Crews are widening SR 520 between SR 202 and West Lake Sammamish Parkway in Redmond by adding a merge lane and HOV lane in each direction. The installation of the girders, which are huge support beams, for the SR 520 overpass at SR 202 took place on Monday, Aug. 24.

By Mary Stevens Decker
Reporter Newspapers
While construction zones can be noisy and messy, most drivers recognize that the end result, an easier commute, will make the hassle worthwhile.
That’s certainly the case for the SR 520 widening project in Redmond, between West Lake Sammamish Parkway and SR 202.
“Residents remind me that it is about time the project moves forward,” said Redmond Mayor John Marchione. “People are especially happy that the city and state are cooperatively moving Bear Creek away from 520 to improve the fish habitat.”

Don Cairns

City of Redmond transportation services manager Don Cairns stated, “The first phase, the flyover from Redmond Way to westbound 520, has received a lot of positive feedback since being completed last year.”
City officials are confident that the completion of the SR 520 project will benefit Redmond residents and workers because, “SR 520 is the city’s preferred route for people who want to bypass Redmond altogether,” said Marchione. “This will benefit those who live and work in Downtown, Southeast Redmond and Education Hill and those who want to do business in these same neighborhoods.”
Bruce Newman, traffic signal operations engineer for the City of Redmond, explained that other benefits include “additional capacity in the morning. Much of the existing bottleneck in the morning is due to the two southbound lanes merging to one on the bridge over Redmond Way. This causes traffic to back up to Union Hill Road and on Avondale Road and reduces the efficiency of the signalized intersection.”
Also, said Newman, “Additional capacity in the afternoon. Currently, the signalized intersection at Avondale Road/Union Hill Road cannot operate efficiently because only one lane exists on SR 520 over Redmond Way. When the signal crossing on Union Hill turns green, the two lanes that continue to Avondale Road can move traffic efficiently only for about 50 seconds. Thereafter, other cars stuck on SR 520 before Redmond Way can only approach one at a time, so further green time is moving fewer vehicles.”
Plus, Newman added, “Extension of the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) network will reduce delays for carpoolers and especially for transit to/from the Bear Creek Park and Ride. There used to be two bottlenecks: the Union Hill intersection and the single lane over Redmond Way. The City of Redmond project completed this past spring increased capacity at the signalized intersection. The WSDOT project will increase capacity on SR 520, helping both the morning and afternoon commutes. Congestion will remain, however, since an arterial at the end of a freeway can never carry as much traffic as the freeway.”
The improvements in Redmond are having a regional ripple effect — and the ripple is good, according to Marchione.
He said, “Residents of Sammamish and Duvall have reported tremendous savings in their commute times since the flyover ramp opened. I have noticed that traffic flows better in those intersections near Redmond Way and 520. We are steadily making improvements.”
Newman concurred, “The SR 202 widening in conjunction with the flyover has dramatically improved capacity on the SR 202 corridor.”
That said, SR 202 has been adversely impacted this summer by some back-ups due to closures on Union Hill Road (a King County project), East Lake Sammamish Parkway (a City of Sammamish project) and even the Interstate 90 closure in July.
What are the next traffic and transportation challenges in the East Redmond corridor that also affects commuters from Sammamish, Duvall and Woodinville?
Marchione said improvements will include King County extending 196th Avenue Northeast from Novelty Hill Road to Union Hill Road and improving Union Hill Road, while the city will be extending 188th and 185th Avenues Northeast to Union Hill Road.
“The more of a street grid we have in place, the better people and goods can move to their destinations,” he predicted.
Cairns said the city was completing a comprehensive transportation study of Southeast Redmond that includes Avondale Road and the area of Redmond north and east of SR 520.
“That study is focused on needs in 2030, the ultimate set of improvements needed for the study area and a recommendation of a near term action plan for the next three to six years.”
Mary Stevens Decker is a reporter for the Redmond Reporter. She can be contacted at mdecker@redmond-reporter.com

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The railroad bridge over Rainier Avenue was removed in the summer of 2007 so that the city of Renton and its partners can rebuild the major thoroughfare to make it safer and improve access to local businesses.

By Dean A. Radford
Reporter Newspapers
Rainier Avenue through the heart of Renton is a work in progress.
It’s the city’s transportation workhorse, handling about 50,000 vehicle trips a day. That rivals the traffic load of such major commercial thoroughfares as Aurora Avenue in north Seattle.
And Rainier, a state highway, can easily get congested, especially at its intersection with Grady Way. Congestion on Rainier, acting like fast-flowing river, in turn forces backups on smaller city streets that flow into it.
To do something about the Rainier corridor through downtown is a top transportation priority for the city of Renton.
Even the construction the state is doing on Interstate 405, including the new onramp and offramp for Talbot Road, is partly intended to divert traffic away from Rainier, which is the continuation of State Route 167 – the Valley Freeway – until it reaches South Second Street.
A major step was taken in 2007 when Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway removed three railroad bridges through downtown and replaced them with wider ones, including one over Rainier Avenue, in financial cooperation with the city.
The wider bridge at Rainier was critical to making the highway a tree-lined thoroughfare that has safer and easier access to local businesses and allows transit buses to move quickly through the corridor. The bridge constricted traffic’s flow and was a bit unnerving.
Pedestrians will find a much friendlier atmosphere to traverse, with trees and wider sidewalks.
Now comes the rest of the roughly $40 million city transportation project, the largest in Renton’s history. That about doubles the money needed to improve the streets around a new development in north Renton, The Landing.
About 30 percent of the project is designed, according to Bob Hanson, the city’s transportation design supervisor. The project runs from South Grady Way to South Second Street.
At the same time, the city is talking with the owners of 57 properties on both sides of the Rainier corridor about purchasing the land – the right of way – necessary to expand the corridor, which will include new sidewalks and a dedicated lane in each direction for business access.
It’s possible a business might have to relocate to make way for the project. Nothing is certain, Hanson said, because new options often arise during the negotiations.
The city was expecting to make offers to buy the rights of way – at market value – late this month, he said.
The construction cost alone of the Rainier improvements is estimated at just over $15 million, according to Hanson, which doesn’t including replacing the railroad bridge over Rainier.
It’s too early to pin down the total cost of the project, in part because the agreements to purchase the right of way haven’t been finalized. The project’s design is continuing and the city is planning additional meetings soon with the public and local businesses to get community input, Hanson said.
But preliminary estimates for all improvements to Rainier, including the removal of the bridges, is the roughly $40 million. The money is coming from the city of Renton, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, the state, the federal government and Sound Transit.
Sound Transit is providing $14.9 million because the two lanes being added in both directions in the project corridor are BAT lanes, or business access and transit lanes
Like it does with other construction projects, the city will take into consideration public comments about the Rainier project design and then construction, Hanson said.
“It’s a give and take sort of thing,” Hanson said. The city is not “just going to tell them what will happen,” he said.
What’s important to the city, Hansen said, is to maintain access to the many businesses along Rainier so their customers can get to them. There are few, if any environmental issues because the highway already exists and those issues have already been addressed.
“I would say the more critical issues in this are constructability and staging so that it has the least impact on the businesses,” said Hanson.
The general motoring public, including the big trucks that use Rainier to move goods to Renton Center and elsewhere in Renton, will have far safer access to businesses. Gone will be the uncontrolled left turns into driveways and parking lots that set up the potential for head-on collisions. Instead, drivers will use U-turns at intersections to return to the intended destination, making right-hand turns.
“That is far safer,” said Hanson.
Rainier Avenue will remain open during construction, which is expected to begin in late 2010 or early 2011. Some nighttime and weekend road closures could occur.
Construction should take about 18 months.
Dean A. Radford is editor of the Renton Reporter. He can be reached at editor@rentonreporter.com.

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By Steve Hunter
Reporter Newspapers
Rodney Watkins fights heavy traffic every weekday driving between his home on Kent’s East Hill and his job in South Seattle.
When Watkins leaves home as early as 5 a.m., he can cover the 21-mile drive to his job as a garbage hauler at Cleanscapes in about 30 minutes. But when he tries to return home at about 4 p.m. or so, the drive can take twice as long.
“Coming home is hell,” Watkins said. “When you get to Interstate 5 near Southcenter, no matter where you go there’s no fast way home.”
Watkins is one of the many Kent residents who tries to navigate through Kent streets between home and work.
“Everybody knows the shortcuts, so no matter what you’re screwed,” said Watkins, who has commuted 16 years to Seattle.
Kent city officials know drivers struggle to go north or south through the valley as well as between the valley and the East Hill and West Hill. The city has identified more than $600 million worth of proposed projects over the next 20 years to address traffic problems, and so far, no money to pay for them.
Watkins drives home via Highway 167 and up South 212th Street to 132nd Avenue Southeast, where he heads south toward home. Traveling up the South 212th Street hill to get to the Benson Highway, also known as 108th Avenue Southeast, remains a struggle.
“Once you get past the Benson, you’re fine,” Watkins said. “But it can be a nightmare getting up to the Benson.”
In the morning, Watkins leaves early so he can get onto Highway 167 at Central Avenue before the traffic signals for the onramps start up at about 5:15 a.m. or so.
“Once those start, traffic can back up on Central past Denny’s,” Watkins said, describing the restaurant near the highway entrance.
Watkins struck out on a fast route when he tried alternate roads besides the Kent hills of South 212th Street, James Street or Smith Street.
“There’s no good way to get around Kent,” he said. “I tried the Maple Valley Highway and it’s just as bad.”
Highway 18 can work from Kent’s East Hill to Federal Way or Tacoma. But no clear route exists between the East Hill and Seattle without traveling streets loaded with traffic signals.
“There is no good way to get to the east side of Kent,” Watkins said.
Watkins looked at commuting by bus, but found out that would take him nearly 90 minutes. And the Sounder train has too-limited a schedule for his job that doesn’t always end at a certain time. The new light rail runs from Tukwila to Seattle.
“You would still have to commute through Kent to get to the park and ride,” Watkins said.
Steve Hunter is a writer at the Kent Reporter. He can be reached at shunter@kentreporter.com.

