Region-wide, residents now can start giving input to Sound Transit on the area's mass transit system. Public comments provided over the next month on options for expanding transit will help determine its future growth.

The public can respond online, by phone, by mail or through scheduled open houses.

In November, voters rejected a ballot measure, which included $30.8 billion in transit improvements, financing charges and some operating costs. Polling done shortly afterward showed that voters thought the package was too big and expensive.

In April, Sound proposed two new plans. Click here for details.

Streetcar advocates are campaigning again, and they may bring their bully pulpit to your neighborhood if it's a candidate for a new line.

The Seattle Streetcar Alliance kicked off its latest effort Tuesday at the Westin Hotel, talking up the streetcars and preparing to bring its message to people in Queen Anne, Belltown, downtown, Pioneer Square, the International District, Ballard, Fremont and the University District where new lines might reach.

Will the idea sell? Participants weren't clear, even as they hoped so.

"It's going to take some time," said Ted Choi Tam, a real estate broker and business owner in the International District.

His neighborhood could be served by one of the four new lines the city has pinpointed: a four-mile route through downtown on First Avenue linking Seattle Center with King Street Station and South Jackson Street.

There are three others:

wA 3.5-mile line to the University District using part of the South Lake Union streetcar corridor and extending north up Eastlake Avenue to the U.

wA 4.4-mile line from Westlake Center to Fremont and Ballard, via the west side of Lake Union.

wA 2.8-mile line from Pioneer Square to First Hill and Capitol Hill, also using Jackson Street and extending north on Broadway.

For a story and map of the four lines, click here.

The group includes business people, government officials, neighborhood activists and environmental groups. It's campaigned in previous years for the South Lake Union line and persuaded Sound Transit to propose the line to First Hill.

One of its key participants is the city, represented by Mayor Greg Nickels.

The group hopes to privately raise $100,000 for the campaign that will take much of this year, said alliance co-founder and Seattle Urban League President James Kelly.

With paying ridership rising on the South Lake Union line, advocates think new lines will create new neighborhood connections, provide car alternatives and spur development.
"We have benefited from this investment (in the South Lake Union line), even though it was a considerable investment on our part," said James Falconer, an alliance member and chairman of the Vance Corp., a major land-owning firm.

Some lament mothballing the waterfront streetcar in 2005.

"We miss it," said Tomio Moriguchi, chairman of Uwajimaya Inc., whose International District market is near discontinued line. Campaigners didn't announce a schedule of neighborhood meetings but Kelly said they'd be arranged.

A key to more streetcars may be adjacent property owners, who could be asked to help finance construction. Their participation is a question at the moment.

Landowners paid for half the construction of the South Lake Union line but, "I don't know off the top of my head if you'll see that same situation (in Pioneer Square) as that line expands," said Ryan Romaneski, director of the Pioneer Square Community Association, which will help campaign for more streetcars.

Nickels and most City Council members support streetcar plans but there are skeptics and other neighborhood priorities to overcome. As Metro takes over the cost of running the South Lake Union line, one outcome could be fewer service hours of bus service added in the city later.
"You don't enhance, for fun and games, a bunch of streetcars when parents are afraid to release their children on the asphalt because there are no sidewalks," said Richard Dyksterhuis of the Broadview Community Council.

"That's why it's more important to have these design conversations with the neighborhoods," Kelly said. "It's important to build livable neighborhoods, and livable neighborhoods include sidewalks, include bike lanes. What the campaign wants to do is have conversations with these neighborhoods, so all that information is included in the design."

Bob Mitchell raised a good question about the new high-occupancy toll or HOT lanes on the Valley Freeway, state Route 167:

What do you do when approached by an ambulance, fire engine or police car in the HOT lanes and there's nowhere to go?

"I was driving southbound on 167 in the HOV lane at night," he said. "An emergency vehicle came up behind me with (its) lights on. The left shoulder was unusable for pulling over along that stretch. Should I have either speeded up to not impede the vehicle until I reached a dashed lane line, or, crossed over the double white line to allow the emergency vehicle to pass and risk a rather expensive ticket? (In other words) which law should I break?"

According to State Patrol spokesman and Trooper Curt Boyle, you don't have to break the law. Boyle said it's legal to cross over the double-white line to clear the way for an emergency vehicle, if there's no other safe place to pull over.

At the same time, Boyle said, once you cross the double line marking the HOT lanes, you can't legally get back in to the lanes until you reach the next access point, which is marked with a dotted line and a sign. Drivers risk a $124 ticket if they try to enter the lanes by crossing the double white line.

