Dave Ross Tackles Regional Transportation

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

.

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.

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.

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.

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.

By Brian Beckley
Reporter Newspapers
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.

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.

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.

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.

[google-map]

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Cost savings:
King County Metro transit serves more than 100 million customers annually. It operates roughly 1,300 vehicles. A variety of buses, electric trolleys and street cars are used in the agency’s operations.
Each year, Metro channels funding into its Revenue Fleet Replacement Fund. The amount generally exceeds what is needed for yearly replacements and expansions of the fleet, according to the audit. A one-time savings of $105 million could be captured, and the fleet still maintained, by removing that amount from the replacement fund, the audit found.

Increased revenue:
The audit proposes adjusting the fare structure. Up to $51 million a year in revenue could be made if Metro reworked its fare schedule. Decreasing discounts offered to seniors, youths and riders needing a transfer is proposed. This would increase revenue, according to the audit.
Currently, these discounted fares are significantly greater than those offered by peer agencies and those required by the Federal Transit Administration, according to the audit.
Federal Way City Council member Jeanne Burbidge, who also serves on the King County Regional Transportation Committee, said she has not witnessed support of this recommendation.
“I have not seen much interest directly in changing those fares,” she said.
More clearly identifying the ratio between operational costs, and the amount of costs recovered through fares, would also benefit Metro, according to the audit.

Equal service:
Currently, Metro provides free services within downtown Seattle. The city provides some compensation for the program, but the audit found Metro was unable to support, fully explain or provide backup documentation for the formula it uses to claim reimbursement from the City of Seattle for this service. What Seattle pays to Metro does not come close to covering the agency’s costs to provide the free rides, Burbidge said.
“There’s a significant amount of money that isn’t changing hands there that could help to balance the deficit,” Burbidge said.

Next steps:
The Metropolitan King County Council and King County Regional Transportation Committee have yet to publicly weigh in on the auditor’s suggestions. The process of addressing the concerns surfaced in the audit could take several years, Burbidge said. The sooner Metro can adjust its way of doing business so as to best serve all its customers, the better it will be for those relying on the agency’s services, she said.
“So far, they are saying this is going to take a while,” Burbidge said. “I don’t believe it should take perhaps as long as they say it will take.”

To read the full audit report, visit www.kingcounty.gov/operations/auditor/Reports/Year/2009.aspx.

Lake Washington bridge, aka I-90 floating bridge, toll takers ca. 1940. Photo courtesy of the Washington State Dept. of Transportation.

By Mary L. Grady
Reporter Newspapers
There are literally thousands of people who shape the transportation system in our state and region. They are engineers working out of trucks in the field, computer analysts and policy wonks who conduct surveys and open meetings. It is a complex system born of classic top-down government directive, but has become leavened with local control and public involvement.
Yet any such system brings with it an assortment of conflicting priorities and overlapping jurisdictions. Weaving our way toward understanding what is happening with roads and rails means taking a look at who runs the show.
Just who is in charge of transportation planning in Washington state and the Puget Sound region?
Maybe surprisingly, it is the law and lawmakers who are the primary drivers of the look and feel of the patchwork of transportation networks and priorities. Through the passage of bills and mandates, lawmakers enable and fund agencies to set the parameters for planning and construction in motion.
The Washington State Legislature, through the Joint Transportation Committee, drives the budget choices for the state transportation budget submitted to the governor. Representative Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island) leads a group of 29 legislators from both the House and the Senate as the head of the Joint Transportation Committee.
The role of the Transportation Committee is to work with the initial budget proposed by the governor to come up with a final number and list of projects. From there, funds are dispersed to projects, counties and other special transportation districts.
Along the way, the state has added new regulations to respond to growing concerns about the environment and to accommodate both the movement of goods as well as people.
The other primary players in transportation include:

• The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is an agency of the state and is primarily in charge of roads.
• The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) is one of the Metropolitan Planning Organizations enabled by the state that is required “to carry out a continuing, coordinated and comprehensive planning process,” for King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap Counties.
• King County Metro (METRO) is a public transportation system “organized as a locally controlled special purpose government to provide public transit (primarily bus) services” within the greater King County area.
• Sound Transit is in a category of its own, again set up by legislation, to provide high-capacity transit services in various forms for King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties.

At the state level, the Legislature and the Joint Transportation Committee, while reworking budgets and priorities, must always keep their eye on what is coming next. Yet, as key highways and bridges are now being repaired and high capacity transit has been set in motion after years of uncertainty and indecision, the direction of any future transportation investments could be slowed significantly by the lack of funds.

Money, Clibborn and others say, is the single most critical factor in planning for future transportation needs.
The primary source of funding for transportation projects comes from the gas tax. With people driving less and more efficient cars replacing the stock of older, less efficient cars, gas tax revenues have fallen precipitously.
Because of these trends, the overall transportation revenue picture has dimmed by $3 billion over the 16-year, long-term plan of the last transportation budget. As such, the Legislature must and has been looking for new ways to pay for bridges, roads and rail transit.
“We have to come up with some new ideas in the next session of the Legislature to fund transportation in the future. The gas tax,” Clibborn said, “is a failing resource.”
It has served as a proxy for (highway) user fees, she explained. But now, with more efficient vehicles and even vehicles that do not use any gas, the gas tax no longer makes much sense.
Tolls and some types of user fees have moved to the top of the list.
“The move to tolls is an opportunity to expand not only revenues, but to manage traffic during peak times, and send price signals to encourage changes in behavior,” she said. They may not be popular, she notes, but are increasingly necessary.
Yet the Legislature forges ahead.
Last April, the Legislature presented the final version of a $7.5 billion 2009-11 state transportation budget, which will finance more than 400 projects across the state, generating 46,000 jobs.
The final budget represents the compromise between the budgets passed by the House and Senate earlier this legislative session. Clibborn said the transportation budget is one area of strength in an otherwise tough budget year amidst the economic downturn.
“The transportation budget is the good news in a bad-news economy,” Clibborn said. “We’re actually on the verge of the busiest transportation construction season ever for Washington state.
“When you take into account this budget and the federal stimulus dollars we appropriated earlier this session, we’re looking at an unprecedented transportation investment.”
Mary Grady is editor of the Mercer Island Reporter. She can be reached at 206-232-1215 or mgrady@mi-reporter.com.

Multifamily neighborhoods in East King County illustrate the rapid residential growth in the region over the past twenty years. Photo by Chad Coleman.

By Mary L. Grady
Reporter Newspapers
On Saturday, July 18, 2009, it was a new day for the Puget Sound region. Forty-five thousand people came out to ride Seattle’s new light rail system on opening day. But it took years and years of planning and agonizing in fits and starts to come to that day last summer.
Decades earlier, after recognizing that the region’s existing transportation system would someday be inadequate, the state Legislature passed a law that allowed counties to create a single agency, Sound Transit — the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority — to develop alternatives for meeting regional travel needs.
In particular, the Legislature charged the agency with planning, building and operating a high-capacity transit system (within a three-county regional transit district) for the region’s most heavily used travel corridors.

Sound Transit means high-capacity buses and trains
Voters in 1996 approved a plan that provides the foundation of that system — regional express buses, commuter rail and light rail. Today, Sound Transit carries nearly 14 million riders a year.
As such, Sound Transit is the agency responsible for providing a regional transportation network that goes beyond roads, bridges and county boundaries.
The Sound Transit district map includes the most congested urban areas of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, and generally follows the urban growth boundaries created by each county in accordance with the state Growth Management Act.
There are three major parts to Sound Transit:

• Express bus: These buses connect Seattle, Bellevue, Everett and Tacoma with the region’s largest urban centers. New transit centers, park-and-ride lots and HOV access projects are part of the system to improve transit speed and service.
• Sounder commuter trains: These trains run 74 miles every weekday between Everett and Tacoma.
• Light rail: Sound Transit’s light rail system consists of a 1.6-mile line in Tacoma known as the Tacoma Link. The Central Link is a 15.7-mile light rail line running between downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport.

It consists of a currently operating 14-mile initial segment, plus a 1.7-mile extension to the airport called Airport Link, scheduled to open in December 2009. The line runs through the SoDo district, Beacon Hill, Rainier Valley and portions of Tukwila. Central Link officially opened on July 18 for the initial segment.
A light rail extension north to the University of Washington via Capitol Hill began late last year, with service starting in 2016. The three-mile extension, to be completely underground, is expected to cost $1.5 billion. Half of the funding is expected to come from a grant from the Federal Transit Administration.

WSDOT means roads and ferries
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is responsible for planning, building and fixing more than 7,000 miles of highway in our state used by some 4.5 million drivers each year.
In addition to the roadways, the state is responsible for state-owned airports, ferries and the Washington State Patrol, licensing, and other services related to monitoring these networks and their use.
WSDOT is funded and directed by the governor and the state Legislature.
The agency prepares a Washington Transportation Plan, a 20-year vision for the state-owned and certain ‘state-interest’ modes of transportation.
This is a combination of the long-range statewide transportation plan (which analyzes facilities that the state operates) and the statewide transportation policy plan. The plan is reviewed and revised every four years.
The plan has two major purposes: first, to coordinate both metropolitan and regional planning for moving people and goods; and second, to keep the state eligible for federal funding. State, local, and federal transportation projects are not eligible for federal funding unless Washington has a long-range statewide transportation plan.
The plan is to also consider and implement projects, strategies and services that support the economic vitality of more rural, non-metropolitan areas.
Over the years, the Legislature designated and enabled three major types of transportation planning organizations to plan, construct and operate transportation networks.
As such, WSDOT is intertwined with the projects and planning efforts conducted by Sound Transit and King County Metro and various other transportation planning organizations scattered across the state.
The agency, working closely with private contractors, is presently in year five of a 25-year program to deliver the largest capital construction program in state history — more than $15 billion in projects, including 391 highway projects valued at $11 billion.
As WSDOT delivers transportation services, it must also work to preserve and fix environmental quality. Programs such as stormwater treatment, construction site erosion control, fish passage barrier removal, wetland replacement, air pollution control, and adaptation to climate change are important to the future health and safety of citizens. Each helps to protect priceless natural resources.
For more, go to www.wsdot.wa.gov and www.soundtransit.org.
Mary L. Grady is the editor of the Mercer Island Reporter. She can be reached at editor@mi-reporter.com.

The 1990 Growth Management Act stipulates that new development be clustered near transportation networks and amenities to lessen traffic. Photo by Chad Coleman.

By Mary L. Grady
Reporter Newspapers
In the Puget Sound region, the parameters for land use decisions and, by extension, transportation networks, are set by the Puget Sound Regional Council and the state of Washington’s Growth Management Act.
The dozens of cities, counties and other jurisdictions within the four-county Puget Sound region are well acquainted with the workings of these laws. Following these policies also determines if public projects which accompany that growth are eligible for grants or subsidies.