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By Brian Beckley
Reporter Newspapers
While commuters may lose time and their cool while sitting in traffic, for manufacturers and freight haulers, time spent stuck in traffic has a direct effect on the bottom line.
The Green River Valley manufacturing district, running from Renton to Sumner, accounts for more than 80,000 jobs in the region and helps make the Puget Sound area the second-largest freight and wholesale distribution center on the West Coast, behind only the Los Angeles-Long Beach area.
And at the center of it all is the city of Kent.
“We have businesses that serve every country on the globe that’s legal to trade with,” said Deputy Public Works Director Tim LaPorte. “And they’re all dependent on a system that’s never been completed.”
Kent’s location is the key to its manufacturing and shipping success. Located approximately halfway between the Port of Tacoma and the Port of Seattle, 10 minutes from Sea-Tac Airport and split by two major rail lines, Kent is prime territory for shippers.
Kent also is adjacent to Interstate 5 and is bisected by State Route 167.
“It’s that confluence of transportation corridors and strategic location that makes Kent an attractive place,” said Ben Wolters, the city of Kent’s economic development director.
Because of that, maintaining freight mobility is a prime concern for city officials.
“It’s one of our ongoing challenges,” Wolters said, adding the city’s warehouse and manufacturing business is a “mainstay of Kent’s economy.”
But getting all those tons of freight to the highways and out to the ports sometimes can be a challenge.
LaPorte said the biggest issue is getting trucks into and out of Kent, making the top freight-related priority in the city the completion of state Route 509, which LaPorte said was intended in the 1960s to serve as an additional route between Seattle and Tacoma.
However, though stretches of 509 extend in either direction from the two cities, the vast majority of the roadway remains unfinished.
“Unfortunately we only have either end,” LaPorte said. “If it was completed, it would allow freight to move virtually unimpeded from the Port of Seattle to points south and east.”
For Kent, as well as for commuters in and around the city, the highway would provide a route for trucks that would keep them off the major commuter roads, speeding traffic on the highways and getting the trucks to where they need to go quicker.
“A lot of freight traffic coming from the Port of Seattle and the airport doesn’t really want to get on I-5,” LaPorte said. “They want to get to the valley.”
LaPorte said 509 would connect at Kent-Des Moines Road and provide essentially another collector distributor lane for the interstate and would remove truck traffic from the highway by allowing direct access to Kent.
It would also take some pressure off some of Kent’s east-west routes. The traffic on some, such as 212th Street, is more than 12 percent trucks.
“That’s a very, very high number,” LaPorte said. “One in every 10 vehicles is a truck.
“(SR)509 will distribute the truck traffic more easily and allow them direct access to the valley,” he added.
But access at the north end of Kent’s warehouse area is not the only issue. There is a similar freight backup at the south end.
State Route 167 “also has a major problem at the south end because it doesn’t exist,” LaPorte said.
Calling it “the other end of our story,” LaPorte said SR 167 was designed to go through to the Port of Tacoma and connect to I-5, but the section from Sumner to Tacoma, like 509, has not been completed.
Another problem facing freight haulers in Kent is actually one of the city’s biggest strengths: the dual sets of railroad tracks that run through the center of the city.
More than 60 trains run through the valley every day and every time the crossing arms come down, drivers are losing time and money.
“We have over two-and-a-half hours of delay per day on a 24-hour average in the valley,” LaPorte said, calling the results a “disaster” for traffic. They are the biggest source of delay in the city in terms of traffic.”
“Which adds up to significant cost in terms of manpower and fuel,” Wolters added.
Because of this, Kent is heavily invested in reducing at-grade crossings by building overpasses or tunnels under the tracks as a way to help increase track speeds.
“The only way we can get increased track speeds is to make the rail corridor a safer corridor,” LaPorte said.
Crossing improvements are expensive – about $20 million each – so Kent has to do the work in small batches, cobbling together funding. The city’s Transportation Improvement Plan calls for the elimination of the city’s “worst five:” two on Willis Street, two on 212th Street and one on 228th Street.
In total, LaPorte estimated that $700 million would be needed to complete improvements at all at-grade crossings.
The lack of highway routes and the traffic on those routes also leads truck drivers to take alternate routes through cities, placing undue stress on roadways that were never designed for the weight and traffic of 18-wheelers.
“They fail much quicker than they should,” LaPorte said, leading to an increased burden on local taxpayers.
He noted all of the improvements were necessary not only to keep the region competitive, but also to improve the quality of life, as increased trucks sitting in traffic leads to pollution and dirtier air.
The problem, like most things, is money. Highway work is estimated at more than $1 billion for each project. For perspective, the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge was built for $750 million.
Both LaPorte and Wolters said Kent were “fans” of the trucks and freight that makes the city’s economy go, but the problems they face are not necessarily Kent-specific, but regional, and should be treated as such and that any transportation improvements – highways, rail, public transportation, light rail, anything – would be helpful to the city.
“We’re a fan of all of the above,” LaPorte said.
Brian Beckley is a writer at the Kent Reporter. He can be reached at bbeckley@kentreporter.com.

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Laura Pierce
Reporter Newspapers
Kent is a thriving city of neighborhoods, retail and warehouses – and nowhere is that growth more apparent than a weekday rush hour.
Lines of commuters crawl along with caravans of freight trucks, while trains close down crossings across the city on two sets of tracks.
On the one hand you could say Kent has it all: listed in the top 10 neighborhoods of King County by Seattle Monthly this year for its entertainment and shopping venues. Considered an epicenter of Puget Sound freight commerce. Poised to become a regional banking center within the next decade.
But wending its way through all the good things about Kent is a transportation system that is not so good.
“Our transportation system is exactly that – a system,” said Ben Wolters, Kent’s economic development director. “It has a number of interactive components.”
Right now those components aren’t working very well together.
Wolters outlined the bigger issues: the conflict between rail and road traffic; lack of a better freight corridor forcing more trucks on roads better designed for smaller vehicles, growing congestion on the highways surrounding the city (the nearby intersection of state routes 405 and 167 is one of the most congested in the state) and the sheer quantity of people and goods moving in and out of the city.
Wolters noted the issue boils down to dollars.
“This speaks to the challenge of trying to fund transportation projects in Washington state,” he said. “That’s really why we’ve had these issues so long – we’ve not found a way to fund these long-term infrastructure needs.”
Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke described the former farming town as grappling with major growing pains.
“What is the biggest challenge is that the city of Kent was built as a small city,” she said. “It is now an urban center. We are a city with three hills, a river valley, two major rail lines and we are on the thoroughfare between two ports (Seattle and Tacoma.) We really do attract a mix of demands on our transportation system.
“It really strains a system or a network that was put in place to accommodate a small, rural town.”

What happened?
During the 1970s and 1980s, Kent’s economic growth, Wolters said, was “explosive.”
Thanks to plenty of raw, flat land in the valley, a friendly tax climate and a central location between the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, Kent was a beacon for freight interests, which helped it to evolve from farmland to an economic powerhouse.
“The focus in Kent on warehouse distribution that was established historically, was larger than in other cities,” Cooke said. “We have many more warehouses than other cities do.”
Thanks to the rail lines and the warehouse space, manufacturing interests also gravitated to the Kent Valley. And as these businesses have grown in Kent, so too have their employee bases.
In some respects, it’s a little too much of a good thing.
Last year, just before the recession hit, Kent was at 80,000 jobs, with a population that was nearly the same, Wolters said.
That 1:1 ratio, he added, “is actually much higher than what you often see in South County jurisdictions. It certainly puts us closer to Seattle and Bellevue in terms of jobs versus population.”
And through it all, runs a transportation system that has become increasingly overburdened, with fewer dollars to go into it.
Today, the city sees an estimated 250,000 car trips within its borders. The 70 or so trains that go through the city each day close down traffic on city streets an average of 2.5 hours each day.
“The economic growth has outgrown the pace we’ve had for transportation improvements,” Wolters said. In South King County, “we’re by far the largest,” he adding, noting Kent saw “well over $7.5 billion dollars in gross business activity.”
Cooke noted one recent economic change – thanks to the state – that has actually hurt the city having so much warehouse and freight-related space.
It used to be that every time a product was ordered from a warehouse, the city in which that warehouse was located would receive sales-tax proceeds on the transaction. But under the streamlined sales tax, which the state enacted in 2008, the sales tax now goes to the city where the sale occurred, as opposed to where the item was being shipped from.
While warehouse cities like Kent do get some mitigation funding from the state to balance out that change, Cooke said it isn’t nearly what the city used to get under the old system.
“We’ve now lost close to $4 million a year from streamlined sales tax,” Cooke said, adding that amount is somewhat lessened with state mitigation funds.
But road maintenance – especially that pertaining to the quantity of trucking traffic here – continues, meaning fewer dollars that can be pumped into transportation needs.
Another major issue that Kent – as well as other Puget Sound cities must contend – is how to fix roads in places where there simply isn’t revenue coming in – such as neighborhoods.
“When we don’t have new development, who picks up the tab?” Cooke asked, noting the city’s quantity of older, established neighborhoods (which contribute to Kent’s quality of life) that are in need of things like curbs, gutters or sidewalks. Of city road maintenance, she noted, “it is a constant cycle.”

