Tag Archives: public

Lynnwood Link Opening Day

Sound Transit has a series of extensions to the Link light rail system coming online at the moment. In September 2024, it was the turn of the Lynnwood Link Extension to open. This was not one we were involved with, but I was keen to see the new extension come online and also to catch up with some colleagues that would be there.

The sun was shining so it was a great day for an event. There were plenty of dignitaries there for the opening and a lot of speeches. Each station was going to be holding celebrations throughout the day, but I decided against taking a ride on the first day. There were so many people there to see it open and the line to board the trains was lengthy. Let everyone have fun and I can check it out another time. (As a side note, I still haven’t ridden the line. I kept meaning to do it and now the chances that I will are diminished.)

I did watch the first few services come and go and the teams all boarded along with media before the rest of the riders could then have their go. I understand the extension has been very popular both for commuters and those heading downtown for events like games and shows. The parking garage can get quite full from what I am told. Great to see this new extension getting well utilized and, when the Eastlink connection opens and additional vehicles can access this section of the system, the frequencies should improve too.

How to Use Speakerphone

Since my last post was a bit of a rant, I am on a roll so add another one today.  Hopefully, having cleared my system a bit, I will return to the photography topics soon.  Normal scheduled programming will resume!

I was waiting to board a flight the other day and the person next to me was on the phone.  No great surprise there since the airport is full of people on the phone including me quite frequently.  This person was doing something that I have noticed a few times of late.  They were using the phone in speakerphone mode but holding it up to their head.  They would speak directly into the phone and hold it back at an angle so that they could hear the message.  Of course, that meant that the rest of us could hear it too.

Why would they not just hold the phone to their head and have a normal phone conversation in this situation?  I readily accept that I may not have understood a set of circumstances that might make this the better way to use a phone but each time I have seen it I have been puzzled.  It certainly is a nuisance to everyone else who has to hear the conversation whether they want to or not.  Again, if you can explain this to me, please do leave a comment.