Metro just can't make up its mind about fare increases, so we say bring another quarter just in case. Just a few weeks ago, Metro said it wouldn't be increasing fares for a second time this year, but as of yesterday they'd decided that a fare increase is indeed necessary and imminent. Starting November 1, it may cost you an extra 25 cents to ride the bus. Another 25-cent increase may come in January 2010......

Okay, okay, we'll hold on, just don't scratch us with those bloody talons.......

"You know what I have to say, based on my last couple bus rides? I'm so glad I don't do speed anymore. And that's all I have to say about that."......

By coincidence, it was while we were sitting in the over-crowded number 14 bus on the way to work when we came across this gem of an article in the New York Times: "Drop in Miles Driven Is Depleting Highway Fund; Loan From Mass Transit Is Urged." Our sneering disbelief was interrupted by being smacked in the face by the laptop bag of the guy standing next to our seat in the aisle; the 14......

"Sound Transit test" courtesy of Flickr contributor andrewmartin Seattlest always kind of wants to roll our eyes when some transportation option gets put to voters in these parts. Call it a Pavlovian response trained into us through years of noncommittal discussion about monorails. But, today the Seattle Times is reporting that we'll get to vote on a light rail system that'll take folks to places like Overlake, Star Lake, and Lynnwood (sweet!). In order to......

Even folks who don't drive are being affected by the rising cost of fuel. Plane and train tickets prices have been raised recently to cover the increased cost of gas and, as we noted last month, it was only a matter of time before we'd be adding Seattle Metro buses and Access vans to that list. King County Executive Ron Sims proposed the bus fare increase today. The other alternative is cutting Metro services,......

"Watching the SLUT pass by" courtesy of Seattlest Flickr photographer Jonathan Hanlon While we've been admittedly hard on the South Lake Union street car, we are actually a fan of the idea of street cars in Seattle. With the way traffic is in Seattle today and the Sisyphean task our current public transit system faces daily, we're pretty much a fan of any and all public transportation ideas for Seattle. So we were pleased to......

Seattlest is grateful for our bus pass and our Zipcar membership. Paying more than $4 a gallon just doesn't sound enticing for us, but we're not surprised when we hear about rate increases and other ancillary fees (like having to pay for our baggage when we fly) being passed onto us for using public transportation. Now, of course, Metro is chewing on the notion of increasing bus fares. Personally, we'd be okay with a......

If there's one thing we're sick of, it's the ignorant attitude every pseudo-populist commentator in Seattle has taken on regarding the SLUT. (And yes, we've had more than our fair share of fun at its expense, replete with lame puns, etc.) But Aimee Curl's report in this week's Seattle Weekly on the City Council's discussions for SLUT expansion leaves us just a little ticked. After characterizing service expansion as "daydreams," Curl gives plenty of space......

Popular Science released its list of the 50 Greenest cities in the U.S. recently. Of course, liberal, green Seattle was on it. We came in eighth. It surprised no one at Seattlest HQ, however, that our neighbor to the South, namely Portland, came in first since some of us believe that Portland is better and we all love PDX regardless. Popular Science "collected survey data and government statistics for American cities of over 100,000 people......

Riding the bus to work the other day, our heart skipped a beat when we noticed signs taped to the window heralding the arrival of new spring schedules (they're blue!). Once we'd calmed down, we realized how silly it is to get excited over the prospect of a slight change to our bus schedule. It was the kind of self-deprecating experience we figured would make a good lede for a post informing you, gentle......

All mass transit is not created equal; here in Seattle, a city with buses and, well, nothing else, unless you're specifically talking with someone about monorail or lightrail or streetcars (you know, theoretical mass transit), when you're talking about supporting mass transit, you're talking about supporting buses. And buses suck. Last week, Erica C. Barnett had a column in The Stranger that spoke to our experience riding the bus to and from work daily: It's......

For those (like Seattlest) who are too lazy to actually visit in person the South Lake Union coffee shop Kapow! to get their S.L.U.T. tee shirts (which they may or may not even have), they are now available online. Remember a week ago when the SLUT poster first appeared on Seattlest? A few days later the P-I, King5, the AP caught on. Joe Whatshisnuts from forty miles east of Boise is going to crack his......