Solutions
Kent, as well as the rest of the Puget Sound area, won’t be able to escape the increasing growth. But there are things that will ease its continued transition from small town to big city.
Describing a Puget Sound population that is expected to grow to 1.5 million in the next 30 years, “Kent’s population is expected to grow with the rest of the region,” said King County Councilwoman Julia Patterson, whose district includes Kent. “We have to find a revenue source (for transportation) that goes beyond the gas tax.
“More and more we’re seeing hybrids on the roads, and in the next couple of years, we’ll be seeing electric cars. Those people are not paying the same to use the roads as those of us running exclusively on gasoline.
“I think the tolling is coming; I think the question is the matter of degree.”
Alternative modes of transportation also would go a long way in offsetting the continued growth of commuter traffic coming out of Kent.
“Fixed rail will become more popular, because it is the most dependable,” Patterson said. “You know that even if it starts to snow at 4 p.m., you’ll be at the station the same time as if it were July.”
Cooke agreed that other modes of transportation for commuters are part of Kent’s future.
“Our roads are reaching a point where we can’t afford to have everybody using a car,” Cooke said.
But she added those other modes of transportation, especially in the case of buses, will become more accepted as they increase their frequency of runs, as well as ease of use.
“I think it’s really a chicken-and-egg issue,” Cooke said. “I think people would use those options if they were more consistent. We’ve been increasing the amount of certain (bus) routes in Kent, but there is a maximum elasticity on how long someone’s going to wait. And then there is the knowledge about how to use a bus. It’s just that the system is foreign to people. It needs frequency; it needs outreach.”
As far as freight traffic, the problem is more regional in nature.
State Route 509, envisioned in the 1960s as a freight corridor between Seattle and Tacoma, remains unfinished. Its completion could mean a major incentive for freight traffic coming through Kent.
“It’s on the radar,” Patterson said, noting there is a working group that continues to meet on the project. “It’s ready to go. All the environmental review is done and the permitting. It will take a commitment from the state to fund it.”
Rail crossings are another major part of the picture to continued freight mobility in Kent. In fact, Wolters said the crossings are one of Kent’s highest priority traffic issues, in his book.
“Our greatest issues are conflict between rail and road traffic,” he said.
But it’s going to take dollars to do the work, as well as the ongoing need to maintain city streets and increase capacity. Wolters said the city considering several options for revenue, including traffic-impact fees, and the possibility of forming what he called “transportation utilities.”
And as difficult as Kent’s transportation picture has become, Wolters pointed out a major bright spot.
The city may have congestion, but “I’d rather have that problem than the problem of empty roads because there is no economic activity going on,” he said. “We all live with it. We all commute to work, whether it’s by car or bicycle or train. We all at moments have expressed our frustration, but we’re also very pleased to be able to get to a job. It’s a balancing act.”
Laura Pierce is Editor of the Kent Reporter. She can be contacted at editor@kentreporter.com.

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By Brian Beckley
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Steve Cotton, operations manager for KGM Motorcycle Transport in Kent, has the same complaints as most drivers in the Kent Valley: traffic and trains.
But for Cotton and his business, which does the storage, transportation and final assembly for all of the motorcycle dealers in Washington, time is money.
“It seems like every time you turn around there’s a train going through here,” Cotton said, estimating that each train – 60 per day, according to the city – costs his drivers on average of 15 minutes.
And with five trucking companies located on his road in Kent’s warehouse district, the six or seven trucks that KGM sends in and out each day also can get caught in the same traffic that commuters complain about.
But despite some of the challenges, Cotton said Kent’s centralized location – including being located near major distribution hubs for the four major Japanese bike manufacturers – make it ideal for the business.
“That’s huge for us,” he said.
Cotton acknowledged the city working to fix the at-grade railroad crossings as money becomes available, but offered another idea for speeding up traffic on Interstate 5 and state Route 167.
“Instead of a carpool lane, I’d like to see a truck lane,” he said.
Brian Beckley is a writer at the Kent Reporter. He can be reached at bbeckley@kentreporter.com.

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There are an estimated 250,000 vehicle trips per day in Kent. The city has about 300 miles of streets, including 105 intersections with traffic signals.

By Steve Hunter
Reporter Newspapers
Drivers who head east, west north or south through Kent all run into the same problem – heavy traffic.
There is no quick way to drive through the city because of thick traffic, especially at morning and evening rush hours.
Kent city officials know drivers struggle to go north or south through the valley as well as between the valley and the East Hill and West Hill.
The city completed several street projects that have helped, such as the South 277th corridor extension and a few of the street overpasses at railroad crossings.
But city officials have more than $600 million in proposed projects over the next 20 years to address traffic problems, and so far, no money to pay for the projects.
“It’s a broken system,” said Tim LaPorte, city deputy public works director. “There is not a quick fix or a simple fix.”
A heavy volume of traffic as well as waits for trains cause vehicles to back up throughout the city.
The problem starts with commuters (including those from outside of Kent) who use Pacific Highway, West Valley Highway, Fourth Avenue, East Valley Highway and Central Avenue to travel north and south through the city because Highway 167 and Interstate 5 are so overloaded.
The city streets were not built to serve as commuter routes when constructed decades ago.
“The local arterial roads served their purpose (in the 1970s) when they were intended to distribute traffic from the freeways into local neighborhoods and the business community,” LaPorte said. “They don’t do that anymore because the main arterial roads failed and people try to find any alternate route they can. People try to go the fastest route and that’s not necessarily the most direct.”
There are an estimated 250,000 vehicle trips per day in Kent. The city has about 300 miles of streets, including 105 intersections with traffic signals.
Drivers become frustrated with traffic signals as vehicles often back up at the lights and cannot get through the intersections at rush hour until a couple of cycles of light changes.
“About half of them have a very poor level of service,” LaPorte said of the intersections with traffic lights.
City crews added left-turn and right-turn pockets a few years ago at James Street and Central Avenue, but many more intersections need similar improvements to keep traffic flowing.
City traffic officials set signals to last longer for pedestrian crossings along Smith Street and James Street in the downtown area.
“The signal timing is longer for pedestrian crossings so that slows down vehicles because they have to wait longer,” said Cathy Mooney, city senior transportation planner.
Drivers also contend with waiting for trains along the heavy east and west commuter routes of James Street, Smith Street and Willis Street.
About 60 trains go through Kent each day, from freight trains to Amtrak to the Sounder commuter train. Railroad gates are down for an average of 2.5 hours per day in the city.
Commuters must wait on Smith Street when the Sounder picks up or drops off passengers in downtown Kent. Of course, people who ride the train take vehicles off the highway.
“We’re pro-transit and pro-roads,” LaPorte said.
But despite the commuter trains, light rail and even workers who telecommute from home, traffic congestion remains.
City officials expect construction of the South 228th Street overpass above the railroad tracks to be finished this fall. But many other projects to separate the roads from the railroad tracks remain to be funded along Willis Street, South 212th and South 228th.
“We have $170 million worth of (railroad overpass or underpass) projects we would like to build, but no funds,” Mooney said.
City staff has proposed a transportation impact fee on developers of new homes and commercial buildings. The City Council also has informally discussed other options, such as a business license fee charge per employee, vehicle license fees or voted general obligation bonds, to raise revenue to pay for street-railroad grade separation projects as well as new and improved streets.
So far, the city has not approved any new funding sources for streets.
“There’s no mechanism for funding,” LaPorte said. “In the meantime, we waste money sitting at intersections.”
The federal stimulus funds helped a bit this year, but did not even come close to what the city needs. City officials will use that money over the next year to help widen the East Valley Highway between Highway 167 and South 212th Street.
“The city of Kent did very well when we received $2 million,” LaPorte said. “But that’s out of about $600 million we need.”
Many commuters would like a return to the days of easy driving through the valley. Drivers also run into traffic congestion on the East Hill along the Benson Highway and Kent-Kangley Road.
“People want to get it back to the same connectivity as 30 years ago when you could get on Highway 167 and go,” LaPorte said. “But it’s so far broken, it’s bizarre. We have not put money in infrastructure and now we even forego basic road maintenance. We have not kept up (on maintenance) in Kent for the last five years.”
The lack of road maintenance can lead to even bigger, more expensive problems as city planners look ahead 20 years. LaPorte said about 250 miles of the 300 miles of Kent streets need additional maintenance.
“The cost can become a point of no return,” LaPorte said. “The cost could go from $600 million to $1.2 billion.”
Even with all of the traffic congestion and lack of funding in Kent, the city does sit in better shape than other cities.
“A lot of cities are in much worse shape than we are,” LaPorte said. “Some cities have nothing to put into street systems. They are totally broke. It’s a silent crisis in our region.”
Steve Hunter is a writer at the Kent Reporter. He can be reached at shunter@kentreporter.com.

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Falling sales tax revenue has left Metro trying to find $213 million worth of cuts in the next two years and an estimated $500 million over the next four. Photo by Chad Coleman.