Puget Sound Regional Council
The Puget Sound Regional Council works across the counties, cities and other agencies in the Puget Sound region to manage, accommodate and even shape growth under the authority of both state and federal laws.
The 67-member agency conducts planning and forecasting to set the parameters for planning transportation networks, optimizing land use patterns and encouraging. Money for the agency comes from a variety of sources, including grants from state and federal entities and monies from the member agencies.
The PSRC is responsible for setting out a published comprehensive strategy for managing growth in the region through a public process. Counties, cities and other jurisdictions are to use this plan to form their own policies regarding transportation and new population growth while encouraging economic growth and quality of life. The PSRC has the authority given to it by state law to ensure that cities, counties and other jurisdictions follow the policies outlined in its plans.
The PSRC periodically revises its three sets of policy directives for the region. They are: VISION 2040, the most recent plan which represents the region’s growth strategy; Destination 2030, the region’s current comprehensive long-range transportation plan; and Prosperity Partnership, which develops and advances the region’s economic strategy.
VISION 2040 details a strategy to accommodate the additional 1.7 million people and 1.2 million new jobs expected to be in the region by the year 2040. The work, which looked at several different alternatives, was drafted with three main concepts in mind:

• A plan or preferred alternative must deal with congestion and increase mobility for all kinds of freight and personal travel despite population and employment growth.
• Improve the environment and greenhouse gas emissions.
• Sustainable funding for the plan.

Within the metropolitan and core cities, VISION 2040 supports concentrating population and employment growth in regionally designated growth centers. These centers are to serve as hubs for regional transportation, public services and amenities. The new “urban villages” such as Kent Station and Talus, in Issaquah, reflect these concepts.
VISION 2040 is ultimately to help leaders accomplish common objectives that transcend jurisdictional borders.
Along with the role that the report plays in directing decisions by local governments, the analysis contained within these efforts provides the basis for distributing about $160 million in federal transportation funds each year.

The Growth Management Act
During the boom years of the late 1970s and 1980s, Puget Sound residents found that the region, which they had once known as bucolic, had begun to change. Commuters in King County and around Puget Sound were stymied by traffic. Farmland continued to disappear, open space and wildlife habitat was lost, and surface water runoff and pollution threatened salmon streams. Residents began demanding that politicians take action to protect their environment and quality of life.

As a result, the Legislature passed the Washington State Growth Management Act, the key piece of legislation that determines where and how local agencies will manage growth and land use. The bill says in part:
“The Legislature finds that uncoordinated and unplanned growth, together with a lack of common goals … pose a threat to the environment, sustainable economic development, and the health, safety and high quality of life enjoyed by residents of this state. It is in the public interest that citizens, communities, local governments and the private sector cooperate and coordinate with one another in comprehensive land use planning.”
The GMA requires that counties above a stated population level or rate of increase (and cities within those counties) adopt growth-management comprehensive plans and implement them through “development regulations.”
It established 13 “planning goals” to guide the preparation of local plans and regulations. Local governments were to direct most growth into urban areas, require adequate transportation facilities for new development, protect natural resource lands and environmentally critical areas, encourage economic development and protect property rights.
It was a long time coming.
As Walt Crowley of HistoryLink.org describes the urgency to control development: “With environmentalism a significant political force in the early 1970s, Republican Governor Dan Evans won passage of landmark laws like the State Environmental Policy Act — modeled on the National Environmental Policy Act, sponsored by Washington Senator Henry Jackson — and the Shoreline Management Act. After a mid-1970s economic spurt quickened transformation of open space and farms into subdivisions and shopping centers, county voters passed a 1979 bond issue to buy development rights and preserve farmland.”
In 1985, King County planners completed a Comprehensive Plan to guide land use decisions, foreshadowing several aspects of the GMA. It reasoned that certain areas be protected.
The GMA has been amended or revised by almost every legislative session since its adoption. Like our region and the land it protects, it is a “living” document.
Mary Grady is editor of the Mercer Island Reporter. She can be reached at editor@mi-reporter.com.

Skyscrapers in downtown Bellevue signal the city's emergence as a regional economic powerhouse. Photo by Chad Coleman.

NOTE: You can view an interactive timeline of the history of transportation in the Puget Sound area.

By Mary L. Grady
Reporter Newspapers
To understand where we are now, we need to look back on where we have been. How has our transportation network come about, who are the players, and what role have voters had in shaping how we co-exist in a growing and ever-changing metropolitan environment?
The floating bridges, interstate highways and emergence of rail all came about through planning exercises that began more than 70 years ago.
In Washington, the Legislature first authorized counties and cities to engage in land-use planning and adopt zoning controls as early as 1937. But the choice remained optional.
Historylink.org and the essays by Walt Crowley offer a compelling timeline of the players and events of transporation planning in the Puget Sound region.
In October 1957, Seattle Mayor Gordon S. Clinton brought together state and local officials to discuss a comprehensive transportation study for the Seattle region. The outcome, several years later, was the Puget Sound Regional Transportation Study (PSRTS).
The PSRTS was developed not just for the Seattle metropolitan area but for the urbanized area of all four central Puget Sound counties: King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish. The four counties and their major cities, Seattle, Bremerton, Tacoma and Everett, participated through the Puget Sound Governmental Conference, which sponsored the study along with the state Highway Commission and federal Bureau of Public Roads.
The project was among the nation’s first large-scale attempts at comprehensive regional planning for transportation and land use.
On Sept. 30, 1967, the $1.6 million Puget Sound Regional Transportation Study (PSRTS) released its final summary report. However, the document disappointed many planners and mass transit advocates by concluding that rail rapid transit was not feasible in the region and, instead, proposed many new highways and bridges.

Recommending Roads
In place of a transit system, the PSRTS proposed to serve the growing suburban population with new highways. Along with the already planned R. H. Thomson Freeway in Seattle, east of I-5 (which voters would later cancel), the PSRTS recommended an Eastside freeway between I-405 and Lake Sammamish, various connecting freeways in Seattle between Aurora Avenue, I-5 and the proposed Thomson Freeway, and many more new freeways in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. The study also called for a new Lake Washington bridge between Sand Point and Kirkland, and perhaps most controversially, strongly recommended a bridge across Puget Sound, from Fauntleroy (West Seattle) to Southworth in Kitsap County via Vashon Island.
Residents in the path of these proposed highways, not least on Vashon Island, reacted with alarm. Few of the proposals ever made it off the drawing board.
In 1968, transit advocates brought a plan to voters, but it would be three decades before Puget Sound voters approved funding.
On Feb. 13, 1968, King County voted on 12 Forward Thrust bond propositions (and one transit administration referendum), totaling $815.2 million. Voters approved seven propositions worth $333.9 million, including a $40 million multipurpose stadium (the Kingdome) and $118 million for new parks. Yet, local bonds for $385 million to help fund a $1.15 million rapid transit system failed with only 50.8 percent of the vote.
On May 19, 1970, King County voters rejected four Forward Thrust bond issues for a regional rail transit system, storm water control, community centers, and new County public health and safety facilities. The total local cost of $615.5 million (not counting $900 million in pending federal aid for mass transit) was too much for voters amid the deepening Boeing Bust.

Bill Dues, a WSDOT engineer, stands on an I-90 overpass during construction on Mercer Island in 1988. Photo by Bob DeLasmutt.

Yet, a transit measure finally passed and work began in Seattle to address increasing congestion.
On Nov. 8, 1988, a King County advisory ballot issue asked citizens, “Should public funding and development of a rail transit system to serve the residents of King County be accelerated so that service in King County can begin before the year 2000?” Voters answered “yes” by more than a two-to-one margin.
By the early 1990s, the movement to expand mass transit finally got into gear.
Bus service began in the newly completed downtown Seattle transit tunnel on Sept. 15, 1990.
In 1993, the Washington State Department of Transportation was reorganized to branch away from its highway focus and assume a greater role in freight and passenger rail, aviation, ferries, bicycle trails and mass transit.
On Jan. 28, 1995, the Regional Transit Authority commenced a public demonstration of commuter rail service between Everett, Seattle, Kent and Tacoma, which was part of a proposed “Sound Move” plan on the March 14 ballot.
Yet there were setbacks. Voters in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties rejected the regional transit plan on March 14, 1995. The Regional Transit Authority proposal for rail and bus transit improvements won majorities in Seattle, Mercer Island and Shoreline, but was soundly defeated on the Eastside and in King and Snohomish counties. A scaled-down “Sound Transit” plan was adopted the following year.
Sound Transit inaugurated Sounder commuter rail service between Tacoma and Seattle on Sept. 18, 2000.
On Nov. 5, 2002, Seattle voters narrowly approved a new Seattle Popular Monorail Authority and Washington voters rejected the state Referendum 51 transportation plan and gas tax increase while approving Initiative 776, which cut motor vehicle taxes.
Yet transit inched ahead.
On Aug. 22, 2003, Sound Transit’s Tacoma Link, the state’s first modern light rail system, celebrated its inaugural run in downtown Tacoma.
Sound Transit installed the first rails for Central Link light rail in SoDo (south downtown Seattle) on Aug. 17, 2005.
On Saturday, July 18, 2009, thousands of people rode Seattle’s new light rail system on opening day.
For more information, go to historylink.org or the Museum of History and Industry at www.seattlehistory.org.

Mary L. Grady is the editor of the Mercer Island Reporter. She can be reached at editor@mi-reporter.com.

Drivers approach the western portal of the Mercer Island Lid from the I-90 bridge on a winter evening. Photo by Chad Coleman.

