Wholes Evolution
As with the individual story, this was one of the harder iterations of the story to do, but was a bit easier due to the fact that the original vision in the article is naturally more of a collective story. For this story I decided to try and switch the flow of the story to meandering and episodic. This way I could interleave the past and have it reflect into the future and how far the city had come from that time period which was part of the overcoming the monster technique as well which fit well into the regions stories history with transit. This allowed a direct compare and contrast to where things are versus where they could be in the future too, also allowed for some logic and about three different mini stories to be present with the collective story as well which proved interesting to read. This was also similar to the article in how they brought up each technology and what it could look like in the future individually.
Original Story: https://www.theurbanist.org/2021/02/15/st-2040-a-shovel-ready-vision-for-seattle-and-sound-transit/
From Monorails to Light Rails: Seattle's Transit Transformation
Seattle 2040 is finally here and constructions is finishing up on the great extensions to the light rail network within the city. The city has finished building out the new light rail lines that extend all over the Greater Seattle metro. We have light rail the goes as far south as Tacoma and as far north as Everett. Linking up the great cities of the region, and making it as easy as ever to get around within the area. It was not easy for us to get to this point, in fact, it was a lot of trial and error, and frustration, with the status quo that guided society towards this solution.
Looking back we remember when Seattle first attempted to get a metro system in the 70's. The city voted it down, and then for several years after that the idea stayed silent. Then, inspired by the worlds fair monorail Seattle decide to create the monorail authority that would allow for the city to construct six planned monorail lines. Unfortunately, that authority ended up being mismanaged and nothing ended up happening. This has left a sour taste in the locals mouth making it harder to get future publics transit projects approved.
In 2040, not only has Seattle managed to expand their light rail network adding in capacity to connect Bothell to Seattle, and Issaquah to Kirkland. They also decided to start building out their streetcar network again within the city itself. We now have streetcars connecting the University of Washington campus to the downtown core of the city through the Eastlake neighborhood. Even Golden Gardens is now connected to the downtown core through Ballard and Fremont. It's interesting to see that they went this way despite their initial troubles with street cars.
Seattle in the past had torn out its old cable car and street car system back in the 1940's because at the time it was thought that the automobile would be the future of the United States. It was realized though, that cars were not able to transport mass amounts of people that were needed to within the city, so eventually in the 2000s while building out their light rail network Seattle decided it was a good time to add in a new street car network. They first started off with two lines but they were not connected which turned out to drive down the number of people that would ride them. Then it came time to connect them with the central city street car connector in hopes it would drive up the amount of people riding them. During the COVID-19 pandemic though it seems that the project got held up and would be delayed indefinitely.
Back in 2040 the city has now complete all of its major updates to expand the bus network that are contained within the metro area. The idea of expanding the existing RapidRide network has allowed for high frequency bus service to spread around the city, allowing for everyone with Seattle itself to live within a ten to five minute walk of frequent rapid transit that runs all hours of the day. The city has also pushed through with major upgrades to their bus fleet replacing all of them with either battery electric or trolleybuses. They've also expanded the trolleybus network allowing buses to charge on it off of carbon free electrical energy.
During the pandemic Seattle ran into issues expanding their bus fleet, they were unable to maintain their fleets due to an shortage of mechanics and drivers. Further complicating things, projects that had long been promised were now not happening because funding had become an issue due to the unanticipated inflationary pressures. Even the promised Madison Ave line was delayed because they had ordered buses that could not be built. The future was not initially looking great for transit by bus in the Seattle metro area.
Overall in 2040, it's amazing how far the city has come in just over a fifteen year timespace. Somehow we managed to pull it together despite the issues that we had faced in the past. The future is looking bright, and with a climate friendly city, we can now safely say we have invested in the future of our descendants in the right way.