By Jake Lynch
Reporter Newspapers
There is one thing and one thing only dominating discussions on the future of bus services in the Puget Sound area at the moment — The Benjamins.
While in healthier economic times, service providers and transit officials could be looking at expanding ridership, upgrading facilities, and adopting new technology, right now King County Metro is just trying to maintain the services they have.
Falling sales tax revenue has left Metro trying to find $213 million worth of cuts in the next two years, and an estimated $500 million over the next four.
Sound Transit too, fresh from the significant victory of getting a $17.8 million Sound Transit ballot measure passed by voters to expand light rail and regional bus services, is already facing the reality of having less money than it needs, perhaps $2 billion less.
Like Metro, Sound Transit relies on sales tax, taking a 0.9 percent share of sales tax revenue gathered in the areas it serves.
An historic recession has meant that this revenue is less than everyone had hoped. The Metro and Sound Transit picture is also complicated politically by the fact that the people of the Puget Sound region voted for the ballot measures based on what it said it would deliver.
All of this at a time when huge growth in areas outside Seattle, to the south and the east, particularly, have incorporated cities calling for more bus service.
Similarly, congestion on the roads, high gas prices, and a federal push to reduce CO2 emissions from traffic has put the spotlight on public transportation like never before.
King County has admitted it will have to reduce bus services, and the only question now is by how much, and where.
The question of where is one that elected officials are paying close attention to.
King County Executive Kurt Triplett’s proposal to plug the budget hole is based around using a combination of fare increases, deferred expansion, and saving money by being more efficient, in order to minimize the necessary evil – service reductions.
Triplett said that ensuring any service reductions were done proportionally across the entire system was a key goal of his plan, adding that if sub-regions try to create winners, the transit riders will be the losers.
But according to Joshua Schaer, one of a number of elected officials from the Eastside in King County Department of Transportation’s Eastside Transportation Partnership (ETP), Triplett’s plan actually subverts an agreement to ensure proportionate service.
“What I’ve heard is that because they are calling the service cuts “suspensions,” and not service “cuts,” when the services are reinstated they are not bound by the 40-40-20 agreement,” he said.
Under political agreements reached several years ago by the County Council, investment in new service must follow a 40-40-20 split, with 40 percent going to East King County, 40 percent to the south, and 20 percent to the west, essentially, Seattle. Cities in the east and the south have praised the idea, which is predictably unpopular in Seattle.
“They are basically getting around it by calling them suspensions,” Schaer said. “On the Eastside, we are paying for a good third of the service, but getting only 17 percent of the service.”
While service suspensions are clearly the biggest piece of Triplett’s transit puzzle, saving about $90 million over four years, auditors have been able to find between $15 and $22 million in savings just by tightening up the system.
That auditors have been able to identify so many efficiency improvements doesn’t speak well of Metro’s operations before now.
For example, training staff to actually use scheduling software that Metro already owns is expected to save $3.75 million a year.
That software will help schedulers identify how to better assign buses to avoid empty runs.
Also, Metro layovers, the time spent idle in between trips, run to 29 percent, compared to a national average of 21 percent.
While the extended layovers give operators a bigger cushion to keep routes on time, it also means that for almost a third of the time buses are on the road, they are not picking up passengers.
A group of King County Council members has come up with their own plan, which they say will reduce service cuts from 20 percent to between four and six percent, by bringing money in from the King County’s Ferry District, and raising bus fares by 25 cents each year for the next four years.
Fares were raised last year.
The councilors are also asking that the City of Seattle contribute more to the cost of providing a free-ride area downtown, an idea which Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis has already said they are highly unlikely to support.
The key benefit of their plan, the councilors say, is preserving the upcoming RapidRide bus service, 100,000 hours of additional service, in distinctly painted red and yellow buses, part of the Transit Now plan which was approved by King County voters in 2006.
RapidRide will provide more frequent, and quicker, service in five key corridors:

• Tukwila to Federal Way on the Pacific Highway
• Bellevue to Redmond via Crossroads and Overlake
• West Seattle to downtown Seattle using Fauntleroy Way SW, California Avenue SW, and State Route 99
• Ballard to Uptown and downtown Seattle along 15th Avenue NW
• Aurora Avenue N between Shoreline and downtown Seattle

The Tukwila service will be the first cab off the rank, scheduled for launch at the end of 2010. The other services are scheduled to begin at staggered intervals over the next four years.
Through public outreach and research, Metro identified five corridors where capacity could be greatly increased by adding service and providing a faster trip.
ETP member Kathy Huckabay believes that RapidRide will be a positive addition to the regional bus picture.
“I’m not sure that we need new, specially painted buses, but these are great services and I strongly suggest we move forward with them,” she said.
In some instances the RapidRide services will replace existing routes, a move toward great efficiency in road time.
“They will also attract more riders, which will increase revenue,” Huckabay said.
She is one of a number of transportation experts who believes that officials must take notice of suggestions to trim inefficiencies in order to reduce service reductions, and that route reductions, when necessary, needed to be “more surgical.”
“I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to just cut them across the board,” she said “Let’s find a way of distributing service cuts more fairly, by being more creative with how we reduce services. Maybe people might have to wait a little longer for a bus, but the key is to provide broader coverage, to keep people moving.”
But according to both Huckabay and Schaer, the biggest step that transportation agencies could take to improve the regional bus scene is to work together.
It is something that the ETP asked Dow Constantine and Susan Hutchison, the two remaining candidates for King County Executive, when they met with the ETP on Sept. 11.
“I’m interested in how the new executive plans to better coordinate the transportation system,” Schaer said. “It’s very fractionalized. There are a lot of different agencies, some of them covering similar routes. That was one of the reasons they brought in the ORCA card – it was too hard to figure out what each different trip would cost.”
Those different agencies include Sound Transit and Metro, the Port of Seattle, which governs the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway corridor, and a number of community transit systems, such as those servicing Snohomish and Pierce counties.
“There is a lot of duplication of service,” Huckabay said, citing Sound Transit’s 554 service and Metro’s 218, which both connect Seattle with Issaquah.
“Throughout the county there are lots of opportunities of that type,” she said. “You look at the Eastgate Transit Center, or Mercer Island – there are often three or four buses showing up at the same time.”
Huckabay said there was no interaction between the community transit services coming in to Seattle, and Metro, interaction that could not only provide a better system for riders but would save a lot of money by reducing the number of agencies and trimming overheads.
“Consolidating some of these providers would make more savings that anything Metro could do on it’s own,” she said.
So plenty of energy is being expended on regional bus services at the moment.
But, RapidRide aside, bus users are not likely to see any improvements in the near future.
At the moment, it is all about treading water – maintaining a system many believe we have already long outgrown.
Jake Lynch is editor of the Issaquah Reporter. He can be contacted at editor@issasquahreporter.com.

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2. Fare increases, service cuts possible for King County Metro in 2011
3. Sound Transit, WSDOT handle different ways to travel

Federal Way Police are beefing up their patrol of the Federal Way Transit Center

By Jacinda Howard
Federal Way Mirror
Security upgrades and added police presence are the backbone of an effort to increase public safety at the Federal Way Transit Center.
The transit center, 31621 23rd Ave. S., is owned by Sound Transit, but patrolled by hired guards and local police. The city of Federal Way, police and Sound Transit are working in collaboration to install cameras with higher resolution as well as a direct video feed from the transportation facility to the police station.
Increased police patrolling of the area is already in place, former police spokesman Raymond Bunk said. Some of the upgrades have come in reaction to criminal activity. Other items are part of a larger regional effort to increase safety at Sound Transit-owned transportation hubs, Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray said.
“We’ve got some Homeland Security grant money and we’re looking at all our transit centers in the region,” he said.
Three high-resolution cameras were installed last spring on the Federal Way Transit Center pedestrian platform. They provide direct live video feed to police via the Safe City program. The cameras are in direct response to a shooting in early 2008 as well as an early-April beating that left a man with broken bones and his jaw wired shut.
Both incidents attracted large-scale media attention. The current cameras in place left police unable to identify the suspects in both cases, Bunk said.
The replacement of an additional 30 cameras to high-resolution equipment is scheduled for completion this fall. These cameras will be located on the platform and in the garage. They will make it easier for police and Sound Transit guards to read license plate numbers and have a more detailed look at the platform area, Gray said.

After a shooting at the transit center, a witness told police that a man named Glenn Proctor, 21, was the shooter. Video of the crime was accessible, but it was difficult to make out a description of the suspect. Proctor's lawyers hired an electronics engineer to pick apart the fuzzy footage. The man's efforts, math and science skills freed Proctor.

Troublesome activity
The transit center opened in 2006. Security cameras and Sound Transit guards provide around-the-clock public safety services.
Approximately 50 cameras now monitor visitors’ activities. But the cameras’ resolution is not perfect. Video is blurry. The need to increase the resolution of the cameras first gained attention earlier this year when Glenn Proctor, 21, was released after spending nearly a year in jail with second-degree homicide charges attached to his name.
In January 2008, a woman was shot and killed at the Federal Way Transit Center. The woman was a bystander. A witness told police Proctor was the shooter. Video of the crime was accessible, but it was difficult to make out a description of the suspect. Proctor’s lawyers hired an electronics engineer to pick apart the fuzzy footage. The man’s efforts, math and science skills freed Proctor.

Tools to serve justice
Soon after Proctor was released from jail and news of the April assault hit television, city council member and prosecuting attorney Jim Ferrell announced his desire to see the camera system at the transit center improved.
Mayor Jack Dovey also recently supported the initiative to better secure the transit center. The security measures are needed as a means to send the message that Federal Way will not tolerate a “thug mentality,” Ferrell said.
They are needed as a tool to hold criminals accountable for their actions, Ferrell said. Not being able to serve justice because of a lack of sophisticated technology is unacceptable, he said.
“What really spurred my interest is this homicide case went unsolved,” Ferrell said. “We cannot have that happen again.”
The transportation center, in its current state, is a safe place, but police are eager to have better technology to aid them in their jobs, Bunk said.
“I believe these were isolated incidents,” he said. “We’ve had cameras down there, it’s generally a safe area.”
The high-resolution cameras will provide on-duty patrol officers with accurate suspect descriptions. High-resolution video will also be more helpful in court, Bunk said.
Jacinda Howard can be contacted at jhoward@federalwaymirror.com.

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University of Washington, Bothell, Chancellor Kenyon Chan. Photo by Tom Corrigan

By Tom Corrigan
Reporter Newspapers
“The significance is huge,” said University of Washington, Bothell Chancellor Kenyon Chan.
On Sept. 18, WSDOT and the UW-Bothell were scheduled to hold a ribbon cutting for the new Interstate 405/State Route 522 ramp leading to the joint campus of the university and Cascadia Community College. The ramp was to open to traffic a week later.
With the arrival of the ramp, for the first time, the campus has a second entrance.
“It will allow the UW-Bothell to grow as it should,” Chan said.
Focusing his comments more on the traffic implications of the new ramp, Bothell Transportation Manager Seyed Safavian said the ramp should have a major effect on his city’s streets.
Prior to construction of the ramp, all traffic headed to the campus was funneled through the entrance off Beardslee Boulevard in Bothell.
While the schools were limited to one entrance, their student populations also were limited due to an agreement with the city of Bothell.
Under that agreement, UW-Bothell had to at least secure funding for the ramp before the combined enrollment at the university and Cascadia could exceed a combined 3,000. Chan noted UW-Bothell’s student population alone should reach 2,300 this year.
State officials have set the price tag for the ramp at $52.3 million. Chan feels that in the long run, taking into account the economic contributions of two thriving schools and their graduates, the ramp will more than pay for itself.