By Mary L. Grady
Reporter Newspapers
Islander Aubrey Davis is not a white-haired bureaucrat who tells stories about the past.
No, what you will learn during a conversation with Mr. Davis over a cup of hot chocolate at the new Starbucks on the North end is a man concerned not with the past, but the future.
An island resident for nearly 50 years, Davis has been a key figure in Mercer Island’s history.
Just two other individuals are mentioned more in the pages of the book, “Mercer Island Heritage,” the semi-official written record of the Island. The first is Ben Werner, a fellow city Councilman and mayor of Mercer Island who worked alongside Davis to rein in the scope and the impact of the I-90 project.
The other is Vitas Schmid, a German-born wagon-maker originally from Illinois, who filed a claim for Island land and built a cabin here in 1876.
The story of Schmid, who struggled to keep his claim in this unique and beautiful place, mirrors the story of Davis and the Islanders who took on the then-powerful Washington State Highway Commission in the 1970s.
Davis and others who took the state to task during the massive expansion of I-90 made a profound impact on the quality of life on Mercer Island and established its importance (and his influence) to the regional transportation network.
The 1976 Memorandum of Understanding with the state and others, hammered out in dozens of meetings and hearings, set the standard for public involvement in major civic projects throughout the region ever since.
In 1970, Davis formed a committee to protect the quality of life on the Island as the state set out to expand I-90 across the north end.
The committee and the lawsuit that followed charged that the State Department of Highways had failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and improperly treated citizens whose property was within the project right of way.
The lawsuit halted construction on the East Channel Bridge while the issues were sorted out. Davis knew that working with the other communities affected along the corridor would strengthen not only the position of Islanders but would improve the entire project.
These efforts led to the MOU with the state that gave communities affected by the interstate certain rights, and the standing to object or intervene.
The MOU is still an important document within the ongoing discussions about I-90: from the rights of Islanders to drive alone in the center (express) lanes and the placement of facilities for future transit lanes and stations as well.
Davis has a long and rich professional life.
Davis has been in a leadership role at Group Health Cooperative since he was a founding member in 1947, serving for three years as the CEO. Appointed by Sen. Brock Adams, he headed the Northwest region office of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
He has served on boards and commissions regarding public works throughout his adult life: the Mercer Island City Council, serving as mayor for a four-year term; King County Metro; the Puget Sound Regional Council and many other working advisory groups regarding transportation issues.
In his current role on the board of the Puget Sound Regional Council, Davis keeps looking ahead. Keeping the momentum going on improving our regional transportation is paramount.
Yes, these new transit projects are underway, he said. But there is no time to waste.
“It is not time to sit back,” Davis said. “There is a crisis of funding for future transportation now. Projects underway now have come from sources that are drying up.”
With fewer miles being driven and more efficient vehicles on the road, the gas tax which provided a good surrogate for user fees, is now less effective than before. Tolling and other pricing methods for using roadways are unavoidable, he added. It is the next item on the list.
Now 92, Mr. Davis remains a full and active member in the discussion of growth and change for our region. He aims to keep focused on keeping Islanders and Puget Sound moving forward.
Mary L. Grady is the editor of the Mercer Island Reporter. She can be reached at editor@mi-reporter.com.

This view of I-90 looks east from Mercer Island toward Bellevue and the I-405 interchange. Photo by Chad Coleman.

By Mary L. Grady
Reporter Newspapers
What is happening here?
To even the least jaded of commuters, the transportation system in the central Puget Sound region is a jumble of acronyms and staggering numbers.
It is confusing on any scale. Why do we need to pay more to ride a Sound Transit bus rather than Metro? We see WSDOT signs along I-405 and SR-167, yet wonder who sets and collects those HOT lane tolls.
Congestion is no longer something faced by those driving in and out of Seattle — it has crept east and south to neighborhoods and towns, both big and small. Whether we realize it or not, the flaws and foibles of the region’s transportation networks have ingrained themselves into our daily lives.
Uncertainty and longer commute times have taught us many things. It is important to pay attention to changes brought about by freeway shut-downs for major construction — we log on to computers or listen to the radio before we set out for work.
Somehow, these lifeless ribbons of concrete and steel are no longer just part of the landscape; they make news.
When the I-90 bridge sank in 1990, Puget Sounders woke up to the fact that the concrete and steel we took for granted were indeed vulnerable. The 6.8 Nisqually earthquake on Feb. 28, 2001, was another wake-up call. Weather reports that formerly included temperatures from SeaTac now report the wind speeds on the increasingly fragile SR-520 bridge.
The timing is perhaps fortuitous. The teetering stack of increasing congestion, rising fuel prices and the paradoxical factor of huge SUVs and 53-foot-long commercial trucks have brought us to the tipping point. The global economic meltdown that began late last year gave urgency to the situation.
We knew it was serious when commuters left their cars behind and crammed onto buses. Ironically, these threats to our treasured mobility have reached critical mass at the same time that major transportation projects in the works for years are coming to fruition.
So, how did we get here?
In the late 1970s, housing prices exploded within the urban centers of the Puget Sound region. People moved east and south along the interstate corridors, trading longer commute times for affordable housing.
The interstate highway system in place here, along with our love affair with cars, had people driving long distances for work and play. Gasoline was plentiful and affordable. Cars became second homes with creature comforts.
But it was not to last.
Our awareness of the fragility of our highway system stared us in the face during the stormy night when part of the I-90 bridge sank.
Now, the crisis has become personal as we fill the tank with $3 gas, wait for a half hour to merge 300 feet, or inch our way into the mall parking lot during the holidays. We have long wanted a solution, but we thought it didn’t really have much to do with us. It seemed someone else should pay.
At the polls, we face ballot measures with figures that look like the national debt. How could it possibly cost $100 million to fix a highway, or add a bus lane?
And just what is the difference between Sound Transit and Metro, anyway, and what about WSDOT? Why are we continuing to spend money on roads when driving less is key to slowing climate change? And we are worried. Will I have to pay every time I drive my car? Or worse, will I not get to go where I want, when I want?
Yet, there is hope. Some of those millions have been spent so that you can pay a few bucks in those HOT lanes and get where you are going faster. Getting to Mariners games from the Eastside is a piece of cake on the bus.
That new interchange, express bus route or transit center nearby offers relief in both time and lower gas bills.
And last summer, many proved that they were ready to embrace light rail as 45,000 people rode the Sound Transit Central Link on its inaugural run. Getting to the airport will be easier just in time for the holidays.
We hope to help you sort out what is happening with roads and transit — not only regionally, but in your neighborhood. We will identify the players, talk about the money and what the future holds.
We hope to continue the conversation with you, and our law and policy makers via the Web, our radio partner, KIRO, and of course, in print.
Whether it is getting to work, to the doctor, school or the mountains to enjoy the mountains, we are all in this together.
Mary Grady is editor of the Mercer Island Reporter. She can be reached at
editor@mi-reporter.com.

By Joshua Adam Hicks
Reporter Newspapers
Voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1 last November, setting the stage for bringing Link Light Rail to the Eastside.
Planning is now under way for East Link, an 18-mile extension of the system that would connect downtown Seattle with Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond.
Along with light rail comes transit-oriented development, which means increased density for targeted areas like the Bel-Red corridor and Overlake.
The cities of Bellevue and Redmond are working with Sound Transit to coordinate plans for their areas.
“Light rail around the country has proven to be a real catalyst for development,” said Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray.
Sound Transit opened the light-rail routing discussions in December, asking the public where and how its tracks should be laid.
The agency’s board of directors chose a set of preferred alternatives in May, but the committee isn’t expected to make a final decision on alignments until after an environmental impact study is completed in 2010.
Mercer Island makes for perhaps the easiest call, with only one proposed line running along Interstate 90 and stopping once at a station between 77th and 80th Avenues.
The other cities are a different story.

Bellevue
A myriad of options become available once light rail jumps into Bellevue off of I-90.
The board’s preferred alternative for south Bellevue would run on elevated tracks along the east side of Bellevue Way Southeast, before touching down near the South Bellevue Park-and-Ride. It would then travel at-grade to 112th Avenue Southeast and continue downtown.
Residents from neighborhoods adjacent to Bellevue Way have opposed this plan in favor of a line that would run along the abandoned Burlington Northern Sante Fe tracks near 118th Avenue Southeast.
Efforts are still under way to get Sound Transit to choose a modified route along that right of way, although those plans have met with opposition from nearby condo-dwellers.
The Sound Transit board approved two options for downtown Bellevue: one that uses a tunnel and another that runs at-grade. Both the city and the Bellevue Downtown Association are opposed to the surface alternative.
“It would be a nightmare to lose any part of Bellevue Way during construction,” said Bellevue Mayor Grant Degginger.
The board’s preferred tunnel option would travel beneath 108th Avenue Northeast, stop at the Bellevue Transit Center, and then turn up Northeast 12th Street toward a station near the hospital district.
The surface route would run along Main Street before heading one way in each direction along 110th Avenue Northeast and 108th Avenue Northeast with a stop at the Bellevue Transit Center. It would then turn onto Northeast 12th Street and stop again in the hospital district.
Sound Transit estimates that the tunnel option would cost an additional $500 million – money not covered as part of the ballot measure that voters approved in November.
It’s up to the city of Bellevue to find the means for financing the underground alternative. Degginger says the city is confident it can find cost savings in the proposed Sound Transit routes, for instance by running surface rather than elevated tracks along the Bel-Red corridor.
Degginger also suggested that Sound Transit’s cost estimates for building a tunnel are high. Nonetheless, the city is working to identify potential funding sources for the underground alternative.

Redmond
The Sound Transit Board chose a preferred route from downtown Bellevue to Overlake Transit Center that serves the Bel-Red corridor, Overlake Village and the Microsoft campus.
The tracks would run elevated and at-grade to the north of Bel-Red Road, mainly along a newly expanded Northeast 16th Street that Bellevue plans to build.
The route then turns up 136th Place Northeast and connects with SR 520 before crossing to the north side of Northeast 24th Street and then hooking into a station at 152nd Place Northeast.
From there the tracks would run along 520 to reach Overlake Transit Center.
Sound Transit is already making plans to extend East Link to downtown Redmond, although it would take another voter-approved initiative to bring that concept to fruition.
The board has identified a preferred alternative in the event that this happens. The route would run along the south side of 520, touching the edge of Marymoor Park, before turning onto the BNSF right of way for a stop at the Redmond Town Center.
From there the tracks would travel to 161st Avenue Northeast and then stop.
The original plan called for the route to move up 161st Avenue, but there was opposition to that idea because of the number of homes and business that would be displaced.

Board representation
Degginger has suggested that Bellevue should have a representative on the seven-member Sound Transit Board.
“It’s been a huge handicap not having a Bellevue representative,” he said. “So much of East Link runs through Bellevue.”
King County executive candidate Susan Hutchison has seconded that notion, mentioning it several times during her primary campaign.
Redmond Mayor John Marchione, one of three Eastside representatives on the board, says the committee works fine the way it is.
“If a representative comes from Bellevue only to represent the city, that would be disappointing,” he said. “It needs to reflect what the global light-rail system looks like.”
The other Eastside board members include Mary-Alyce Burleigh of Kirkland and Fred Butler of Issaquah.
Joshua Adam Hicks is a writer for the Bellevue Reporter. He can be reached at jhicks@bellevuereporter.com.

