle, and the Seattle Monorail. Aside from the futuristic aspects of those three facilities, they all shared another aspect unique to world fairs of the time—all three were intended to be permanent installations, not just fancy facilities for a famous fairground.

All three have survived to this day, and thrived. Two have achieved the potential envisioned by those bold planners. One, the monorail, lags behind, its potential largely ignored by city and regional transportation planners to this day.

Did people give up on the idea of a monorail? Apparently not. Over the years Seattle citizens voted four times in favor of an expanded monorail system, but in the end those efforts came to nothing. We could debate endlessly the reasons: inaccurate funding data, an agenda for light rail, disagreements on routing issues, and so on. Frankly, none of that matters today.

What matters is what Seattle chooses to do going forward. Was the vision of the 1962 World Fair planners accurate, or was the monorail just a “Jetson Family” pipe dream?

In 1962 most of the Interstate highway system was still in the planning stages, and the automobile was king. As traffic has become more and more snarled, planners have come up with more and more ways to utilize surface areas: HOV lanes, bike lanes, bus lanes, reversible lanes...we're even trying to tunnel under the existing infrastructure to create more traffic lanes.

But as Dr. Phil says, “How's that working for you?”

Maybe those 1962 World's Fair planners had it right the first time—build a transit system above the traffic, rather than just continually trying to stuff more physical mass into the same physical area. Plenty of studies show that monorails are safer, more efficient to build, operate and maintain, and less polluting than any other form of transit. Period. The present monorail in Seattle is the only form of mass transit that actually returns a profit to the city, and has consistently year after year, with no tax subsidies.

The monorail alternative deserves serious consideration, and we should be doing it right now, before our transportation systems become even more bogged down. Maybe an expanded monorail system can help solve some of these issues, particularly on the west side of Seattle, where no light rail or other mass transit alternatives are planned for at least another 15 years.

We are not saying, “Build a monorail and it will solve all your problems.” We are saying: “We need a serious, independent study of the monorail alternative that goes initially from Downtown to Ballard and to West Seattle. We need to learn from the past, and then take into consideration new monorail technology (including PRTs - personal rapid transit), new financing partnerships with the private sector, consider the impact of the density policies now adopted by the City of Seattle, and hear from the public about how we might want this monorail system to look like.

Again, it's been 10 YEARS since we tried to build a monorail system, but failed. It is time that we try again because this time, it just might succeed! We need to do a comprehensive study, pulling together all of these elements, so we can make an informed determination to move forward or not. That, of course, would take another vote so – no, this is not building it now, only to fund this needed feasibility study period.

We don't think its too much to ask for an independent look at the monorail alternative that might actually augment and enhance the flow of people and goods, rather than adding to the current snarl? That study would be paid for by a special, and very temporary, $5 car tab free, rather than any already committed transportation funds.

The only real question is: Do we have the courage to take an honest look that settles whether a monorail is a viable transportation alternative for Seattle, or will we continue to bury our heads in the sand (or tunnels, or asphalt) and say, “Why doesn't somebody do something about this traffic mess?”

Let's take an honest look, collect all the facts, and then we can make a real decision. Now that's a Century 21 kind of thing to do.