The mouthbreathers who oppose public transportation are striking early against the roads/transit package that will appear on November's ballot. Unfortunately they are striking with a weapon they have little facility with: The English Language. Obviously, when the heaviest reading you do is of street signs, your spelling gets a little rusty. "Popultion"? And "fewer than 1% of the popultion will ever set foot on it." What's "it"? Ever set foot on the roads? Well you......

There was a lot of talk on the blogs last week about newly-released census data that highlighted the 23% of Washington residents that get to work by means other than riding in a car alone. Seattle is in the top ten US cities in walking to work, taking the bus to work and biking to work (although not in carpooling) all of which are impressive and encouraging. There is an element of spin to all......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......

Strasbourg--seat of the European Parliament--has a population of 265,000, less than half Seattle's, yet in the past 15 years it has built four interconnecting lines of light rail with some 50 stops. That's in addition to 35 bus lines, over 250 miles of new bike paths and plenty of bike racks at tram stops. Another element in the plan: integrated municipal parking. Nineteen new parking garages for 6,000 cars in addition to 10,000 street spaces;......

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's? Bostonist dug deep to uncover Barack Obama's unpaid parking tickets, their Governor's latest ethical lapse, and a plagarizing sports writer. Chicagoist had everything in twos: two views on having the Olympics, losing two members of their Super Bowl team, and two music festivals. DCist put their noses in legal books as......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

On Tuesday monorail advocate Peter Sherwin filed suit against March's advisory vote on the Viaduct. He claims that there really isn't enough information about the tunnel, and no one has really signed off on the option. We understand where he is coming from because the 'tunnel lite' was essentially crapped out by Tim Ceis on a napkin in about a week, so they would have something to show the public. This whole vote is kind......

Wheel yourself right on past the express bus stop, cripple, Erica C. Barnett says you're holding things up for the abled. Twenty minutes of Erica C. Barnett's time is worth more than the rest of every wheelchair-bound citizen in Seattle's combined. Erica C. Barnett: Cripples, stay off my bus! The Stranger's Erica C. Barnett torpedos any possibility of a future run for political office by declaring her opposition to public transportation for the handicapped. Physical......

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder? Phillyist is concerned that the war on Trans fats could affect it's beloved cheese steak sandwiches, something for which we should all be concerned.......

Even though we are way way past school age, we still get a little melancholy at the close of summer. Fortunately, our friends across the -ist network know that the shenanigans don't need to end just because the big yellow buses are back on the roads. So, grab your sunscreen and your favorite hangover cure, as we take a tour of end of summer fun from -ist cities all over the damn place. SFist......

Even as the stores sport back to school sales (which depress us, even now), summer lingers on your friends the -ists. This week's collection of links provides some of the best, worst, and oddest bits of summer fun. So, bring your laptop up onto the roof, make yourself an umbrella drink or ten, and enjoy this week's choice posts from across the Gothamist network. Torontoist (where it's 75 degrees F as of this writing)......

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. Ah, Houstonist. They're biking to work, that is, if they can figure out how to get there. That's right, Mapquest says "Houston had the......

Seattlest James isn't the only one with car trubs this week. Doug McDonald failed his eye exam thrice in a row and the State Department of Transportation says it just can't license drivers who can't see. This is fitting or ironic or hilarious because Doug McDonald is the Washington State Secretary of Transportation. Doug suffers from a diabetic condition that has been degrading his eyesight over the course of the last few years. From the......

Professor Jared Diamond might be wicked smaht (said with a proper Bawston accent like his), but he's no Edward Tufte. Stay with us on this one... We've attended one presentation by Tufte, and even considering the potentially drought-worthy material in some people's eyes (The Visual Display of Quantitative Information), he is more entertaining than Space Mountain. Despite the fact that Seattlest is mighty interested in the subject of Diamond's most recent book, that couldn't save......

Our city's public transportation is well known to be crap. Some people want to fix it and some people think "public transportation" is an oxymoron. If we could just vote public trans into existence we'd all be beaming around the city by now; safely, quickly, cleanly, but we've gotten stuck a few times on the actual building part. You can't just decide that someone should do it. You have to actually build something. Like Portland.......

Metro has some decent tools online to help navigate the city by bus. The timetables are helpful for when you miss your usual bus and are trying to figure out how late for work you're going to be. The trip planner can be of assistance if you can figure out how to "Walk 0.1 mile NW" from bus to bus. Seattlest has no idea who would want to actually do this, but you can......