By Michael Ennis
Vanpooling is a little known public transit option that turns out to be the most efficient, flexible and effective in reducing traffic congestion.
How much do you pay to commute to work? If you drive, as most of us do, then it is probably close to the American Automobile Association’s (AAA) average of .16 cents per mile. If you ride public transit, then you probably pay less.
An average commute from Tacoma to Seattle would cost a driver about $2,688 per year. The same trip on a bus would cost about $1,440 per year. Taking the Sounder Commuter Rail would cost almost $2,000 per year.
Most commuters prefer their car and accept the higher cost of driving because of the freedom of mobility, speed and flexibility it affords. This freedom possesses both tangible and intangible benefits which are a greater value than the monetary savings of taking public transit. Indeed, more than 90 percent of people in the region choose to drive a car, despite the eighth worse traffic congestion in the country.
For some people, public transit works best in the dense urban areas of downtown Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue, where the share of daily commuters using public transit is highest.
Research shows that the biggest influence on ridership is density. Transit ridership is less than 1 percent of all commuters in areas with less than 10,000 people per square mile. Transit ridership rises to 3 percent with densities between 10,000 and 25,000 people per square mile; and 8 percent when the density is above 25,000 people per square mile.
While transit use in the Puget Sound region is slightly higher than the national average, the density of Seattle is only about 7,000 people per square mile and Bellevue is about 3,200 people per square mile.
This concept becomes clear with the region’s plan for light rail, connecting the less dense suburbs of Federal Way, Tukwila, Lynnwood and across the I-90 bridge to Bellevue. Despite spending more than thirty years and $40 billion, officials estimate it would serve only about 2.4 percent of all trips in the region.
Light rail proponents say shifting 2.4 percent of people off the roadway by 2030 is a good start. But Sound Transit reports that two-thirds of these riders are coming from buses and are already being served by existing public transportation. This means light rail will actually only shift less than one percent of drivers from the roads.
All this means the region’s traffic congestion will continue to grow. It is estimated that the Puget Sound area will see the same congestion as present day Los Angeles within 20 years.
One transit option however costs less, provides flexibility, convenience and mobility and reduces the number of cars on the road. It is vanpooling.
There are six vanpool programs around the Puget Sound with about 1,700 vans on the road every day. King County’s program alone carries more people than Sound Transit’s entire Sounder Commuter Rail and for about 1/7th the cost.
In 2003, the Washington State Department of Transportation conducted a study on vanpool use and found a significant undeveloped market in the Puget Sound region. The study showed greater awareness by the public could result in a 600 percent increase in vanpool use.
For a fraction of the cost, vanpools have the potential to carry about 20 percent more trips than Sound Transit’s $22.8 billion light rail expansion.
Unlike light rail however, where two-thirds of riders are drawn from existing buses, the growth in vanpools would come almost exclusively from motorists. If the WSDOT analysis is correct, vanpools could shift about 72,000 single occupant vehicles from the roadway every day.
Vanpools also require significantly less capital and operating costs than fixed route buses and rail programs and vanpool passengers cover most of these expenses.
To run a vanpool program, users pay about 70 percent of the cost, while taxpayers cover the remaining 30 percent. Rail and bus programs collect only about 20 percent from users and 80 percent from public taxes.
High farebox recovery ratios might lead someone to believe that riding in a vanpool would cost a lot.
Remember the daily commute between Tacoma and Seattle?
A passenger in an average vanpool would only pay about $1,044 per year. That is 28 percent cheaper than taking a bus, 48 percent cheaper than using the Sounder Commuter Rail, and 61 percent cheaper than driving.

Michael Ennis is transportation director at Washington Policy Center, a non-partisan independent policy research organization in Seattle and Olympia. For more information contact WPC at 206-937-9691 or washingtonpolicy.org.

Left to right, Kim Keeling, Jill Smith and Erika Vandenbrande are members of the R-Trip (Redmond Trip Resource & Incentive Program) team which helps city employees and residents find alternatives to driving alone. Satisfied participants say they save money, improve their physical fitness, have less stress and are happy to help the environment by walking, biking, carpooling or using public transportation whenever possible. Photo by Mary Stevens Decker.

By Mary Stevens Decker
Reporter Newspapers
In burgeoning Eastside cities such as Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland and Sammamish, there are better ways to get to work, school or the grocery store than driving alone.
Most people know there are alternatives — walking, biking, carpooling or riding the bus. And most understand the benefits, such as saving money, getting more exercise and reducing carbon emissions. But frankly, many are too intimidated by the logistical planning.
Meet R-Trip (Redmond Trip Resource & Incentive Program).
This comprehensive city of Redmond program helps both workers and residents zip through the process of identifying modes of transportation that suit their personal needs, yet benefit the entire region.
Through partnerships with the Greater Redmond Transportation Management Association (GRTMA), Greater Redmond Chamber of Commerce, King County Metro Transit and Sound Transit, R-Trip staff members incentivize employers to promote trip reduction. Giving employees free or discounted transit passes, flexible work schedules, increased bicycle parking or even bicycle jerseys can reduce workers’ tension, which in turn, increases productivity, lowers health care costs and improves the environment for everyone.
“The set menu is, ‘Try it, you’ll like it. Then you’ll want to do it more,’” explained Erika Vandenbrande, transportation demand manager for the city of Redmond.
R-Trip offers subsidies for vanpool riders, cash rewards for workers or residents who bike or walk as often as possible and grants to employers who want to initiate or enhance trip reduction programs.
“Typically, when employees see parking issues, that’s where the light bulb goes on for employers,” said Vandenbrande. “Do we build more parking or offer employees a transit pass?”
R-Trip literature can be found online, at www.GOrtrip.com.
“And we do lots of transportation events, in company cafeterias at lunch hour,” said Jill Smith, business commute program coordinator for the city of Redmond.
“This is free to employers,” Smith noted. “There’s nothing to lose. And we literally walk the streets to talk to people about the trip reduction programs. Downtown Redmond and Willows Road were our big push this summer. Employees wished for more bus service there, more car and vanpools.”
Vandenbrande agreed, “It’s a multi-tiered approach. Large employers are subject to state trip reduction laws.”
Thus, Microsoft is on-board with its own fleet of buses and vans. Other big corporations such as Honeywell, Aerojet, Astronics and PhysioControl also help workers consolidate or eliminate driving trips.
But trip reduction has to go beyond that.
“Now, smaller businesses are hearing people say they hate their commute, they’re late because of the traffic,” said Vandenbrande.
She said Redmond Mayor John Marchione and the current Redmond City Council have been staunchly supportive of trip reduction measures first introduced during former Mayor Rosemarie Ives administration, in line with the strategic vision of linking two thriving urban neighborhoods, Downtown and Overlake.
“To have two vital urban centers, you can’t have a patchwork of parking cars superimposed on top of it,” said Vandenbrande. “By 2021, we hope to have light rail in Overlake and the city is pushing to bring that to Downtown.”
That’s not fast enough for the legions of frustrated commuters who need to get across Redmond or the Eastside today.
Determined to set the pace, the city of Redmond encourages its own employees to use alternative means of transportation and has hired a new part-time R-Trip coordinator, Kim Keeling, to educate colleagues about ride shares, loaner bikes and walking routes.
R-Trip’s Bicycling Guide and Transit Map takes guess work out of how to get around Redmond and neighboring cities. And R-Trip staff members are producing videos and other educational materials to address the most basic questions such as “how to ride the bus” or “how to put your bike on the bus,” said Smith. “It’s easier than people think.”
Another misconception is that once you commit to an alternative commute plan, you have to stick with it 100 percent of the time.
Not true, said Smith.
Walking, biking, carpooling or riding the bus even one day a week makes a difference.
Mary Stevens Decker is a reporter for the Redmond Reporter. She can be contacted at mdecker@redmond-reporter.com.

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.

"I meet more and more people now who tell me they got rid of a second car because of how much transit is out there." - Joni Earl

By Dean A. Radford
Reporter Newspapers
Joni Earl, CEO of Sound Transit, talked in a wide-ranging interview with the Reporter Newspapers recently about the regional transportation agency whose mission it is to build an interlocking system of light rail, commuter rail and long-haul buses. In its early years, there was doubt that Sound Transit would even survive. One of Earl’s first tasks was to announce that the agency was $1 billion in the hole. But under Earl’s leadership, that has all changed. Today, the agency is planning a new transit corridor to the Eastside that could change the way people commute to Seattle and back again for decades to come.

What was the state of the agency when you took over in early 2001?
I started in October 2000 as chief operating officer. I had been with the agency about three weeks when it was clear that we had a cost problem. But we didn’t know how big it was. I was put in charge as the new eyes and ears in the agency to look at the project. I was the one, with consultant help and a lot of staff help, that about six or seven weeks later announced the $1 billion cost overrun and the three-year-schedule delay. That was in December. Bob [Bob White, the agency's executive director] left after we got the $500 million grant from the Clinton administration. He then resigned at the next board meeting and I was appointed acting. My view of the state of the agency at that point was we had lost credibility with the public. Pretty major credibility. The Board of Directors was angry because they put themselves out there in support of the agency and the project. They were really disappointed because they would say they were not getting the information to know they had that deep of a problem. The Federal Transit Administration, which was the funding agency for the grant, was very angry. Our senior senator, Patty Murray, wasn’t very happy with us. Employee morale was quite bad, to say the least. But two things held true through it all that helped us. The vision for light rail was the sustaining issue. People were mad at Sound Transit, but they still supported light rail. The vision to get light rail in the region was never lost. Never. None of the polling. What I was asked to do was to take the steps necessary to save the project and rebuild the agency.

What were your initial marching orders to get the project back on track?
When the board talked with me about the acting position, I knew enough at that point that we needed a new cost-estimating system. We needed a new project-control system. We needed a way to track costs accumulatively to know what was happening on our project, because that is what had gone wrong. I needed to make a few personnel changes. I had to rebuild the federal government trust that Sound Transit could deliver the project. One of the major tests for the federal government is what they call technical and financial capability capacity. So, we ended up having a two-year audit starting right at that point by the U.S. inspector general. What I tried to do and I think collectively we did it together because I had very strong board leadership and support was to take the internal steps we needed to take to shore up our costs and our systems to manage these projects.

What did you tell your employees?
One of the reasons morale was so bad is that we had just started commuter rail in September 2000. The commuter rail part of the agency was flying high. We had started the bus program in 1999. So two-thirds of the agency, since we do much more than light rail, were delivering. And then here’s the biggest part of the project for the agency was the one that was taking us down. That was very difficult internal morale issues that we had to work through. My message to the employees and perhaps one of my greatest strengths I brought internal to the agency is that I am a big communicator. Whether it was to pull all employees together for a quick all staff or e-mails. I was very clear with the employees that if they would do their jobs, you perform, I will deal with the external and the politics of the board and all of those issues. Here is my expectation. I was very clear with my directors about being transparent with information. It doesn’t matter how bad the story is. We have to fix it. I told employees in a meeting with 150 employees that nobody would get fired for pointing out problems or issues or making errors (unless they made a whole bunch of them over and over). But they would get fired if they withheld information because we couldn’t fix something that we didn’t know existed. That is kind of what had happened at the 10,000-foot level.

So what had to happen next?
There was no silver lining to getting our credibility back with the public, other than start delivering the project. Pass the test. Pass the audits, which we did. But it took awhile. Get the feds to have confidence in us. When they have the confidence in us, we get the federal share. If we have the federal share, we can build the project. The other big piece in 2001 was the board made the decision after we did all the analysis to break the project into segments. Just opening the 14 miles. Then the airport in December. Then the university. That was all one big mega project. We were a startup. We were a brand new agency. Nobody really thought about what it takes when you are a new bureaucracy. Everything was new. There was a new HR system. You have to hire people. You have to have office space. You have to have telephones, computers. They didn’t have any of that. And they had a new 10-year plan to build $4 billion of capital in 10 years. Three new lines of service. We are the only agency in the country that I am aware of that was supposed to go from zero to a $4 billion program in 10 years and deliver service all over a three-county region. It had never been tried before.