The state opened the HOT lanes last weekend, beginning a four-year test in which lone drivers can pay a toll and drive in the lanes, located in the center of the freeway. Until last weekend, the lanes were open only to carpools, transit buses and motorcycles; those vehicles still can use them without paying the toll.

A Seattle City Council committee Tuesday agreed the Spokane Street widening project should go ahead next year, but proposed delaying improvements to Mercer Street until more is known about funding.

Council members attending a council transportation committee meeting voted 6-1 to approve the Spokane Project but also for a documented plan to raise more than $80 million needed for the Mercer project.

Councilman Nick Licata voted against funding the Mercer project, saying it hadn't been fully justified. Other members, however, said a solution to the Mercer Mess was needed.

The full council is expected to vote on the proposal Monday.

The Spokane Street project would widen the Spokane Street Viaduct and add a new loop-ramp to Fourth Avenue. The city needs to find $40 million to cover the cost.

The Mercer project would make Mercer a two-way street between Fairview and Dexter; funding for it is about $86 million short.

The Nickels administration has proposed to make up cash shortfalls on both projects using state and federal grants. It also proposes raising $36 million from private sources for the Mercer project and unidentified sources.

All westbound lanes of the West Seattle Bridge are reopened after they were bblocked by debris, leaving only one lane available.

The Seattle Department of Transportation announced on Monday a new, narrowed list of possible streetcar routes based on latest studies. The routes along with estimated costs in 2010 dollars will be presented to City Council Tuesday.

It is unclear so far how many of these lines the city would choose to build; that depends on financing.

Department officials said Monday they would have to be reliant on public-private financing, and which line gets build may depend on which comes up with the money first.

The lines:

According to the Seattle Department of Transportation, there is only one westbound lane operational on the high-level West Seattle Bridge.

There is debris on the road. Crews are on the scene.

The low-level Spokane Street Bridge is also closed to vehicle and marine traffic.

Crews are responding to both incidents.

Tolls varied, as promised. A computer updates the costs every few minutes and toll amounts are posted on a monitor as drivers enter the lane.

But how they varied was tough to figure.

In Kent, northbound between Willis and 84th Avenue South, tolls were 75 cents on one trip after 8 a.m. when all traffic was moving well at that point.

At 7:15 a.m. at Northwest 15th Street in Auburn, it cost $2.25, when traffic was heavily congested in the general lanes but light in the HOT lanes.

On that same trip it cost $1 north of 277th Street, though northbound general-lane traffic starts to move more quickly there. At the same point southbound, tolls were 50 cents.

On the second, post-8 a.m. northbound trip: $1 north of state Route 18, 75 cents north of Northwest 15th in Auburn; 50 cents between Renton and South 212th Street.

Interesting.

It pays to travel after 9 a.m., says Larry Lange, PI transportation reporter.

Northbound between at 9:19 and 9:33 a.m., tolls were 75 cents in Auburn, then dropped to 50 cents south of Renton. Compare that to tolls at 7 a.m. - $2.25 in Auburn and $1 in Kent.

Traffic in general lanes at about 50-60 mph, but faster in HOT lanes at about 70 mph. If drivers don't get a lane related ticket, a speeding one might be in their futures.

Speeds between general and HOT lanes in Kent were much more similar.

PI transportation reporter Larry Lange saw two drivers pulled over this morning - one southbound, one northbound. Of course, it's hard to know if they were pulled for lane violations or something else.

He did not see a lot of weaving either.

It is a $124 ticket if lane laws are violated. It's easiest for officials to tell when lanes are used illegally at access points.

Transponders in cars trip a light which flashes as the car passes; and, of course, it usually is pretty easy to tell when a driver is alone.

Outside of access points, police could look closely at the windshield of a car with a single passenger to determine if there is a transponder, but barring still it could be tough to tell.

The worst backups?

Yep, those were in Auburn. And that's where HOT-lane users had the biggest advantage and made much better time.

By the time drivers reached South 277th Street, traffic had thinned and using the lanes made little difference. Traffic was at normal speed heading into Renton.

-From PI transportation reporter Larry Lange, in the field

PI transportation reporter Larry Lange reports little weaving to access the HOT lanes from specific points, although he did see some problems.

One SUV pulled into the HOT lane over the double lines - illegal.

A sportscar pulled in with two people inside - legal and free.

Using or accessing HOT lanes can result in a $124 ticket.