Last month, workers put the final touches on the Interstate 405/State Route 522 ramp to the University of Washington, Bothell. Anecdotally, a retaining wall built for the ramp is said to be the biggest in the state, if not a good portion of the Northwest. Photo by Andy Nystrom

“It’s a good investment,” he said. “It’s interesting that a transportation project was an investment in the future of students.”
Ultimately, Chan envisions the UW-Bothell growing to between 6,000 to 7,000 students. The university has been expanding at a pace of about 200 to 300 students a year. However, with the ramp, and just as importantly, with added academic programs, Chan feels future growth in student population could happen more rapidly.
In terms of physical growth, UW-Bothell added its first campus housing this year and has plans for more. UW-Bothell Vice-Chancellor Marilyn Cox said the school recently received a $5 million grant to begin design of a new science and academic building. Further, with completion of the ramp, UW-Bothell officials plan a major updating of their master plan. A student activities center could be a primary focus of that plan, according to Cox.
Along with school officials, Safavian said he expects the new 405/522 entrance will handle about 80 percent of the traffic headed to the campus.
“I expect that this will remove substantial pressure off Beardslee,” Safavian said.
UW-Bothell officials said about 25 percent of the school’s population comes from Snohomish County and the ramp  is an obvious benefit to those students.
But Safavian added direct access from 522 also helps campus traffic heading into Bothell from points west.  Prior to the opening of the ramp, that traffic was forced to cut through downtown Bothell, or worse in Safavian’s opinion, make their way to Beardslee using Bothell side streets.
“One complaint we constantly get is that the traffic going to the campus uses local streets,” Safavian said.
With the ramp in place, traffic should be able to simply stay on the city’s state routes, if nothing else, easing congestion in downtown Bothell.
As WSDOT officials have been quick to emphasize, the ramp was completed eight months ahead of schedule.
“We were very impressed by the magnitude of the project,” Chan said.
He expects the ramp and an expanded UW-Bothell campus will tie in well with Bothell’s well-advertised plans to revamp and grow its downtown.
The ambitious plan includes a large-scale mixed use development and a major realignment of Main Street and State Route’s 527 and 522. Chan envisions the university and the city coming together with what he called a “town and gown” development.
“Bothell has a wonderful urban renewal plan… We will connect to that,” he added.
Tom Corrigan is a writer for the Bothell Reporter. He can be contacted at tcorrigan@bothell-reporter.com.

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Kirkland resident Sally Brown carries a pedestrian flag while crossing Central Way in downtown Kirkland recently with her daughter, Caroline Schmale, 7. Photo by Carrie Wood.

By Carrie Wood
Reporter Newspapers
On any given afternoon, chances are you can find Daryl Grigsby riding his bike along the streets of downtown Kirkland.
Grigsby leads by example, as the city’s Public Works director who manages the city’s operations for transportation, among other services.
Looking at the future of transportation in Kirkland, he refers to the city’s transportation strategy as a three-legged stool: active transportation, building projects to deal with capacity and intelligent transportation. The city hopes the strategies will meet its vision of “more people, more places, more often.”

Active transportation
The city recently completed its Active Transportation Plan that outlines city plans to add more sidewalks, bike lanes, bike facilities and pedestrian connections.
The city’s approach is to look at what projects could keep traffic moving at a reasonable level, while promoting other modes of transportation, such as walking, cycling and transit, Grigsby said.
“A lot of people don’t know – and this is the under-riding premises of this plan – but one quarter of all trips we take out of our house are less than a mile,” he said, noting the plan aims to take that percentage of trips and convert them from a car to walking, cycling or transit. This would alleviate congestion, reduce gas emissions and facilitate a healthier lifestyle, he added.
The plan outlines several goals that the city expects to reach in the near future, including to develop a section of Cross-Kirkland Trail on the Eastside Rail Corridor by 2015.
The plan also aims to reduce crash rates involving pedestrians and cyclists by 10 percent between 2010-2015.
The overall goal is to increase the number of pedestrians and cyclists, because “ironically the more pedestrians and bicyclists there are, crash rates actually go down,” Grigsby said.
One way to get more people on the streets is through the city’s commitment to pedestrian safety, he noted.
Deputy Mayor Joan McBride says the city has been a leader in pedestrian safety for years. Kirkland currently has pedestrian flags at about 70 locations throughout the city – more than any city of a comparable size, she said. In addition, the city has 30 flashing in-pavement crosswalks.
“We try to be a city that pilots new pedestrian safety tools and we’re very proud of that,” McBride said. “I’m sure with this new plan we’ll continue to look for all those new tools to slow down traffic a little bit.”
Continuing this commitment to safety, the city will improve lighting at all uncontrolled crosswalks on higher volume streets, which could be funded in 2010 and future CIP programs.
The city also has focused on installing more sidewalks, with the recent completion of sidewalk and bike lanes on 116th Ave. N.E., from the Houghton Park & Ride to 60th St.
The city also received grants for sidewalk projects and recently installed sidewalk on 99th and 100th avenues in Juanita, and off 132nd Street in North Rose Hill.

"A lot of people don't know - and this is the underriding premises of this plan - but one quarter of all trips we take out of our house are for less than a mile." - Daryl Grigsby

By 2016, the city plans to complete sidewalk on one side of all principal and minor arterials, as well as sidewalk on one side of all school walk route segments by 2019.
In addition, the city will increase the number of children who use active transportation to travel to and from school by implementing programs at Kirkland Junior High, Lake Washington High School and Juanita High School by next year.
Also next year the city will begin work on installing sidewalks on school walk routes, using a half million dollar grant Kirkland received from the state’s Safe Routes to School Program.
The Active Transportation Plan also aims to make bicycling more convenient in Kirkland.
Through an on-line survey, residents told the city they wanted improved bicycle parking, better on-street bicycle facilities, more directional signs and a way for cyclists to activate traffic signals.
The city recently installed new pavement markings to help cyclists trigger traffic signals. The city also plans to re-stripe streets so that space is reallocated to bicycles and away from cars by 2011, and complete installation of 50 percent of directional signs by 2011 and 100 percent by Dec. 2013.

Driver accommodations
Though the city promotes active transportation, it still can’t ignore that many people do drive, Grigsby says.
Some projects the city recently completed to accommodate drivers and deal with capacity include an addition of two left turn lanes at the intersection of Northeast 124th Avenue and 124th Avenue Northeast in Totem Lake, as well as the installation of a traffic light at the intersection of Third Street and Kirkland Ave. that has helped mitigate traffic.
The city has also begun work on 85th corridor improvements and within the next couple of years will install a signal at the intersection of 85th and 124th streets that will increase turning capacity for drivers, sidewalks on both sides of 85th and underground utilities.
The extensive project, currently in the design phase and largely funded by Sound Transit, will require property acquisition and negotiation, Grigsby said.
“The city’s long-term vision is to make 85th Street a true business district, where there’s pedestrian activity,” he noted.
In partnership with King County Metro and Sound Transit, the city has also just begun work on a new downtown Transit Center that will be completed by Oct. 15.

Intelligent transportation
On a recent afternoon, Iris Cabrera watched live footage of an intersection on 124th Street from her computer screen at City Hall.
A transportation engineer for the city, Cabrera described how she is able to monitor seven intersections in the city on her computer. The intelligent technology allows her to see how a traffic signal is operating. King County remotely manages the 124th corridor and can temporarily modify the signal timing if needed.
Grigsby said the City Council hasn’t invested a lot of money in this type of technology yet, but it recently completed its ITS (Intelligent Transportation) Strategic Plan that outlines ways ITS can help the city improve its transportation system.
Its a way to use technology to get more out of the city’s road and signal system, instead of adding more lanes, Grigsby added.
Carrie Wood is editor of the Kirkland Reporter. She can be contacted at editor@kirklandreporter.com.

For more information about the City of Kirkland’s Active Transportation Plan, visit www.ci.kirkland.wa.us/depart/Public_Works/Transportation_Streets/Active_Transportation_Plan.htm

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Last month, workers put the final touches on the Interstate 405/State Route 522 ramp to the University of Washington, Bothell, Anecdotally, a retaining wall built for the ramp is said to be the biggest in the state, if not a good portion of the Northwest. Photo by Andy Nystrom.