How did Sound Transit get to the point where it was in a billion-dollar hole and already behind when it hoped to begin light rail service?
There were three fundamental problems. They just didn’t have the infrastructure in place to track costs. Real estate values were going up on the capital side. The real estate people might know it. They didn’t have a good project-control system in a state-of-the-art way to track costs. The second problem was that you had a situation where you are out talking to communities and there wasn’t what we call really good scope control. You would go out to one community and they would want a, b, c or d. You have all this money. You don’t have a good tracking system. You want to please the community or please the city you’re trying to build a project in because you have to get permits. I know the agency didn’t manage the scope of the project well in those early decisions. More things were promised than there was money in the budget to do. But nobody realized it because we didn’t have a good tracking system. The third thing was the agency had a lot of really good transit people and good engineers. What they didn’t have was someone who had run the organization part of the organization. Bob White [Earl's predecessor as executive director], to his credit came to that realization. He created the chief operating officer position. I had no transit background. I had local government background. I had run things as a city manager and deputy executive [Snohomish County]. My background is finance and accounting. I didn’t have transit experience. When he hired me, he said, “I have a lot of transit planners. I have people who know how to build projects. I need someone who knows how to run the agency in terms of the business of the agency, while others are planning and building projects.” There was no fraud. There was just a series of coming together with a really aggressive plan with really good people who didn’t have the basic infrastructure they needed to go about it.

In all the darkest days, did you ever think this isn’t worth it, that I am going to quit.
It is hard to go back to that time, although so much of it is very vivid for me. I went for literally a five-month period where I had no day off, not a Saturday or not a Sunday. My average day was 18 hours. I had five days where I never went home. There were 24-hour days when I just called my husband to bring me clothes. Sure during that time in the wee dark hours of the night, and there were other people on the staff who were working with me side by side. So there were times when I asked, What am I doing? I had never been tested like this before. I didn’t know if I had the capacity or capability to do this. For me what really stood out is I knew from the day I started here and from the people here at the agency that we had really good people here. We had a strong board that really believed in our mission. I was in a good place in that I didn’t own the problem. I didn’t create the problem. That gives you a little bit of freedom to make really hard decisions. To make personnel decisions. Or just say this is how it’s going to be. We don’t have time. We are just going to do it. You have a little bit of freedom in that circumstance. I had to go back to Congress to testify. I had a hostile chair. Congressman Norm Dicks went with me. He introduced me to the chair. He sat next to me for an hour and a half while I got peppered with questions just to support me. Sen. [Patty] Murray was just amazing support. So I just felt really good people put a lot on the line and I wanted to help them deliver it. I think for the region we needed the project. At that point it took us 30 years from Forward Thrust to get to this point. And failure had such consequence for the future of this region.

Why did it take so long for the region to come an agreement on high-capacity transit and start building?
We the region, whoever the region is, going back to Forward Thrust had a vision about the need to do high-capacity transit. But it always feels very expensive on a project basis. Out of the personal taxpayer’s pocket, it’s a pretty high investment for some people. Cost has been an issue. But we also have had wars over the years of roads vs. transit, bus vs. rail, light rail vs. monorail or vs. commuter rail. We love to debate issues. Bob White used to call it that you are constantly talking to a parade. You will start a conversation in year one. By the time you get to year five, there are new people who have joined the parade. There wasn’t from I could tell until the early 90s, after Forward Thrust, there really wasn’t a jelling around what’s the mechanism to get it built. Greg Nickels and Cynthia Sullivan [two members of the King County Council] in the mid 1980s did an advisory ballot that said, “Yes, we want it.” That, I think, was the start. That is why Greg feels so good about getting it open on his watch. They were the first ones after Jim Ellis [considered the godfather of Forward Thrust] and Forward Thrust to put it out to the voters of King County. It has taken strong leadership to stay with the vision. It would have been very easy for our board to collapse under the weight of the criticism in 2001 and say never mind, we aren’t going to do light rail. We will stick with what we are doing. There were many people trying to take us out as an agency. Some in Olympia. There was legislation introduced to break up Sound Transit. Don’t do light rail. Give bus stuff back to the local agencies. Commuter rail: Have DOT [the state transportation department] or somebody do it. But our board was steadfast.

Sound Transit chairman Greg Nickels lost his job as Seattle mayor by failing to make it past August’s primary election. What impact will Nickels’ loss have on the forward progress of Sound Transit?
I think Greg as a regional leader is going to be a big loss for the region about the vision that he has had for high-capacity transit. I can only hope that whoever wins the mayor’s race steps into the vision for high-capacity transit for the region. We have a very strong commitment on our board to our mission. And our mission is really both in the legislation that created us but also in the votes by the public. We were successful with Greg’s leadership as chair back in 2008 to get the Sound Transit 2 package passed. We now have a voter mandate to go build that project. We don’t lose commitment because Greg is no longer going to be on our board. Our mission has been defined by the voters. And we have to deliver it. And the board is very committed to that.

When do you think Sound Transit really turned the corner, when you knew that it had put behind it its financial troubles and was ready to move forward with construction?
It was when we got the clean audit from the inspector general in spring 2003. We got the federal grant in January 2001. But then the new Congress came in. Congressman Rogers as the new chair of the House Transportation Committee requested that it be put on hold. As soon as that got put on hold, even that billion-dollar cost overrun that we announced in December got impacted because now our cash flow got impacted because the federal share wasn’t going to come in on schedule. That put us in a state of, Oh, Oh. We have a plan the board just adopted in January. We got a grant, but now it was put on hold until we could pass the audit. That audit took two years. During that two-year window we put in all these new systems in terms of project management and project control. What happened when we got that clean audit, it was like an independent authority has now said Sound Transit has its act together. During that time we were continuing with the design and we were moving the project forward. But we couldn’t break ground and start construction until we got the federal grant. To get that federal grant you needed to get the clean audit. The grant was for $500 million. That was the 21 percent share of our funding.

How did you answer critics before – and now – that the public’s money would have been better spent on more buses and more roads?
We definitely have people on the trains. Often critics and proponents tend to potentially define light rail as the solution. The way I look at all public transportation is that it’s part of the solution. What we are doing is providing alternatives to sitting in your car in congestion. We are the multi-modal side. There are a lot of people who are always going to be in their cars for some reason. Some people define transit as everybody can get rid of every car that they ever had. I don’t think that’s a realistic goal. Our goal is alternatives. What light rail does is give you predictability. It gives you frequent service. We are running every 7 and 1/2 minutes during the peak hour and about 10 to 15 minutes to a half hour depending on the time of day on weekends. You are creating a regional spine of rail. Your bus service can feed it and serve other parts. What you don’t want to do is have tons of duplicate service between bus and rail. It costs a lot to build. But once you’re in operation, it takes one operator to carry 800 people if the trains are completely full. To carry the same number of people would take 9 or 10 operators, depending on the size of the bus. Your labor costs in terms of rail vs. bus for the long-haul operations are much cheaper to operate for rail on a per-passenger basis. The other thing is a very clean technology. It’s much cleaner. It’s electricity. It’s totally zero greenhouse gas emissions. To me, it’s good for the environment. I love buses, so this isn’t an antibus vs. rail. The other thing that rail has done is that it can create that nexus for development around it and higher densities around rail stations. Bus routes can change. Bus routes can move So there is more predictability for siting decisions and transit-oriented development around rail. Those rails aren’t moving. That service is there. Those are some of the things I do say to them about rail vs. bus.

Looking to the future, what can South King County expect in new service from Sound Transit over the next 10 to 20 years?
We have five subareas that we track costs and build projects in within the three counties. South King County and Pierce County are the only two areas that have commuter rail, bus and bus capital infrastructure and light rail. They are already getting all three modes of transit that Sound Transit provides, because they have had commuter rail since 2000 and buses since 1999 and now light rail. They have a lot of transit right in that area. There are about 100,000 new hours of additional bus service in Sound Transit 2. There are the extensions of light rail. On the commuter rail side we are going to get four more round trips. We are going to go from 9 to 13. We will phase in those over about the next five years. We are also going to extend the platforms for commuter rail. We can do seven-car trains. We will extend all the platforms to eight cars. We are going to add what equates to about 65 percent more capacity to commuter rail between trips and just capacity by just adding another train car to our sets. There is still a lot more service to come.

The future on the Eastside is a little more complex. Under Sound Transit 2, Eastside residents will get their own light rail on a new rail corridor and more bus service. Describe the work on the Eastside.
Probably the biggest project in the Sound Transit 2 plan is the East Link project. That is light rail that comes in from the International District station [in south Seattle], goes across I-90 to Bellevue and then to Overlake Transit Center, which is Microsoft headquarters. We don’t have the money to go all the way to downtown Redmond. But we are doing the planning all the way to downtown Redmond. We are in the final environmental impact statement process. We have looked at a combo of about 19 different routes for this corridor. The board selected a preferred alignment, not a final alignment, that we are starting some engineering on. When I look at East Link, the three big challenges in that project are we have to negotiate an agreement with the state Department of Transportation because we will get the center lanes on the I-90 bridge [over Lake Washington]. So that has controversy to it. We also believe that was a condition in the 1979 agreement and the record of decision from the federal government when Brock Adams approved the construction of the bridge that those are high-capacity transit lanes in the center. When you come off the bridge and go into Bellevue, there are community groups that want one alignment that the city and Sound Transit so far have not selected in the preferred path. So, there are neighborhood issues. Where you go through downtown Bellevue there is a huge issue about whether to have a tunnel or not. The city wants a tunnel. We don’t have money for a tunnel. We have been clear about that. We are still looking at that issue. But there are lots of decisions similar to the ones that the board had to make over the last 12 years on trying to build this first part of the alignment.

What will you do to ease impacts on Eastside business and traffic during and after construction of light rail?
We can’t specifically answer that now because we don’t know the exact alignment or the construction impacts. As you do project development, you define the design and the impacts and you go through that. I know we have learned a lot by the construction we have already done. We are just continually getting better at working with the business communities. Our staff is doing a great job. We are right in the heart of a business district on Capitol Hill [in Seattle]. We do on-the-street outreach. There are a variety of things. If we are impacting businesses, like if there are relocations, there are a lot of federal guidelines that we have to follow to do that. We will use a multiple number of tools. We built the big Bellevue direct-access project right off of Northeast Eighth Street and 405. There was a lot of concern about business impacts. That just went beautifully. The key is working with the businesses and working with the business organizations like the Bellevue Downtown Association and Bellevue chamber and individual property owners on the city. I am totally confident that we can build that project with good mitigation and tools so that businesses don’t suffer any more than they have to. There is always pain with construction. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a road or transit project. There is always pain. Being really up front and transparent about it is the key.

