Daily Exasperation #13

Dispatches from Seattle. A love letter of sorts. The future of maritime AI.

I desperately want to move to Seattle. At some point, I’ll just make the move. I love New York, and it’s my home and will forever be, but there’s something nostalgic and romantic about the remoteness of the Pacific Northwest. It still feels like a secret to be here, despite almost 800,000 people in on it. The types of people I’ve met here have ranged from stereotypically standoffish to the most welcoming and adventurous I’ve met anywhere I’ve been. Most people have shades and dotted lines of both. There’s the other axis—those born and raised here and those who have made the conscious choice to move here. I’d like to be one of those people and help the state, region, and city provide a quality of transportation such that grandma can take a bus (or two) from Columbia City to Ballard and that grandson can get to a hike without owning a car. I want to help make this place safe and equitable.

Then, there’s Mount Rainier. It’s life-affirming to see this level of magnificence¹ on a daily basis. East Coast cities just don’t have it.

Photo by Thom Milkovic on Unsplash

The transportation and transit system also works better and more collaboratively than almost any other I’ve encountered in the US. Sound Transit, King County Metro, City of Seattle, WSDOT, Community Transit, Kitsap Transit, Pierce Transit, and more work closely together to ensure a seamless experience. It’s hard to struggle to plan a journey within the occupied native land² that hugs Puget Sound (Seattle is named after a Duwamish³ Chief (Si'Ahl) after all). Sometimes, however, it’s hard to executive on it; the number of agencies that operate and interoperate in the region coordinate to the best of their ability but still struggle to provide seamless service.

I was fortunate to spend the weekend on Vashon Island, which sits as a secret within a secret in the Pacific Northwest. Its remoteness is quaint and is an ideal escape for a weekend or forever if Seattlites and others choose to retire there. Because it sits in Puget Sound, there are only two ways to get there, a ferry from Fauntleroy or a Ferry from Tacoma; Vashon residents have voted against a bridge again and again. I don’t blame them from a personal perspective and I think I also don’t blame them from a transportation perspective. Yes, it would be more efficient to not have to wait an hour or more to load up onto a ferry to get to and from the island. But the construction of this bridge would be expensive and environmentally destructive for local animal and human populations. Honestly, I’m very tired of “efficient” as an argument on its own for any infrastructure project. Please, tell me, who cares?

One thing we do need is more ferries and more qualified staff to run them. That’s the bottleneck I wish WSDOT (which runs the Ferries and connects seamlessly to Seattle roads and King County Metro’s Rapid Ride bus system) would really push to address. I know they are—I see in my feeds that WSDOT is looking for ferry operators all the time. Ferry operations is a glorious job and pays well. So what gives? Why are we running a one-boat schedule on a Sunday during the summer because WSDOT is understaffed? Seriously, someone help me diagnose the problem here.

Or, are we going to see AI take over here? It’s not a bad idea if we can train a robot to sail the open seas safely. I need to dig deeper to understand the different challenges of maritime AI vs. surface AI vs. air AI. Who’s got some thoughts?

1. When the wildfire smoke isn’t drenching the skyline and mountain view with orange ash.

2. Let’s be real and include this as much as possible. For as fantastic as Seattle is as a place, it isn’t, and will never be ours.

3. dxʷdəwʔabš is how it’s written in Lushootseed. Native linguistics is exasperatingly awesome.