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The Seattle Monorail Project was a proposed five-line monorail system to be constructed in Seattle, Washington as an extension of the existing Seattle Center Monorail. The , 17 station Green Line running from Ballard to West Seattle via Seattle Center would have been the first of the five lines to be built. From 1997 to 2005 the monorail project was a highly contentious political issue in the Seattle area. In November 2005, following the fifth voter initiative on the monorail in eight years, the monorail authority agreed to dissolve itself after having spent $124.7 million in taxpayer funds without beginning any monorail construction. ==Origins== The effort to extend the monorail began in 1997 with the 53% to 47% passage of Initiative 41 by Seattle voters. The initiative proposed a X-shaped monorail system extending the line constructed for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. The system's construction and operation was to be carried out by a new agency, the Elevated Transportation Corporation (ETC), using private funding. The ETC quickly determined that private entrepreneurs were not going to build a monorail system without public financial support, leading to a second monorail initiative, allowing the ETC to spend $6 million for additional studies to determine an improved monorail plan with full cost estimates and a funding package to pay for construction. This initiative passed 56% to 44%〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work=King County Election Results )〕 in 2000. By 2002, the ETC had developed the five-line system plan that came to be called the Seattle Monorail Project. This proposal was put before the voters as Citizens Petition #1 in November 2002 which would propose to dissolve the ETC, create a new monorail agency, construct the Green Line as the first part of the system, and enact an annual 1.4% motor-vehicle excise tax (MVET) on Seattle vehicles to fund the project. The 2002 petition drew opposition from groups who argued that: the Green Line ridership would not be significantly different from that already achieved by Metro buses; that building an elevated line with deep concrete beams on Second Avenue in downtown would create a "wall" through the urban core; and that the monorail line should be built along the I-5 freeway corridor, among other complaints.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work=DeSouza, Kevin, et al. )〕 Reflecting the increased opposition, Citizens Petition #1 passed by just 877 votes, 50.2% to 49.7%.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work=King County Election Results )〕 With this November 2002 passage, construction was expected to begin in autumn 2005, and be completed in 2009. Just two years later in November 2004, a recall initiative, I-83, was put forth seeking to halt the project by forcing the city to deny the monorail agency the right to use the air space above public city streets. This fourth initiative in seven years proved unpopular with Seattle voters however, and lost 64% to 36%.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work=King County Election Results )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Seattle Monorail Project」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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