What are some of the guiding principles that the Sound Transit Board of Directors will follow in making its final decision on which alignment option, including whether there is a tunnel, to pick for Bellevue?
It will be a combo. It will be: Can we afford it? That is the first one. We were very clear that we didn’t have money for a tunnel. The cost estimate that was in the Sound Transit 2 plan was based on an aerial alignment. The general rule of thumb is that surface is least expensive. Aerial is the next expensive and tunnel is the most expensive. We had wiggle room in the cost estimate because we picked the aerial. We didn’t pick the lowest cost, which gave us some flexibility. They will look at effectiveness. There is one thing to build it, and it’s another to operate it. You want to make sure your alignment is easy to operate. You don’t want a bunch of sharp turns. Are we locating stations in places where it serves people and businesses? You don’t build this stuff to have the trains empty. They will look at all of that and then the impacts. One of the debates about the tunnel is that there were two or three different tunnel alternatives. One is much more impactful in the community than another. You have tradeoffs of impact and cost in your construction methodology. When the board made the decision in May on the preferred alignment, its action actually laid out some direction in terms of what we want for more information on various construction methodology. They asked for more research between the various alternatives that the city of Bellevue wanted versus what they selected. How many businesses are impacted? Do we have to relocate businesses? All of that will play into their decision. We asked the city of Bellevue, If you want a tunnel, show us how you are going to help fund it. We can’t fund it on our dollars.

So, without additional funding from Bellevue, is a tunnel simply not a viable option?
I don’t think we know that yet. That’s premature to know that. The cost estimate was aerial which was more expensive than surface. The city worked with us on other parts of the alignment that might be less expensive. We have to look through all the analysis before we will be able to say that. We are being clear, that as of now, we don’t have the money. It’s probably the biggest decision in front of the board in the next 12 months.

How will light rail ease the general commute between the Eastside and Seattle?
We have done a traffic analysis with the Department of Transportation that shows if you do nothing (mainly on the I-90 corridor) and just population growth and all that projected stuff happens that that commute is going to significantly worsen over the next 20 years. When you put light rail in there, there is a pre-project to light rail that we have to do which is to build two-way HOV lanes on the bridge. We have all the federal approvals for that. It is a joint project we have been working with the state transportation department on that. Phase one of that is already built. Before we can take the center lanes, we have to build new HOV lanes. If you think about it, the center lanes are reversible now. They are not working two ways. And the commute over time has really shifted. Those now work reversible as if peak demand is going certain ways. It’s now starting to be about 50-50. So you really need two-way, all-day HOV lanes like you have elsewhere on the freeway. We have to build those lanes. I really want to underscore this. We are not impacting the existing general-purpose lanes. There are three lanes on the bridge for general single-occupant cars. Those three lanes stay. We build new HOV lanes. Then we put in high-capacity transit. For the future, we have so much more capacity to move people across that infrastructure. I just think it’s going to change the commute patterns between east and west in this region in a significant way over time.

What was a key lesson that you learned from building that first 14 miles of light rail that will help you move forward with the East Link?
My big motto is under promise and over deliver. [She laughs.] Because that is not where we started. A key lesson: I think being very clear and upfront and transparent about what we can and can’t afford to do. One of our challenges and this isn’t unique to Sound Transit. We have to get permits in every jurisdiction we go through. We don’t have any rights to come into downtown Bellevue and build this project. Everything is a negotiation and a partnership about getting permits. They can’t unreasonably withhold a permit. But they certainly have major influence, just like the city of Seattle did in building light rail in their city. That is a real challenge for us. A lesson for me is that we have to be very clear, which I think we have been on this tunnel. That is an example. We can’t afford it. If you want it, then you have to help us get there. My motto through all of ST2 with the board and other settings: Even if someone really really wants something, we aren’t going to promise something if I can’t find a financial path to make it happen. That’s how Sound Transit lost its credibility, I think. Those days are over, at least on my watch. For however long that is.

How much closer will we be to getting rid of our cars?
I meet more and more people now who tell me they got rid of a second car because of how much transit is out there. But I am not one of those who believes that people will get rid of their cars. I fundamentally don’t believe that. The option to do it will be much greater. [Earl commutes to her Seattle office from Tacoma, where she lives.] I am one of those perfect examples where I have learned and it has not been easy, which I think is a problem with transit that we are still working on as an industry, to figure out how to get around a region without your car. It’s doable in this region between biking, walking and public transit. You can do it. We have not found all the right tools to make it super easy. Part of it is that we have so many options.
Dean A. Radford is Editor of the Renton Reporter. He can be contacted at editor@rentonreporter.com.

Sound Transit opened the Central Link line of the light rail in July, a 14-mile stretch of track that will go from downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac Airport by the end of the year. Photo by Chad Coleman.

By Dean A. Radford
Reporter Newspapers
Joni Earl has a simple motto:
Under promise and over deliver.
Failure to follow that recipe for success is what got her agency, Sound Transit, in trouble before she took over as chief executive officer in 2001.
Earl found an agency with a billion-dollar cost overrun because it had no way to track its finances and was promising projects it couldn’t deliver.
Earl brought to bear her expertise in finance and local government in reshaping the culture of an agency that was pretty good at managing and designing bus and commuter rail projects, but derailed when it came to running its basic business operations.
Of course, that work was done in tandem with the Sound Transit Board of Directors, a point Earl repeatedly made in an interview with Reporter Newspapers recently.
Earl, with her gift for communication and her willingness to be brutally honest about what her agency was doing wrong – and right – can now look back on her nearly 10 years at the helm and marvel at the 14 miles of Link light rail snaking from Seattle to nearly Sea-Tac Airport.
With the opening of Link light rail, Sound Transit today is now operating the three pieces of its voter-mandated transit system – commuter rail, light rail and a regional bus system in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.
But her work – and Sound Transit’s – is far from done. There are billions of new tax dollars to be spent to extend light rail to Bellevue and beyond and add 10s of thousands of hours of new regional bus service.
The agency will draw on its years of experience planning, designing and then building Link, which opened in July, to work with Eastside community and business leaders to build from scratch East Link, which when done will link downtown Seattle with the Overlake Transit Center between Bellevue and Redmond.
Of course, along the way, it will pass through downtown Bellevue. City officials and business leaders want a tunnel for light rail to ease impact on businesses and downtown traffic. But that’s the most expensive option for building light rail and Sound Transit doesn’t have enough money to build it, based on the taxes voters approved for Sound Transit 2.
Bellevue and Sound Transit will continue to debate the tunnel. A final alignment will be picked this year.
A tunnel is not totally out of the realm of possibility. But Bellevue would have to help pay for it. It’s another one of Earl’s guiding principles to keep Sound Transit financially healthy and credible as a government agency.
“Even if someone really really wants something, we aren’t going to promise something if I can’t find a financial path to make it happen,” she said in the interview. That path would lead to Bellevue’s budget office.
“That’s how Sound Transit lost its credibility, I think,” she said, by not realizing the depth of the financial trouble it faced in the early years and not being open about that problem.
“Those days are over, at least on my watch,” she said.
Today, Sound Transit is fresh off the start of Central Link and commuter trains through the Green River Valley are pulling cars off the Interstate 5 corridor between Tacoma and Seattle.
In 20 years, Bellevue will have its own light rail and South King County will have thousands of hours of new bus service and even more commuter trains running up and down the Green River Valley.
But will we have left our cars behind to travel on a seamless regional transportation system of interlocking rail and bus routes? Probably not. And that’s not a realistic goal anyway, says Earl, because someone will always need a car to get to work. But she’s seeing a shift away from total reliance on a car.
“I meet more and more people now who tell me they got rid of a second car because of how much transit is out there,” said.
But Sound Transit will tempt commuters with convenient options for travel and continue to refine, along with King County Metro, the region’s bus routes to make them more efficient.
Dean A. Radford is the Editor of the Renton Reporter. He can be contacted at editor@rentonreporter.com.

City of Issaquah
The city fully supports implementing tolls on SR 520 in 2010. The city is particularly concerned about diversion onto north-south routes (e.g. I-405) as alternatives during peak hours and believes those routes should receive improvements before any charges are considered on I-90.
The city strongly supports maintaining a free or low-cost method for minimum-wage workers and local business to cross Lake Washington on the I-90 bridge.

City of Kirkland
The city supports early tolling of 520, tolling of I-90 when SR 520 is tolled and implementation of HOT lane systems on I-405.
Revenue need not be confined to paying the capital costs for construction of the facility where it was collected. In order to minimize negative impacts of pricing, choices such as high quality transit must be provided on priced corridors. Low-income users may benefit most from viable alternatives to pricing such as high quality transit.

City of Mercer Island
If tolls are placed on SR 520 and I-90, as a congestion management device or as mitigation for anticipated traffic diversion from 520, the revenues derived from tolling these roadways must be retained for transportation construction, maintenance, improvement and mitigation within the cross-Lake Washington corridor.
Early 520 tolling to generate a revenue stream for bridge replacement (with the smallest possible toll, so as to avoid massive diversion onto I-90).

City of Kenmore
Recommends further analysis of the impacts on 522 that local residents use as a cross-lake connection when 520 is unavailable or experiencing difficult delays.
The city recommends a Bus Rapid Transit service on the 522 corridor that will provide service at least every five minutes during the peak periods and every 15 minutes during off-peak periods.
Prior to any tolling, complete the scheduled improvements on the 522 corridor, especially those in Kenmore and Bothell.

City of Redmond
Toll revenue should only be used for capital and maintenance expenses in the cross-lake corridor and help fund the capital cost of the new 520 bridge.

City of Renton
The city is concerned about how diversion could affect I-405. Improvements to I-405 funded with the Nickel and TPA gas taxes must continue on its present schedule in order to avoid major problems when tolling starts.

The 520 bridge touches Medina and Points communities. Toll booths were used originally to pay for construction, but this time drivers will have money deducted from a pre-paid account when a transponder in their vehicle is electronically scanned. Photo by Chad Coleman.

