Opinion of Seattle ?

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

It seems probably alright, but their government is massively ing up transport.

What do you mean?  From what I can see, they are building up a regional mass transit system, they are rebuilding their roads and highways, and have added new ferries to their fleet.  

They were doing a good job of it and had a nicely laid out plan until a couple of years ago when the government decided to change that for a cash and prestige grab. I'll give you a run down of the history.

So in 1990 they constructed the Downtown Transit Tunnel. This was done to alleviate congestion downtown by moving the buses which ran on the surface streets into the tunnel. It was also decided that the tunnel would be transitioned to a rail tunnel, with bus lines being removed from the tunnel as light rail replaced them. In 2009 the first light rail line opened and the tunnel began combined bus and rail service, which was to continue until the light rail system replaced the bus lines. It seemed to be going well, they really had things planned out for the future. Then in 2017 the city out of nowhere decided to abandon the plan and sell the northern terminus station as a part of a "convention center renovation". This caused the tunnel to be closed to buses earlier this year long before the replacement rail lines opened. So now all the buses have been forced to the surface, adding to congestion, increasing travel times, and going against the plan voters approved. So they put the outside interests who care about this convention center over Seattle residents. Shameful.

That's one incedental decision which was questionable but understandable. Nonetheless, Seattle has done a marvellous job growing bus ridership, adding bus lanes, and building out ST2 and ST3 in the second biggest rail expansion in the USA. It's been run incredibly.