Seattle is only one of five cities in the United States with a trackless
electric trolley bus system.
King County Metro operates 159 trolley buses on 14 routes that ply over 70 miles of trolley wire, and travel 2,906,297 miles annually. Last year, Metro
found that operating new electric trolleys offered a superior financial scenario to new diesel buses. This is even before considering how much better a trolley performs on Seattle's steep hills, or how much less pollution it creates, being supplied by hydroelectric power. If you want to know a little more about how the system works, see some of the
photos posted by a King County bus operator known as
VeloBusDriver. Some of these photo sets explain
the controls of an ETB,
the innards of an ETB—so much cleaner than a diesel but so much more dangerous to poke around in—and
aspects of how the trolley wire itself works, including the "special work" necessary for tasks such
switching routes or
traversing a drawbridge.
posted by grouse
on Feb 9, 2012 -
41 comments
Deeply Embarrassed White People Talk Awkwardly About Race. 'Once I realized I was racist, it was, well, what am I going to do about it?' says Winn, a mild-mannered white guy in his 30s. 'That shifts the defensiveness.' [...] 'The test of how racist you are is not how many people of color you can count as friends,' I recall someone telling me—I can't remember who now. 'It's how many white people you're willing to talk to about racism.'
posted by shakespeherian
on Sep 7, 2011 -
256 comments
This is how it will happen. Let’s pick a day: June 22, 2012. It’s a gorgeous Friday afternoon in the Pacific Northwest, 75 degrees and sunny. It’s been raining for weeks, and in Seattle the freeways are jammed with people fleeing the city to enjoy the rare sunshine. Same story in Portland. Out on the coast, the beach towns are thrumming with tourists.
How a monster earthquake and resulting tsunami would affect the coast and cities of the Pacific NW.
posted by jontyjago
on Aug 26, 2011 -
152 comments
The Bravest Woman in Seattle "The reason for her sitting on the witness stand of a packed and sweltering eighth-floor courtroom at the King County Courthouse on June 8, in jeans and a short-sleeved black blouse, hands clasped over knees, a jury of strangers taking notes, a crowd of family and friends and strangers observing, a bunch of media recording, was to say: This happened to me. You must listen. This happened to us. You must hear who was lost. You must hear what he did. You must hear how Teresa fought him. You must hear what I loved about her. You must know what he took from us. This happened." (Trigger warning for rape and violence.)
posted by verbyournouns
on Jun 22, 2011 -
86 comments
Thanks to long rainy days and a lot of funky global culture and cross-pollination, Seattle has long been known as an epicenter of music and related creativity where people riff off of each other and freely beg, borrow and steal ideas. But how incestuous is it, really? Who has collaborated with whom? Played gigs together? Worked on albums together? Exactly how complicated is the Seattle music scene? It's so complicated that it needs a map - the
Seattle Band Map.
Via Wired.
posted by loquacious
on Mar 1, 2011 -
17 comments
Want to get to that town in the next state on the cheap? Sure, there's Greyhound, but it's hardly a bargain at $32 for a journey from Seattle to Portland. When you really need to save the cash, use
Epic Transit Journeys wiki to plot your route entirely on local transit carriers, allowing you to
get to Stumptown for only $11.50 and a paltry five transfers. For a truly epic journey, cross international borders for the
trip to Vancouver, BC, which includes a lovely 2.9 mi stroll across the border.
Oran Viriyincy's travelogue of this trip includes lots of photos of buses and trains, and the border official's shocked reaction.
posted by grouse
on Nov 9, 2010 -
42 comments
In 2008, residents of Seattle began to hear a very different kind of radio program on their AM dial, for three hours every weeknight. That show was
Too Beautiful To Live. Much of the joy of the program is getting to know the hosts, and discovering whether or not the show survives, so I won't spoil it for you. You can start by listening to the
First Show, or enter any weekday since Jan. 7, 2008, into the "Browse by date:" search box on the First Show webpage. If that's not enough motivation to start listening, here are some favorite episodes:
Interview with John Hodgman,
Interview with Garfunkel and Oates,
Interview with Wil Wheaton,
Ross Dress for Less,
Broke as a Joke in Seattle,
Drunk People are So
Meta,
Interview with S.E. Hinton,
Interview with Adam Carolla.
posted by LURK
on Oct 25, 2010 -
13 comments
Ride the City maps the best or safest urban bicycle route from point A to B. Presently featuring multi-lingual maps from New York, Chicago, Austin, Louisville, San Diego, and Seattle.
Their blog posts updates about new cities added to the grid, or other topics relating to urban bicycling.
posted by netbros
on Oct 29, 2009 -
16 comments
The first time they came and recorded with me—which was January 23, 1988—they didn't have a band name, and they just had a borrowed drummer, which was Dale from the Melvins. But, yeah, they came and recorded 10 songs with me in one afternoon. I was left going "God, who are these people?" The cassettes I gave out just said "Kurt Cobain and Company" on them, because that's all I knew. -
Recording Nirvana Before They Were Nirvana. As Nirvanas first albulm hits 20 years old, with
Sub Pop prepare to release a remastered anniversary edition, the Seattle Weekly takes a look back at
the album that launched grunge.
posted by Artw
on Oct 28, 2009 -
94 comments
A well-dressed man wakes up in a Seattle city park. He has $600 in his sock and no memory of who he is or how he got there. He is fluent in English, French and German and has an apparent deep knowledge of European cultural history. He seems to have traveled the world. And he says he is a widower. Doctors suspect he is not faking it but they don’t know how to help. Police are stumped as well.
[more inside]
posted by bz
on Aug 20, 2009 -
75 comments
Waterlines is a new online exhibit from the excellent
Burke Museum at the University of Washington, Seattle. It tells the story of the land underlying Seattle, one of the United States' most geologically active city sites, and of the human attempts to engineer this landform. Closely related are the
archaeology of West Point and
Coast Salish Villages of Puget Sound (e.g., read the
story of North Wind and Storm Wind).
posted by Rumple
on May 2, 2009 -
3 comments