By Maks Goldenshteyn
Reporter Newspapers
There’s a certain irony to the story former Kirkland mayor and current state Rep. Larry Springer likes to share about the 520 bridge, a corridor he and friends would drag race across as juniors at Bellevue High School.
Back in 1964 starting at 11 o’clock at night, a year after the bridge was first opened to drivers, they’d head west until reaching the middle of the bridge deck, make a U-turn and race back to Bellevue.
“There was just nobody on it,” he said.
Thirty years later as a member of the Kirkland City Council, Springer was appointed to the first 520 Study Committee. It was understood that as the aging structure became more vulnerable to earthquakes and windstorms, and as congestion worsened with regional growth, something needed to be done. But in 18 months on the job, the 47-person committee “decided absolutely nothing,” he said.
Another 13 years after that, Springer finally got to vote on a 520 bridge, which only resulted in him being placed in yet another study committee.
“It’s like this bridge is imprinted in my brain,” he said.
Now on the SR 520 Legislative Workgroup, charged by Gov. Chris Gregoire with recommending financing and design options to her and the state Legislature by Jan. 1, 2010, Springer and other area lawmakers and community members could finally polish off plans in the coming months for a new bridge.
That means tolls.
Expected to open in 2014, the cost for the new and expanded six-lane corridor should be at around $4.65 billion. Drivers will likely pay a variable toll fee on the existing bridge starting sometime next year. It would cost around $3.60 to cross the bridge during peak hours, Springer said.
Interstate 90 will not be tolled to begin with, assuming that it and other corridors in the region aren’t significantly impacted by what happens on 520, according to state legislation.
Should tolling on 520 lead to gridlock elsewhere, lawmakers may revisit their options.
“If I-90 turns into a parking lot, we’re probably going to have to toll it,” said Springer, adding that many of his peers believe I-90 will have to be tolled at some point anyway.
Officials say 520 will be adopting the same electronic tolling system — called “Good to Go!” — that was recently implemented on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and on SR 167.
Drivers won’t be forced to stop at booths, but will need to install a small transponder inside their car, which would link up with an overhead antenna to deduct money from a prepaid account.
Drivers without transponders or those visiting from out of town would have their license plates photographed and would be invoiced for the cost of the toll later on. A surcharge would also be deducted for the cost of processing the video, according to WSDOT.
While stakeholders on the Eastside agreed on an interchange design over a year ago, one of the biggest hurdles left to clear is what to do with the Montlake interchange on the west end of the corridor, where construction will carry a much larger price tag.
The committee will look to mitigate impacts like building on wetlands and in historic areas, the effects on wildlife and appeasing neighborhood groups.
One potential conflict has also arisen over building on Foster Island, which was at one point a Native American tribal burial area, Springer said.
“What the goal is, is to see to see if we can bring those different community factions into one design that is within the funding target,” said Barbara Gilliland, who administrates the SR 520 Legislative Workgroup that held its first meeting July 29.
Gilliland said that of three proposed plans, two options appear to be the front-runners.
Under the first option, a second drawbridge would be added over the Montlake Cut. The other option calls for constructing a tunnel under the Montlake Cut in addition to an interchange under the 520 roadway.
Springer, who’ll be sitting in on the Westside interchange discussion, says he has no personal preference on the matter, so long as the bridge performs, has the required throughput capability and is within the budget.
“Other than that, they can string a rope bridge if they want to, and that’s OK with me,” he said.
Maks Goldenshteyn is a writer for the Kirkland Reporter. He can be contacted at mgoldenshteyn@kirklandreporter.com.

A Central Link light rail train glides across an elevated platform. Photo by Chad Coleman.

By Lindsay Larin
Reporter Newspapers
The sights of Seattle flash by the windows of the Central Link light rail during the 13.9-mile stretch from the Westlake Station to Tukwila International Boulevard Station.
Central Link runs with two-car trains that hold a maximum of 400 people and eight bikes. A 1.7-mile extension to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will open in December 2009.
For now, eleven stations line the stretch of tracks between Westlake and Tukwila. The stations are split between outdoor platforms and underground tunnels, all with covered areas, benches and route information. Glass artwork and vibrant metal designs distinguish the stations from one another, paying tribute to the small sub-communities within the Greater Seattle area.
Capturing the beauty of modern technology, there are 35 new pieces of art appearing up and down the new light rail line.
While riding through the SODO district, a giant red “R” sits on the rail sign on the new brick-faced Operations and Maintenance building. The “R” was once the distinctive first letter on the old Rainier beer sign from the brewery that once stood at the same location.
Soft purple lighting welcomes riders to the Beacon Hill Station and a glass painted wall partially stretches across the outdoor platform of the Mt. Baker Station.
The Tukwila International Boulevard Station offers a two story, covered waiting area with free parking and public restrooms. Artwork titled, Confluence, by Clark Wiegman sits on the parking level of the station. The Link art program, STart, worked closely with the local communities to find artists and artworks that matched the unique history and spirit of each neighborhood.
Beyond the aesthetic reasons, the assurance of frequent, reliable operation is a major attraction for some riders. Tickets are purchased by cash or card using self-serve kiosks at the stations. Commuters are asked to show their pass during random checks by Sound Transit personal. Although the payment system is based on a “proof of payment” method, Sound Transit has begun issuing $124 citations to people who ride light-rail trains without paying.
According to spokesman Bruce Gray, about 60 citations have been issued since Aug. 24 by transit police and unarmed security guards.
Another method of payment for light rail is the new ORCA smart card, a rechargeable pass accepted on Sound Transit buses and trains. Electronic card readers are located on and near Link platforms. Riders using ORCA, tap the card on the reader when entering and exiting the train. The correct fairs are automatically deducted each time the card is used.
Ridership for light rail is expected to reach 21,000 riders every weekday by the end of 2009. By 2010, the average weekday ridership from downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac Airport is expected to total 26,600 riders.
The electric-powered light rail trains run on exclusive tracks, arriving at the 11 current stops, every 5 to 10 minutes. The trains run 20 hours a day, from 5 a.m. to nearly 1 a.m.
Link also offers easy connections to trains, buses and other transit options.
Sound Transit is working to extend light rail in the near future. University Link is a 3.15 mile light rail extension that will run from Downtown Seattle north to the University of Washington. The design work on North Link, East Link, and the First Hill Streetcar is under way.
To learn more about Central Link light rail, visit www.soundtransit.org or call 1.888.889.6368.
Lindsay Larin is a writer for the Bellevue Reporter. She can be reached at llarin@bellevuereporter.com.

Kemper Freeman favors free transit ridership, which he claims would increase the number of users while still costing less than building and operating light rail. He also supports drastic increases in vanpools and bike lanes. Photo by Chad Coleman.

By Joshua Adam Hicks
Reporter Newspapers
Sound Transit’s light-rail planning represents a progressive approach to mass transit, but the public has long been divided over whether the concepts hold any virtue.
Few people have more of a stake in the fight than Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman, who owns around eight percent of the real-estate in downtown Bellevue.
The tendency with voters has been to reject all light-rail initiatives during the first go round, and then accept a paired-down version in the next election.
Freeman, however, has been firm in his stance on the regional program, voicing an unequivocal dislike for it.
“It’s as far off track as anything I’ve ever seen government propose,” he said. “We’re being sold an impossible dream.”
Freeman commissions experts to study mass transit, and he says it’s clear from what they’ve told him that rail-based transit systems only work in areas with extremely high densities – places like New York City, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
He notes that metropolitan Seattle is far from ever reaching that level, with 2,200 people per square mile compared with New York’s roughly 60,000 people per square mile.
“We’re trying to apply (rail-based transit) where we have a fraction of the density,” he said. “We’re using the wrong tools. It’s like using a sledge hammer to set a tack.”
Freeman is also skeptical about Sound Transit’s ridership projections. He argues that the overwhelming majority of metropolitan Seattleites – around 95 percent – will always be dependent on the car.
“If light rail came anywhere close to their marketing in reality, I would be the biggest supporter that there is,” he said. “This thing is a complete farce.”
Freeman has his own version of the ideal regional transportation system, but it starts with a concept every bit as divisive as light rail. He’s calling for more roads, specifically a six-percent increase in lane miles that he estimates would reduce congestion by 36 percent.
From there, the Freeman plan gets more transit-oriented, with a drastic increase in buses and bus rapid transit.
Freeman says a bus-rapid transit system, which uses dedicated lanes to bypass congestion, could be implemented in under three years at a fraction of the cost of light rail.

"We're trying to apply (rail-based transit) where we have a fraction of the density. We're using the wrong tools. It's like using a sledge hammer to set a tack." - Kemper Freeman

He suggests buses can attract more riders because of their ability to reach every nook and cranny of the region.
“There is no other idea, for this teeny investment, that produces more transit trips than that one,” he said.
Sound Transit disagrees, claiming all those new buses would only get tied up in traffic once they reach the city.
“Nothing provides the reliability that rail does,” said Bruce Gray, a spokesman for the agency.
Freeman’s plan also calls for free transit ridership, which he claims would increase the number of users while still costing less than building and operating light rail.
Drastic increases in vanpools and bike lanes are also needed, according to his plan.
Freeman, ever the businessman, is averse to cost overruns, so he’s leveled much criticism at Sound Transit for going $1 billion over its initial Central Link construction budget.
All told, Sound Transit expects to exceed its original construction budget for light rail from Sea-Tac to the University District by $3 billion.
The agency is also far behind its initial timeline for that segment, which expired in 2006. The route to the University District is not expected to be completed until 2016.
Gray suggests Sound Transit’s early mistakes were merely the result of growing pains. The agency adjusting its forecasts in 2001, and brought in new leadership with CEO Joni Earl.
“In 1996, we were a brand new agency with three different lines of business,” Gray said. “We have 13 years of experience now.”
Sound Transit opened Central Link in July on time and $100 million under budget according to the revised plan.
That doesn’t cut it for Freeman.
“They’re so lucky they have an understanding public that’s willing to look the other way when they’re off by billions of dollars,” he said. “They can laugh at their rookie mistakes, but they’re all at our expense.”
One positive sign for Sound Transit is that construction costs aren’t rising as severely as they once were. Recent bids for University Link came in below the agency’s estimates.
“I think the trend is very good when you talk about light-rail construction,” Gray said.
As for whether there’s any debating left to be done over the virtues of light rail, Sound Transit doesn’t think so.
“The voters have pretty much spoken regarding our critics,” Gray said.
That may be true, but Freeman isn’t finished. He joined the Eastside Transportation Association in filing for a writ of prohibition to stop Sound Transit from using Interstate 90 for light rail.
The request, filed July 17 in the state Supreme Court, alleges that Sound Transit’s light rail plans would violate the 18th Amendment to the state’s constitution, which states that roads built with gas taxes can only be used for road traffic.
There was no determination at the Reporter deadline about whether the full court would hear the case.
Joshua Adam Hicks is a writer for the Bellevue Reporter. He can be contacted at jhicks@bellevuereporter.com.

Paula J. Hammond, appointed by Gov. Christine Gregoire in 2007, leads the Washington State Department of Transportation, an agency of 7,100 employees that operate, maintain and build state highways. She oversees the Washington State Ferry system, the nation’s largest; WSDOT Aviation; Public Transit; Amtrak Cascades and freight. WSDOT is responsible for the operation, maintenance and construction of improvements on over 7,000 centerline miles of highway and 3,500 bridges. Hammond's leadership focus at WSDOT is on public accountability, project delivery, open communications with the public, and the quest for efficiency in the use of transportation facilities and in the agency’s own business practices.