By Tom Corrigan
Reporter Newspapers
According to Bothell Transportation Manager Seyed Safavian, the major road issues in his turf, so to speak, are hard to miss.
“When you listen to the radio, the choke points are always the same,” he said.
And one of those choke points is often Interstate 405 through Bothell. There are a couple of projects – one finished and one on the way – that might not keep Bothell out of the traffic reports, but according to several sources should ease some of Bothell’s and I-405’s routine congestion.
For those motoring past Bothell on the freeway, probably the most notable project is the rapidly moving plan to add a new lane to the northbound side of 405 between Northeast 195th Street and State Route 527.
Several sources labeled the 405/195th interchange, especially during the afternoon rush hours, as one of the most congested spots along the 405 corridor. But even as that project moves forward, one troublesome situation in close proximity to that choke point should be greatly alleviated, at least in theory, by the time you read this.
On Sept. 18, WSDOT and the University of Washington, Bothell were scheduled to hold a ribbon cutting for the new I-405/State Route 522 ramp leading to the campus of the university and Cascadia Community College. Among other benefits, the ramp project was designed to reduce traffic congestion in and around Bothell. It was to open to the public the week following the ribbon cutting.
As for the additional lane on 405, the plan greatly was sped along with the infusion of federal economic stimulus money, according to Denice Cieri, WSDOT deputy director for project development. WSDOT 405 Engineering Manager Brian Nielsen said the additional lane originally was part of a much larger package aimed at improving traffic flow on 405. When federal stimulus money became available, state officials quickly removed the 195th Street scheme from the larger plan.
Nielsen said federal officials were looking for “shovel-ready projects.”
“Because we had done some preliminary work,” he added, “we felt we could get this project out quickly.”
On Aug. 21, the state awarded a $19.3 million bid to Kiewit Construction of Renton to design and build the new lane. I-405 Project spokesperson Susan Hoffman said the apparent best bid was 36 percent less than the available funding of $30 million. According to Kim Henry, eastside corridor project director, Kiewit not only came up with the lowest bid, but also the quickest construction plan.
If the bid gains final approval, construction could begin later this fall, state officials said. The work could be finished and opened to traffic in one construction season, meaning the summer of 2010.
In a press release, Hoffman talked about the auxiliary lane improving traffic flow in a section of 405 which has experienced more than 100 collisions in the past three years. Of those accidents, the state blames 84 percent on traffic congestion. And of that 84 percent, 60 percent resulted from stop-and-go traffic as well as weaving traffic entering and exiting the freeway between 195th Street and 527.
“This allows extra space for cars to sort themselves out,” Nielsen said.
“We think it will substantially improve traffic flow,” Safavian added.
A WSDOT benefit and cost analysis showed the project exceeds a 4:1 benefit ratio, numbers Cieri called “very, very good.”

With an aerial map of Bothell behind him and various project specs in front of him, Bothell Transportation Manager Seyed Safavian talks easily about traffic problems in and around the city for which he works. Photo by Tom Corrigan

Hoffman noted one other benefit of the additional lane is allowing drivers better access to the business parks on 195th Street as well as the UW-Bothell campus.
WSDOT spokesperson Meghan Soptich Pembroke said the $52.3 million UW-Bothell ramp was completed eight months ahead of schedule. Originally slated to be finished in the spring, even landscaping work was instead to begin this month. The ramp creates a new southern entrance to the UW-Bothell and Cascadia campus, the only entrance previously being at the northern end from Beardslee Boulevard at the outskirts of downtown Bothell.
The ramp is significant for a number of reasons, according to various sources. Safavian and others talked about it obviously relieving congestion around the campus’ northern entrance. UW-Bothell Transportation Coordinator Ruth Honour said she expects the new ramp will carry 80 percent of the traffic headed for the campus. Safavian said city officials clearly are counting on the new entrance to reduce the amount of campus traffic using city streets, confining more of that traffic to 522.
“I can tell you the entrance is an absolutely critical piece of campus infrastructure,” said Marilyn Cox, UW-B vice-chancellor for administration and planning.
The ramp and new entrance were part of a bargain struck between the city of Bothell and UW-Bothell officials, the deal being that funding for the ramp had to be obtained before the combined student population at Cascadia and UW-Bothell exceeded 3,000. Director of government and community relations for UW-Bothell, Kelly Snyder said the number of students attending the campus should have hit 5,000 this fall.
“The vision to open this campus to its full potential has been achieved with the (ramp) project,” said Bothell Mayor Mark Lamb.
Tom Corrigan is a writer for the Bothell Reporter. He can be contacted at tcorrigan@bothell-reporter.com.

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Q: Transportation is a critical concern in Bellevue and residents perennially list it as a top issue in the city’s annual performance measures survey. What is Bellevue doing to help commuters, residents and visitors get around?
A: We are working on several fronts to improve our transportation system. Regionally, we’re working to remove the remaining impediments to construction of a new SR 520 bridge and improve that vital corridor. Also, we have devoted a great deal of attention to the expansion of light rail to the Eastside.
In Bellevue, the council has identified critical mobility projects necessary to improve traffic flow into and out of downtown. Some of these improvements are underway on I-405; others are road projects within downtown, the Wilburton area and the Bel-Red corridor. Keeping in mind that we cannot just pave our way out of congestion, we are expanding critical roadways in a very targeted way that will get us maximum mobility for our money.
Other efforts include commuter programs providing good options to driving alone and upgrades to our pedestrian and bicycle networks.

Q: What are some examples of roadway projects that make travel in Bellevue more convenient?
A: In recent years Bellevue has partnered with the state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) on major projects designed to make it easier to get in and out of Bellevue. One of those, called Access Downtown, expanded the capacity of downtown interchanges to I-405 and added a special bus and carpool ramp that conveniently connects the freeway to the Bellevue Transit Center. Currently, we’re partnering with WSDOT to extend Northeast 10th Street across I-405, tying downtown to the city’s growing medical district. We’re also coordinating with WSDOT on the I-405, South Bellevue Widening Project to reduce congestion on one the region’s toughest stretches of freeway, south of downtown approaching I-90. Finally, the so-called braided ramp project on I-405, north of Northeast Eighth Street, will begin soon. This project, designed to eliminate the freeway “weave” between downtown and SR 520, is funded in part by the federal stimulus package.

Q: Why’s it so important to improve the transportation system in the downtown area?
A: Downtown Bellevue is the second largest employment center in the region. Currently there are roughly 40,000 people who work downtown, but that number is expected to jump to 63,000 by 2020; the number of downtown residents, approximately 5,500 now, is projected to hit 14,000 by 2020. We simply must find new ways to move people more efficiently if we are to keep up with anticipated growth. We think the key to our transportation future is a gradual shift away from solo driving and toward alternatives that are convenient, economical and environmentally friendly.

Q: What other steps is Bellevue taking to maintain a balanced transportation system in the future?
A: Last year, the City Council approved a Mobility and Infrastructure Initiative designed to improve access to and from downtown and the Bel-Red area. The initiative features a mix of road building, “intelligent transportation” improvements to the city’s traffic signals system, improvements that compliment Metro’s “Rapid Ride” bus service between Bellevue and Redmond – scheduled to begin in 2011 – and improvements to our pedestrian and bicycle system. Another significant improvement, albeit one that won’t arrive for a while, is Sound Transit’s light rail service.

Q: Sound Transit’s light rail line expansion approved by voters last year includes East Link, which will run from Seattle, through Bellevue to the Overlake area of Redmond. What has Bellevue done to make sure the route best serves local and regional interests?
A: Prior to the release of a draft environmental review of East Link late last year, Bellevue embarked on a year-long “Best Practices” effort. A panel of citizens who serve on our boards and commissions studied light rail systems in other West Coast cities in order to learn lessons that could be applied in Bellevue. The work resulted in many changes to the city’s comprehensive plan and serves as a guide to help protect neighborhood character and make sure the East Link route delivers efficient, reliable service in a manner that’s compatible with our city’s goals and values.

Q: Council members and others have expressed a desire to have a light rail tunnel beneath downtown Bellevue, rather than the street-level system recommended by the Sound Transit Board. Why is a tunnel important?
A: The council is very concerned that running light rail on the surface through downtown will seriously back up traffic and slow down the light rail service. A tunnel option would prevent both of these impacts. Plus, projections show that a tunnel would attract higher ridership than the surface option. We are continuing to work with Sound Transit in finding ways to address the tunnel option.

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By Mark Klaas
Auburn Reporter
Valley Freeway, meet I-405.
Two of Puget Sound’s most congested highways could meet halfway in a bid to alleviate regional traffic trauma.
So hope state transportation and legislative leaders.
Different in personality but similar in function, more rural State Route 167 and more urbanized Interstate 405 hold a critical, direct link in whether the state ultimately can create a 50-mile-long “I-5 alternative” for commuters all too familiar with workday gridlock.
The Washington Department of Transportation is conducting an I-405 and SR 167 Eastside Corridor Tolling Study – a phase-by-phase, option-by-option inquiry to determine if a vastly enhanced north-south freeway alternative is possible in the years ahead.
Auburn’s Senior Activity Center recently staged a WSDOT open house/discussion session with the public. Few attended, but many officials hope the campaign will catch on. Comments will be included in a report to Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature in January.
“People want a choice,” said Denise Cieri, WSDOT engineer and deputy project manager. “The biggest challenge is getting people educated on what the benefits would be.”
The study seeks public input to determine if east can meet south, buoyed by a smoother I-405/SR 167 connection, additional express toll lanes and other time-saving means to serve commuters.
In these difficult economic times, it is a daunting attempt to explain the benefits of a creative, yet expensive “I-5 II.”
The big question in all of this is: Who will pay for it?
Options include raising the federal gas tax, utilizing toll revenue and securing federal funding.
“We’re trying to leverage any money that’s available,” said Janet Matkin, WSDOT spokesperson. “It’s a good plan. It’s finding the funding to implement it.”
To make it possible, the WSDOT wants to pay for the project carefully by introducing it step by step.
Some Auburnites, however, remain skeptical.
“If they put in a toll, what convinces me they won’t raise it?” said one woman.
The I-405 Corridor Program would involve more than 150 individual, coordinated projects to relieve congestion and improve mobility for motorists, transit and freight users along the freeway’s 30-mile length. The master plan for repairing snarled I-405 traffic includes many transportation modes, adding up to two new lanes each direction to I-405, a corridor-wide bus rapid transit line and increased local transit service. It will fix bottlenecks such as the SR 167/I-405 interchange mess, improve major arterials, expand transit centers and add about 1,700 new vanpools and more than 5,000 park-and-ride spaces.
“The connectivity to 167 is a key expansion puzzle piece,” Cieri said.
The Valley Freeway is a major player in all this, and Auburn stands to gain. The project aims to improve safety and relieve congestion on 27 miles of SR 167 between Renton and Puyallup.
Do nothing and traffic promises to worsen.
In the Green River Valley, the population grew by 68 percent 1980 and 2000, and is projected to grow another 39 percent by 2030, according to WSDOT numbers. Employment nearly doubled between 1980 and 2000 with growth projections of another 50 percent in 20 years. This could mean another 90,000 jobs in the Valley by the year 2030, which is good news. Increasing development, however, often brings more bumpers and exhaust pipes.
A corridor that carried 15,000 vehicles per day in 1970 now carries 120,000 vehicles on a busy weekday. Without future investments, southbound travel time on the corridor could zoom from an average of 20 minutes to more than an hour by 2030.
For now, transportation officials are considering the addition of up to two express toll lanes that would connect with existing high occupancy toll, or HOT lanes, on state Route 167.
A nine-mile stretch along Auburn has served as a mildly successful pilot project for WSDOT. During peak hours, more commuters are using HOT lanes where drivers pay on average of a dollar to use the lanes, even if driving alone, to save an average of 10 minutes on a commute.
State officials say traffic flow on the general purpose lanes of SR 167 has improved as a result of the HOT lanes project.
If approved, phase one would turn existing carpool lanes on sections of I-405 into HOT lanes.
Officials said in years to come, if funding is available, there could be a 50-mile HOT lane corridor running from Puyallup in the south to Lynnwood in the north.
The plan is worth a close look and consideration.
Seattle-Tacoma is not Southern California, where freeway options abound. Nationally, more cities are resorting to tolls to build and maintain freeway systems.
Perhaps it might be time for this region to face the music and consider such an alternative.
Note: The public can take an online project survey.
Auburn Reporter Editor Mark Klaas can be reached at editor@auburn-reporter.com.

