Seattle green transportation plan may close off large section to most cars

A plan from the City of Seattle to be carbon neural by 2030 hopes to enact several major changes to the downtown core, including a third of deliveries to be done by electric or non-emission vehicles, all ride-sharing cars to be EV or emission free, and there’s now talks of closing off a major section of the city, reports The Seattle Times.

“They are zero for about 12 on every one of the points that they come up with their goals. It doesn’t matter what as long as you put the goal out there,” joked KIRO Radio’s John Curley regarding the city’s environmental plan.

“Well, I think we’re better off if we’re shooting for something,” co-host Tom Tangney interjected.

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But for Curley, the goals are unrealistic and lofty, undeserving of some of the drastic transportation changes that will be made as a result of them.

“How about achieving something? How about setting a realistic goal and achieving it as opposed to coming up with just a bunch of pie in the sky stuff like Inslee has done, who hasn’t hit one of his C02 metrics and every one that he comes up with — why not just actually be realistic as to where we are?” Curley said.

“And instead of determining that we’re going to do this, this, and this, and then never hit them and failing each time.”

It’s not clear as of yet how big the section of the city that might be closed off to most cars will be, nor where it would be. For Tom, the downtown core would work, considering congestion and transportation options.

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“The reason I think downtown makes sense is just because there’s a concentration of so much business that if you had a kind of, you know, rail or bus system — like when the buses were free downtown, all to to scurry people in and out — it’s already congested that I think that would be the spot to do it,” Tom said.

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