Q&A | Crowded park-and-ride lot | Unsightly bridge | Headlight dilemma

Q: For the four years West Seattle-area resident Sean Battle has parked in Metro Transit's park-and-ride lot at Olson Place Southwest and Myers Way South, east of White Center, to commute into town by bus, he's noticed a gradual but steady increase in the number of people who use the lot.

About a year ago, the city of Seattle opened a Joint Training Facility at that site. There's now another development going up on the west side of the lot, and Battle fears that's removing about a third of all the parking stalls that were available.

"Since there is no longer enough parking space, people have been parking illegally along the curbs and near the access drives," he complained. Signs are posted warning people not to park illegally, and suggesting commuters use another park-and-ride lot when that one is full.

Battle is disgruntled, so much so he has reverted to driving to work. "Who decided that it was OK to allow another development to take more spaces from this park-and-ride lot?"

A: The decision was not Metro's to make, says agency spokeswoman Linda Thielke. That park-and-ride was originally 7.8 acres, with 562 parking stalls. In 2001, Metro sold five acres because the lot was not being heavily used, says Thielke. But the agency did retain 98 spaces for the park-and-ride.

After the sale, the new owners allowed employees from the city's training center to park there. Recently, those owners have started construction on an affordable-housing development for seniors, and the developer has put up a fence to restrict unauthorized parking during construction.

Metro still has its 98 stalls. The agency has no plans at this point for any more spaces there. According to Metro, that park-and-ride fills up by about 9 a.m. weekdays. Other close-by park-and-rides and their locations are listed on Metro's Web site — www.kingcounty.gov/metro.

Q: Zipping up and down Interstate 90, Tim Whittome, of North Bend, can't seem to help noticing the railroad bridge over the freeway at Eastgate in Bellevue. He calls it like he sees it: rusty and blighted and vandalized by graffiti. In other words, a real eyesore.

It would be nice, he says, if there were long-range plans to paint or remove it. "We have looked at it for too long in its current sorry condition."

A: That bridge and the railway corridor, which runs right through Bellevue, is owned by BNSF Railway, which has been talking to both the Port of Seattle and King County to try to negotiate a sale of the rail line.

For now, the bridge is still in BNSF's hands, but there are no plans at this point for a face-lift, says BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas. The bridge's fate probably will be left to new owners, he said.

Q: A few nights ago, Seattleite Nate Molsee was driving south on Interstate 5 through Lynnwood just after sundown and came upon an SUV in the lane to his left without its headlights on. Rainy weather and the dusky light made the vehicle practically invisible, he said.

He wasn't sure what to do. "Should I have followed the example of some of the other drivers and flashed my lights, or pulled over and called 911?"

A: State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins says in a case like that, flash your lights once. If the other vehicle's lights don't come on, the driver may be drunk or under the influence of something else, "and it's probably worth calling 911 from your cellphone."