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Going north to Bellevue from Renton at freeway speed - 60 mph - should take about 14 minutes. Anyone who drives the freeway regularly knows that doesn't happen. Photo by Chad Coleman.

By Dean A. Radford
Reporter Newspapers
First the bad news, which should be no surprise to anyone.
That 14-mile stretch of Interstate 405 between Renton and Bellevue is the most congested piece of freeway in the state. That’s not much solace when you’re trying to get to work. But at least you have lots of company.
But the good news is that the state is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on I-405 from Tukwila to Bellevue and beyond by widening and removing bridges, including the Wilburton Tunnel in Bellevue, and adding lanes to shave minutes off that commute.
So how does the state arrive at its congestion estimation?
Going north to Bellevue from Renton at freeway speed – 60 mph – should take about 14 minutes. Anyone who drives the freeway regularly knows that doesn’t happen.
Here’s the reality.
“For someone to get to their destination, they would need to give themselves an hour,” said Stacy Trussler, the I-405 deputy project director for the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Going southbound, she said, the congestion is even worse.
And then there’s the other bottleneck that adds aggravating minutes – lots of them – to the northbound morning commute from Kent or Auburn to the Eastside.
That bottleneck is the complex interchange at State Route 167 (the Valley Freeway) and Interstate 405 in Renton. It has the distinction of being in a tie with the junction of Interstate 5 and I-90 in downtown Seattle as the most congested freeway interchange in the state.
“That is a critical link to relieving the congestion on the Eastside corridor,” Trussler said. The state will seek federal dollars to help make necessary improvements.
That congestion also causes backups on southbound 405 through downtown Renton when drivers queue in the right-hand lane to take the SR 167 exit to Kent and Auburn.
But help is already on the way, from Renton to Bellevue and all the way to where I-405 runs again into Interstate 5 north of Bothell.
When built, I-405 was intended as a relief valve for traffic on Interstate 5. Now, 405 has become the key freeway thoroughfare to handle the Eastside’s growth.
Already, the traffic is moving faster on 405 between Renton and Bellevue, thanks to the addition of a northbound lane between 112th Avenue Southeast in Newcastle and I-90. And because of that, Trussler says, the transportation department has received “a whole lot of love letters,” thanking the state for improving the commute and cutting down on travel times – about 20 or 25 minutes at certain times of the day.
The worst congestion from Renton to Bellevue has been reduced dramatically, with bottlenecks gone, Trussler says. But the state can’t yet consistently promise a 14-mile trip in 14 minutes, if that’s even a realistic goal. That’s because the state still doesn’t have the money to add capacity – more lanes – to 405 starting at about the Maple Valley Highway in Renton.
That work is being planned, at least conceptually, in a 405 master plan. In fact the state transportation department has a team that’s specifically charged with figuring out how to make the entire Eastside transportation corridor work better.
Already the state has $1.5 billion either spent or committed for “hot spots” and strategic improvements on the entire length of I-405, from its junction with I-5 at Tukwila to the south and its reconnection to I-5 to the north.
“We are well under way with the strategic and safety projects,” Trussler said.
About $180 million of that money is going to improvements in Renton, from roughly Southcenter to the Maple Valley Highway.
The work in Renton is being done in two stages. The first one will be completed this year and adds lanes to 405 between SR 167 and Tukwila. The second stage – visible now because of the massive earth-moving project near Renton City Hall – will add a freeway off-ramp and an onramp, easing traffic in downtown Renton.
The “Your Nickel at Work” signs at 405 construction sites refer to the 5-cent increase in the gas tax that voters approved in 2003. The federal government is also a major source of funding for the 405 projects, including some money from President Obama’s stimulus package.
The South Bellevue project, at a cost of about $124 million, is about 95 percent complete. It helps relieve congestion at one of the worst I-405 bottlenecks – the drive in and out of Bellevue.
That project included the removal of the Wilburton Tunnel, which carried the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks over the freeway. The project also included that much-loved new northbound lane starting near Newcastle.
The project also included between I-90 and Southeast Eighth Street in Bellevue:

• Building one new lane in each direction from I-90 to Southeast Eighth Street
• Building a new three-lane southbound bridge over I-90
• Converting the existing southbound bridge over I-90 to carry the northbound HOV lane.

Already completed is one of the so-called “nickel projects” in Kirkland. The transportation department is constructing a Stage 2 project that will add a lane northbound from Northeast 70th to Northeast 85th and southbound from SR 522 to Northeast 124th and Northeast 85th to SR 520.
The state transportation department has also selected Kiewit Pacific Co. of Renton to design and build a new northbound freeway lane in Bothell, at a cost of about $19.2 million. Crews will build the lane between Northeast 195th Street and State Route 527, where afternoon commuters face severe backups daily.
Dean A. Radford is Editor of the Renton Reporter. He can be contacted at editor@rentonreporter.com.

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By Jacinda Howard
Federal Way Mirror
The state Senate is keeping $109 million for Federal Way’s “triangle project” intact.
The money, distributed from the Senate’s roads budget, will remain earmarked for the project — the Interstate 5/Highway 18/Highway 161 interchange — for another year.
The interchange was constructed in the 1960s and is no longer safe to accommodate daily traffic, plagued with traffic collisions and back-ups. The city and Washington State Department of Transportation are collaborating on the funding efforts.
Federal Way has chased funds for the better half of a decade, assistant city manager Cary Roe said.
Construction will be completed by the Washington State Department of Transportation, but Federal Way has a strong interest in the project due to its proximity to the city’s busiest and largest intersection: Highway 161 (Enchanted Parkway) and South 348th Street. The intersection features triple left-hand turns and cannot safely get any larger, Roe said. Addressing the triangle area will improve safety at the intersection.
To date, just shy of $112 million of the proposed $240 million needed for the project has been secured. Gas taxes, federal money and existing state funds all contributed to this. The project received a big boost in 2005 when it got the $109 million from the state, much of it from gas taxes.
But the money is not a sure thing. Each year during its budget cycle, the state can choose to re-allocate dollars it has dedicated to the triangle project toward another state effort, Roe said.
Local legislators and city staff ramped up their efforts to convince the state that taking away triangle project funding now would be detrimental. Making a case for the project this year was difficult due to the state’s budget crisis.
Maintaining the $109 million in state funding guarantees that work on the project will continue.
Two cloverleaf loop ramps will be replaced with “flyover” ramps to serve traffic traveling westbound Highway 18 to southbound Interstate 5 and eastbound Highway 18 to northbound Interstate 5.
Direct access to Highway 161 from southbound Interstate 5 and westbound Highway 18 will be served by new exit ramps at South 356th Street and South 359th Street. Other improvements are also scheduled. The work will eliminate weaving traffic and is slated for completion in an undetermined number of phases.
Design work and environmental assessments on the first phase will wrap up this year, and construction is expected to begin in early 2010. Construction will last until 2013. Holding on to the $109 million makes this work possible, Roe said. Future phases will begin as funding is available.
Tracey Eide (D-Federal Way) is a leader in the state Senate in fighting for the triangle project. She has been behind it since its beginning. City staff has lobbied for federal money for the project for several years. City council members and staff traveled to Washington, D.C., at the end of March where they attempted to capture money for the triangle and City Center Access projects, Roe said.

Jacinda Howard is a writer for the Federal Way Mirror. She can be contacted at jhoward@federalwaymirror.com.

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State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen tells attendees at the forum that "it is vital that the federal and state efforts complement each other - that's a no-brainer." Photo by Chad Coleman.

