Not a Surprise
Published at 08:22 on 24 March 2016
The new light rail extension to the University of Washington hasn’t even been open for a week and it’s already subject to a problem that the experts hadn’t foreseen (but which I predicted but alas can’t find the entry predicting it): crowding due to unexpectedly high demand. So they’re having to make plans to add extra cars to the trains already.
It’s the induced demand I talked about when I made my prediction. It’s now very much easier to travel between the neighborhoods where the new stations are. It used to take at least 20 minutes and often 50 to get between the University of Washington and Downtown. It now takes eight. So of course people are starting to make trips they never would have considered before (such as going from the UW campus to Capitol Hill for lunch).