The ETC's ridership surveys show that about 95 percent of riders will not drive to the monorail. Most riders, according to the ETC's survey, will be dropped off at stations or get there by bus, on foot, or on bikes.
That number sounds implausibly high to Knapton, who says West Seattle residents have told the ETC again and again at its public meetings that "they will drive and catch the monorail." Austin, Texas, transportation consultant Lyndon Henry, who worked on a proposed light-rail system there, says transit planners "have to assume, in this day and age, in a modern American city, you're going to have people trying to access the system by automobile. It doesn't work to have this kind of de facto park-and-ride, where people just park on the streets." The ETC says its $25 million will build between 600 and 1,000 parking spots along the length of the route—400 short of the 1,400 Knapton says are needed in West Seattle alone.
Robin Laananen
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GOVERNANCE
What if the ETC's successor agency, the Seattle Popular Transportation Authority (SPTA), doesn't live up to its promises? For at least three years, and as many as seven, the key decisions on the monorail will be made by a board of five members nominated by the existing ETC board, one nominated by the City Council, and one nominated by the mayor; the remaining two members would be elected by the people. The agency decided on an appointed board, according to former ETC spokesperson Stone, because the ETC felt a board of appointed experts would be less likely to get bogged down in process and politics and would be more knowledgeable about the specifics of the project.
The board structure isn't set in stone—quite. Sometime between 2005 and 2009, with the exact date to be determined by the SPTA board, Seattle residents will decide, in a citywide election, whether to move to an all-elected board. But by then, many of the key decisions on the monorail will already have been made.
That infuriates monorail opponents like Aronson. "If you like[d] the Soviet politburo, you're going to love the monorail," Aronson says.
Not so long ago, words like that were more likely to be uttered by monorail proponents like Cleve Stockmeyer, who claimed as recently as July that Initiative 53, the monorail measure he helped write, called for an elected board. (I-53 co- author Peter Sherwin notes that the initiative said board members "may," not "shall," be elected.) Now, Stockmeyer says he's made his peace with the ETC's governance proposal. "Just by having those elections happen, the whole body will be more transparent and accountable," says Stockmeyer, who will consider running for one of the elected positions. And if the citizens don't like how things are going, he adds, they can throw the whole thing out—by turning the SPTA into an elected body, or by putting forward a referendum to abandon the monorail altogether, a drastic measure that would require nearly 60,000 signatures.
The irony, according to Richard Borkowski, president of the pro-light-rail group People for Modern Transit, is that Sound Transit has taken no end of heat from light-rail opponents for its appointed board, a structure that gives citizens little accountability beyond the ability to vote out of office the elected officials who are appointed to its 18 seats. "The argument was always that Sound Transit was bad because they had an appointed board and [the ETC was] going to fix that," Borkowski says. Instead, monorail backers came up with a board structure that is mostly appointed by the ETC itself. "A self-appointed board is just the worst of the worst."
PERHAPS THE ELEVATED Transportation Company is, as County Council member Pelz suggests, "deceiving" Seattle voters. Does it matter? Transit systems are almost without exception controversial, late, and over budget. That doesn't necessarily mean they aren't worth the cost or effort. We could spend the next 25 years waiting for Sound Transit to build light rail from the airport to North Seattle. Or we could spend the next 25 years paying for two big, expensive transportation systems that may or may not deliver on their promises. Either way, we've got a long road ahead.
ebarnett@seattleweekly.com 