By Jake Lynch
Reporter Newspapers

Travelers, miners, and adventurers, clad in animal skins and weighed down with trunks of Klondike gold and stories of exploration, used to gather at the Arctic Club Hotel to drink whiskey and share tales.
It was the gold coming down from the Yukon which built their luxurious, men’s only club in the early 1900s.
A few years ago, this historic landmark was transformed into a top of line hotel, combining its historic charm with modern conveniences and design.
And so it was fitting that in the same rooms that once entertained stories of pioneering exploration, a new vision of our transportation future was launched recently that hopes to change modern life in America in the same way that gold and the railway changed it 100 years ago.
The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), a Washington, D.C.-based group consisting of former senators, congressmen, civic leaders and policy experts, launched “Performance Driven: A New Vision for U.S. Transportation Policy,” in the club on Aug. 27.
It was the first in a series of national events designed to draw attention to the plan and foster discussion among transportation officials and the public ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline to bring a new national surface transportation bill before Congress.
“The deadline for the new authorization will not be met,” said project co-chair and former U.S. Sen. Slate Gorton in his introduction at the Arctic Club. “The Senate seems to have little interest in doing so.”

Joshua Schank, director of transportation research for the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based group consisting of former senators, congressmen, civic leaders, and policy experts, noted that gas tax revenue was becoming a counter-productive source of revenue, and would continue to decline in the future as consumers looked for other modes. Photo by Chad Coleman.

An extension of about 12 months is likely, and the BPC plans to use this extension to press upon legislators the importance of a dynamic and unified transportation framework, the first of its kind since Presidents Roosevelt and then Eisenhower oversaw the construction of a national highway system in the 1930s and ’40s.
Joining Gorton at the discussion were many of the state’s prime movers in transportation policy, including State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, former Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Secretary Doug MacDonald, CEO of Sound Transit Joni Earl, WSDOT Secretary Paula Hammond, Chair of Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce J. Tayloe Washburn, Puget Sound Regional Council’s Transportation Planning Director Charlie Howard, and Commissioner of the Washington State Transportation Commission Dan O’Neal.
In the audience were mayors and former mayors, senators and civic leaders.
They heard that commuters, freight operators, the economy and the environment are all suffering from the lack of a unified national transportation plan, which is encouraging a fragmented, inefficient system.
“At the federal level, transportation has lost any real sense of goals,” Gorton said. “I think it’s most important that we focus laser-like on the proposition of how we measure success. What kind of metrics do we use, and how do we determine how discretionary grants are awarded? What is success in the transportation field?”
The BPC claims that federal transportation policy, which hasn’t been overhauled in decades, needs immediate reform.
“There is no federal requirement to optimize returns on public investments, and current programs are not structured to reward positive outcomes, or even to document them,” it says in the BPC executive summary.
Their National Transportation Policy Project (NTPP) calls for transportation projects to be seen as components of a larger program of metropolitan investments, all designed with five major goals in mind: Economic growth, national connectivity, metropolitan accessibility, energy security and environmental protection, and safety.

Former U.S. Senator Slade Gorton says the Senate seems to have 'little interest' in tackling a transportation plan at this time. Photo by Chad Coleman.

How a centralized effort like this plays itself out is of course seen in the types of projects and infrastructure that are supported. The BPC wants such decisions to be “mode-neutral,” evaluated by performance toward achieving the goals and not hindered by bias toward a particular mode, be it public transit or roads expansion.
This mode neutrality matches the non-partisan nature of the group, which has stated a determination not to let political allegiances or corporate interests skew the plan’s intent.
Rarely are such lofty ideals matched with the political muscle to make it occur.
This is a group with real experience in the ways of Washington, and the group’s chairs, which include Gorton and former U.S. Congressmen Sherwood Boehlert and Martin Olav Sabo, and former Mayor of Detroit Dennis Archer, have spent the past month lobbying hard in the halls of power.
One of things they are pushing for is a funding approach where competition for federal investment in new capacity would be prioritized based partly on competition.
Whether it’s light rail, car pooling incentives, HOV lanes or expanded bus systems that prove to be the most effective solution to a particular problem, then that is one that is rewarded and funded.
“The federal government shouldn’t be concerned with how CO2 emissions are decreasing, just that they are,” said Joshua Shank, BPCs Director of Transportation Research.
Schank said that just building new infrastructure was not always the answer.
“For example, land use changes, or road tolling, might be a more effective solution than a large investment in something,” he said. “If it is, those people will get the money – they will be rewarded for innovative thinking.”
Schank said that gas tax revenue was becoming a counter-productive source of revenue, and would continue to decline in the future as consumers looked for other modes.
“New revenue should be linked to performance,” he said. “That’s we’re working on in Capitol Hill.”

The role of IT
But in order to build a program based around rewarding the performance of transportation projects, first they must provide a way to accurately record that performance.
A big part of the BPC plan is technology – better technology producing accurate and timely data.
A presentation by Information Technology Professor Thomas Horan demonstrated ways in which real time traffic information, utilizing cell phone technology and input from commuters and travelers, would give a clearer idea of what was happening on roads and the state of transit networks.
“Transportation may be one of the least innovative sectors of the economy,” Horan said. “We have this need for innovation, this need for better performance data. Into this problem space should come technology.”
With his own presentation beset by technical problems, however, Horan’s call for a long overdue improvement of transportation technology out in front of a faulty, flickering projector screen was a reminder of the huge gap that still exists between what makes sense and what actually goes on.
“Only 37 percent of urban freeways have implemented Intelligent Transportation Systems program,” he said. “The Department of Transportation does not have data in some critical areas.”
Horan said that this area was one in which the government would benefit from partnerships with the private sector.
“With all due respect to my colleagues at the DOT, it is not exactly a hotbed of innovation,” he said. “The U.S. constitutes the largest market for IT systems in the world. And a lot the developments were are looking for have export potential.”
Through private sector innovation Horan hopes to see “a credible IT system for assessing performance at a federal, state and local level.”
“Now, everyone has to measure their own performance. And they do a so-so job of it, because they don’t have the money for it,” he said.
Horan says that by employing a cutting edge system across the whole country, economies of scale would be achieved, saving money and providing reliable data.
He said that performance metrics, such as accident hot spots and historically congested roads, need to be not just for policy makers and planners, but for the end-users, who in term contribute to the information gathering.
Better technology would also make a variable pricing system more efficient, using higher tolls to encourage travelers to use less congested routes.
Bryan Mistele, CEO of Kirkland-based traffic technology company INRIX, said that the technology for better traffic monitoring is already there, in the cars themselves.
“The vast majority of cars built today by the top three car companies are embedded with chips to send data back to the manufacturer,” he said. “They are already tracking things like fuel use.”

Washington state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, left, Joshua Schank and Dr. Thomas Horan discuss possible changes to the U.S. surface transportation policy. Photo by Chad Coleman.

The need for services
Part of the reason as to why the federal government hasn’t paid proper attention to transportation in the last few decades is that “it isn’t particularly sexy.”
“The president isn’t elected on a platform of transportation,” Schank said. “But if we can make people see how this is important, to see how their lives are affected, then we can make them realize how money spent makes their lives better.”
There are a couple of “sexy” aspects to the transportation debate – the environment, and national security.
Reducing oil consumption is at the heart of almost all high level conversations about transportation systems in America, and so to it is one of the BPC’s five core goals.
“One of the failures of the current system is that it doesn’t link transportation policy to energy security and climate change,” said Steve Marshall from the Cascadia Center for Regional Development. “97 percent of our transportation is fueled by oil. People literally do not have a choice. If you want to get from here to there, you have to burn oil.”
“We depend on imported oil for 60 percent of our total consumption,” Marshall said. “That’s $1 billion dollars a day during the peaks. You compare that to a stimulus investment of $700 billion over three years. A comprehensive investment in plug-in technology would amount to three days investment in foreign oil.”
In the audience, city of Everett councilman Paul Roberts asked how an increase in electricity use would impact the electricity grid.
“Will we need to look at retrofitting cities?” he asked.
Marshall replied that predictions on what increasing electric car use would do to power grids varied, “depending on how bullish your projections are.”
He said that the keys would be creating a usage system that took advantage of off-peak times, at night, and spreading the points geographically.
“But utilities move slowly, transportation systems move slowly,” Marshall said. “We need to start now so we don’t have this problem 10 or 15 years down the road.”

From the locals
Senator Haugen, while supportive of a nationwide focus on transportation planning, tempered the meeting’s optimism with some caveats.
“It is vital that the federal and state efforts compliment each other – that’s a no-brainer,” she said. “You are calling for performance audits, but they cost money. We need to make sure this doesn’t cause a lot of extra paperwork at the state level. Money from the federal level comes with tight strings. There needs to be more flexibility with the money we receive, at the state and local level.”
Senator Haugen, who lives on Camino Island, said that the goals identified in the BPC plan were in line with the state’s.
“Our first priority is preservation – we need to maintain our existing system,” she said. “The environment is a priority for the state of Washington too.”
Senator Haugen warned, however, that adopting carbon emission reduction programs like that in California would reduce revenue by $90 million by 2010.
Joni Earl and Paula Hammond both said they would be watching very closely to see how any new legislation proposed prioritizing which projects were funded.
What it boils down to is, do you fund projects in a certain area because they are doing the worst? Because their performance/congestion/safety is poor?
Or do you reward well-functioning systems, applauding them for high performance with money?
Under the BPC plan, while states will still receive “formula funding,” meaning pre-prescibed funding based on population and perceived need, there will be a growing emphasis on competitive funding, rewarding the brightest and the best ideas.
“I am not a big fan of the stick, I like the carrot better,” Hammond said. “This might a turning point to incentivize the way we fund transportation projects.”
Earl referred to the “modal wars” in the state – rail vs. road – and said that Sound Transit was very used to competing for money in this parochial and sometimes belligerent environment.
She would know. Earl who is widely credited with bring Sound Transit back from the brink of obscurity and securing the funding for the first phase of the Puget Sound area light rail system which opened recently.
“Performance criteria is important and integral,” she said. “We are not afraid of performance criteria at all. But competitive dollars are very speculative, and it makes planning very difficult.”
Late in September, the BPC will take their traveling show to the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, one of a number of stops in major cities around the nation.
Jake Lynch is editor of the Issaquah and Sammamish Reporter. He can be contacted at editor@issaquah-reporter.com.

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