SEATTLE — Even though a majority of Seattle voters would not be frequent riders, they want to build a city monorail, the Seattle Times reported.
In a Seattle Times poll conducted this month by Elway Research, 55 percent said they support or strongly support the proposed “Green Line” linking Ballard, downtown and West Seattle, while 39 percent oppose or strongly oppose it, and 6 percent were undecided or did not answer.
Residents far from the route were just as likely to back monorail as people living nearby. As with school and housing levies, Seattleites appear willing to pay for amenities they consider a general public benefit.
“The monorail has been a popular idea, really since 1962, and people seem to just like the idea of having a monorail,” pollster Stuart Elway said.
City voters have approved two pro-monorail ballot initiatives in the past five years, though they did not include a specific tax amount. The existing one-mile monorail was erected 40 years ago for the World’s Fair.
Sixty percent of poll respondents predicted they would board a monorail train less than once a week.
“I wouldn’t use it for commuting, but I would use it to go to events downtown a couple times a month,” said Erik Bennigson of Greenwood, who drives alone to his job in Mill Creek, in Snohomish County.
“Hopefully, people will recognize that by improving transportation for others, it will indirectly improve the lifestyle for everybody.”
His thoughts are in sync with the willingness shown by respondents throughout King County to pay for highway, bus and rail projects beyond those that benefit them personally.
A majority in King County also favor Referendum 51, which would raise the gas tax 9 cents a gallon, while fewer than half of those in Snohomish and Pierce counties support it, according to poll figures published yesterday in The Seattle Times.
Christy Nordstrom, who works from her Northgate-area home, said she likely won’t ride the monorail but will vote for it.
“I believe we need more options for alternative transportation in the city,” said Nordstrom, 52, who has lived in Seattle for 23 years.
“I don’t live near it but I may benefit from it. The benefits won’t be direct ones where I’ll be able to ride it, but there will certainly be fewer emissions in the air, less cars on the highway, and that’s going to benefit me.”
The chief complaint against the monorail is its $1.7 billion price tag. Some 47 percent of voters polled agreed “The monorail would not solve enough of the real transportation problems to justify the cost,” while 36 percent believed “Monorail structures would be unsightly and block views throughout the city.”
Many sense Seattle is near a breaking point where any further large tax increases will drive out the elderly and working families.
“We could afford it,” said Anne Hecker, a retiree who lives east of Northgate.
“What I’m looking at is the number of people who are out of work and scrambling to stay on top, and we’re looking at adding that tax on top of the repair of the roads that is badly needed. After a while, the average person can’t cope with all these taxes.”
The monorail proposal requires a car-tab tax of $140 per $10,000 of vehicle value within city limits, to last an estimated 25 years. Additional monorail lines would be added if voters approve future tax increases or extensions.
Allan Marker, who owns a van and a pickup, would likely pay more than $300 a year and said the monorail tax would be “a big strain on people who have wheels.”
He also criticized the proposed route, saying it should go to Boeing Field, where jobs are. His house in West Seattle sits a block from a bus stop on 35th Avenue Southwest, so he said it makes little sense for him to pay taxes and take a feeder bus six blocks to the monorail station at Southwest Morgan Street.
Monorail questions were posed to 400 registered voters, slightly more than one-thousandth of the city electorate. And with six weeks until Election Day, the pro- and anti-monorail campaigns have yet to reach their peak.
The results leave room for doubt and political spin.
For instance, 10 percent of those polled said they would ride once a week, 11 percent twice a week, and 19 percent three or more times a week. That would pencil out to 34.9 million annual rides, far exceeding the 20.4 million boardings predicted for 2020 in plans written by the pro-monorail Elevated Transportation Co.
Elway acknowledged the numbers are more of a display of enthusiasm rather than trip planning.
“The question has to be taken as another measure of intention, not that they’re actually going to be waiting in line once it’s built,” he said.
People who already take buses or car pools were more likely than drivers riding alone to say they would ride the monorail.
One of them is Burr Stewart, a Broadview resident who rides a bus to work downtown.
“I’d have to beat 45 minutes, and I’m just thinking, it could probably do that,” he said.
He could bike to the Crown Hill station in about five minutes and catch the monorail downtown, a 17-minute trip.
Voters are aware that the measure would fund only the Green Line, and not the four suggested future routes shown on a controversial Elevated Transportation Co. mailing this summer.
Fifty percent agreed that “The full monorail system, with lines running all across the city, will never get built, even if this first line is built,” while 36 percent think the five lines will materialize, and 14 percent were unsure.
But the promise of even one line seemed tantalizing for many.
“You can’t infer too much,” Elway said, “but you can see people think it’s a solution. It’s not too much of a leap that if they got it built as quickly as they say, and it works, there would be support for extending it to other parts of the region.”