[flagged]
Creating new right-of-way is terribly expensive and destructive. The old rail system used to provide mass transit, and it ran through the cities in the county.
The County also goes to great lengths to spend as much money as possible. When digging a new tunnel, the excavated material was used to stuff the old tunnel, meaning there was no increase in capacity. In another instance, once the tunnel was finished, the $$$$$$$ tunnel boring machine was sold for scrap instead of being reused.
In the case you are describing I'd still say it is more of a symptom of an underlying issue to be honest. One you yourself do actually describe.
> The County also goes to great lengths to spend as much money as possible. When digging a new tunnel, the excavated material was used to stuff the old tunnel, meaning there was no increase in capacity. In another instance, once the tunnel was finished, the $$$$$$$ tunnel boring machine was sold for scrap instead of being reused.
To me this more or less seems to hint at an overall lack of vision on transit and traffic in general. Or rather, the unwillingness to do the investments necessary. Frankly, the fact that you even got biking infrastructure at all is sort of amazing and probably only happened because the investment needed was minimal.
The purpose of redeveloping the rail line into a biking path wasn't to improve biking infrastructure, or reduce Kirkland's dependency on cars. It was to hamstring any mass transit that might go into that space.
While transit would be carrying lots more people year round.
Then there's the rail line that used to run from Renton to Bothell, paralleling 405 which is gridlocked every day. A couple of people are on the bike path now and then, when the weather is good.
The second is the Washington and Old Dominion trail in Arlington and Fairfax Counties, which runs from Rosslyn to I don't know where--I've never been on it past Falls Church. That commuter line was shut down for many years before the bike path opened.
In general, the old rail transit lines around here have been long disused, unless they share the tracks with Amtrak and freight.
/waves in the general direction of Kirkland, WA.