By Laura Pierce
Reporter Newspapers
In the future, you could be paying for your right to use roads the same way you pay your utilities — a bill based on exactly how much you use.
According to Paula Hammond, secretary of transportation, and the state’s highest transportation official, the technology to do that isn’t that far down the road.
“It’s 10 to 15 years out,” she said, noting that kind of direct-user fee could be part of the equation for future transportation funding.
But in the meantime, there is a complex – not to mention expensive – series of transportation needs that the Puget Sound area has to resolve, or at least come to terms with.
Traffic congestion; freight issues; super-efficient hybrid vehicles slowing the state’s gas tax to more of a trickle: all of these elements are adding up to a Gordian’s Knot of worries on which the state is working to get a handle.

Politics played a part
Part of the issues today come from a lack of decision-making years earlier. Hammond described “a good 15 years of stagnation,” in the state transportation system, starting in the 1980s. It’s only been over the last five years that Washington has regained its focus to aggressively begin addressing for advances to its system, she said.
That earlier lag, Hammond noted, was due partly to lack of a clear direction.
“Puget Sound politics – people say it’s like no other,” Hammond said, noting for years it was difficult for lawmakers to find a common vision on what, exactly, had to happen to advance the state’s road system.
“I think that lack of decision-making and second-guessing, all of that has not served us well,” she said, adding, “we love to debate things.”
It wasn’t always like that. In the 1970s, Washington road-planning was ahead of the curve, including its development of high-occupancy vehicle Lanes.
“There was great vision in the 1970s,” Hammond said, noting the HOV lanes were a significant advance in transportation.
Today, she said, “we have a 300-mile (core HOV system) and 250 miles of that is in place.”
That HOV system continues to be a major asset in the Puget Sound transportation system.
Washington has invested more than $1.5 billion in state and federal funding over the past 40 years in its HOV lanes. The lanes continue to provide a steam valve for congestion and an incentive for carpoolers, today moving about 35 percent of people on the roads in 19 percent of the cars. But just like everywhere else on state roads, congestion in the HOV lanes is increasing, thanks to more drivers, and SUVs with greater carrying capacity.
But there’s a fix in sight, and the way it’s funded could be a blueprint for the way future transportation needs in Washington are covered.
Hammond called attention to one of DOT’s latest projects: high-occupancy tolling lanes, or HOT Lanes. It’s a concept allowing non-carpooling drivers to use the HOV lanes, by charging them for the privilege.
For more than a year DOT has been operating a test segment of State Route 167 in South King County. And it’s working.
“What we’ve learned over the year or so we’ve had it – we saw people buying their way in for a dollar, to get a 10-minute savings on travel,” Hammond said, noting 30,000 people a month are paying to use the lane. “We’ve learned people think it’s worth something to pay to get in to reduce their travel time.”
Given the promise of HOT lanes have shown, DOT is working to expand HOT lanes on more of Puget Sound’s clogged roadways – starting with I-405, where road-expansion work is ongoing, and HOV lanes are already present.
In terms of traffic flow on the heavily used highway, “you see a natural break near Bellevue,” Hammond said. “But we’re looking at the entire (405) corridor. And as it comes through the 167 interchange and carries down there as well.”
The project could be constructed in pieces, so drivers using one segment actually would be paying for constructing the next segment.
Hammond said the Legislature has asked DOT to analyze the project this legislative session, and then to come back with a report for the next session.
“So we’re doing the work now and coming back in 2010, to see if they’ll give us the authority to proceed with that project,” she said.

A new funding concept
The concept of paying as you go, to fund specific projects like the HOT lanes, is gaining serious momentum as a payment solution for transportation issues.
Right now, the state gas tax is the main source of dollars – and it’s a dwindling one.
For all the good things today’s fuel-efficient cars represent, it also means more drivers pay less at the pump – and therefore pump fewer dollars into the transportation system.
“We see it’s a loser,” Hammond said, adding the gas tax also fails to keep up with inflation.
Given the realities of funding – tolling is going to become more prevalent, Hammond said.
One event that brought that into clearer focus was when voters balked in 2007 at the Roads and Transit measure – a major transportation package that combined resources for improvements in roads, bus service and rail.
While Hammond said there was a lot of debate about why the measure failed, it was a telling moment when Puget Sound voters the next year passed the Sound Transit 2 measure, taxing themselves for a major expansion of light rail in the region. “That was good information – people did want the transit measure to pass,” Hammond said.
Of RTID, “I think it was too much of a taxpayer investment,” Hammond said. “But I don’t think people said they didn’t want those projects.”
And with those projects still on the drawing board, there needs to be a revenue source to fund them.
“We are gravitating toward tolling,” she added.
When asked how she personally would resolve the funding issue, Hammond said drivers investing directly in the roads they use is a critical part of the equation.
“I think the users need to pay,” she explained. “They need to pay for the value they get out of that system. The cost to drive a mile in Wenatchee isn’t close to what it costs to drive a mile in Seattle.”

Top road projects
When asked what she felt the highest-priority road projects are Puget Sound, Hammond listed four, with the focus on safety: The Alaskan Way viaduct replacement, the Highway 520 floating bridge, completing the 405 corridor and increasing the efficiency of Interstate 5 as it runs through Puget Sound. Hammond confessed that the 520 floating bridge, due for completion in 2014, and the viaduct, which should be under construction and open to traffic by 2015, have both caused her sleepless nights.

Future transportation picture
Hammond pointed to a future transportation picture in the Puget Sound region that encompasses many things – from a cultural shift toward alternative modes of transportation, to technology making it easier for people to say where they are working from.
“I think we’re already seeing the transition now,” she said, of people leaving their cars in the garage and taking the train or bus, although these modes, she added will never replace personal vehicles.
“Sound Transit has opened its first (light rail) link, and we’re seeing heavy commuter rail use already. Local transit services has seen growth,” she said, adding that as technology continues to improve, “I think you’re going to see some people altering their work schedules, and doing more work from home.”
And as far as transportation funding in the future, she said, “I do think we’ll see more tolling.”
But state officials need to tread lightly in ushering in those changes, especially when it comes to how public dollars are being spent.
“We need to take our time to have this public conversation,” Hammond said. “Until we explain that well to people, we’re not going to have that public buy-in.”
Laura Pierce is Editor of the Kent Reporter. She can be contacted at editor@kentreporter.com.

Metro buses are still the most widely used mode of public transportation, but a gaping budget hole is likely to see fares increase over the next few years. Photo by Andy Nystrom.

By Tom Corrigan
Reporter Newspapers

Standing at the Metro Transit stop on Northeast Bothell Way near the Kenmore Park-and-Ride, Carrie Hood said she rides the bus everyday to and from the downtown Seattle bank where she works as a teller.
Hood added she wouldn’t drive to work even if she could somehow afford the price of parking downtown. Still, Hood said she has a few complaints regarding Metro, complaints echoed by some of the riders waiting with her.
For the most part, riders agreed Metro’s buses are fairly dependable, but Hood and others stated they’ve been late for work or appointments because a bus was behind schedule more often than they would like.
And, probably predictably, none of the riders were happy with the fare increases that may be heading their way. While he declined to give his name, one rider said his employer currently provides staff with bus passes. But that employer already has announced that if the price of bus rides increase, those free passes may disappear.
Like so many other public and private entities, budget problems are by far the biggest issues currently facing the King County Metro Transit System, according to several sources, including Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond.
Tossing out a number that has been widely advertised, Desmond said the system is looking at a $214 million shortfall in its next two-year budget.
As the Seattle area struggles with recession, sales tax collections have “plummeted,” Desmond said, and those taxes make up 71 percent of Metro’s revenue. Desmond added that, overall, revenues are coming in some 20 percent lower than expected.
With all that and other factors in mind, King County Executive Kurt Triplett has proposed a nine-point plan to close Metro’s budget gap, a plan that includes fare increases, service cuts and deferred expansion.
According to information released by Triplett’s office, county officials don’t expect Metro’s tax revenues to return to even 2008 levels until at least 2014. Triplett and others also have talked about implementing changes suggested by a recent service audit of Metro’s operations.
As of this writing, only some of those recommendations had been made public.
In the end, any proposal put forth by Triplett ultimately must earn the approval of the King County Council. According to Metro spokesperson Linda Thielke, Triplett will present his full budget – which includes Metro’s budget – to the council by the end of this month, with adoption coming in November.
Moving away from budget issues and touching on service improvements, Desmond and others said if money were no object, their top priority would be to add more Metro buses and bus lines.
According to David Hull, service planning supervisor for Metro, the whole point of public transportation is getting people out of their cars and using alternative means to get around, in this case, buses. Hull said the way you do that is by adding more connections to more locations and keeping the wait time between connections to less than five minutes. He added that the latter long has been Metro’s goal. But Hull also stated any public bus line faces one issue over which most transit officials have little or no say.
“We operate on roads we don’t control,” he said.
Both he and Desmond talked about how improving and extending HOV lanes throughout the Seattle area would greatly aid transit. They also mentioned electronics that could give approaching buses priority at stop lights. Hull said communities and developers need to keep transit in mind as they build up residential areas, allowing pedestrian access to streets and, obviously, bus lines.
Even if the county council adopts Triplett’s proposed cuts in service – which run to 310,000 hours over the next two years – some newer bus lines apparently won’t be affected. Desmond said Sound Transit’s light rail obviously has been getting a lot of publicity recently and Metro plans to shift routes to feed into the light rail system. Desmond described those feeder routes as “absolutely critical,” claiming that the Puget Sound region has been waiting 40 years, in one way or another, for light rail. He doesn’t want that effort sabotaged by Metro’s budget concerns. Apparently, neither does Triplett. His proposal exempts from service cuts “already approved service partnerships.”
According to Desmond, even if Sound and its new trains have been getting all the attention lately, there is no doubt that buses are still the back bone of the overall transit system. While he said Sound and Metro are operated separately, there is no antagonism between the two, that they are not rivals.
“We don’t compete,” Desmond said.
If there is no competition between Sound and Metro, there is competition connected with another aspect of Metro’s operations. Kenmore Mayor David Baker is one of several suburban officials who serve on the Regional Transit Committee, a sub-committee of the county council. The committee includes Seattle representatives as well.
Baker said while Seattle’s suburbs contribute 64 percent of the sales taxes that pay for Metro operations, they receive a disproportionate share of Metro’s buses and services. He added there was a plan in place to try and equalize the service between Seattle and the suburbs.
“Seattle now wants to get rid of that, they don’t think its fair,” Baker said.
He added Seattle’s representatives to the regional committee also are worried the city could see the lion’s share of any budget balancing service reductions.
A Seattle representative to the regional transit committee did not return a phone call.
For his part, Baker insists bus service between Seattle and the suburbs has never really been balanced. He said it’s easy to hop a bus to downtown Seattle. But he said riding a bus from one suburb to another can be a lot tougher. Baker contends lines running north and south are particularly poor.
“Because of the mess, it forces people into cars,” Baker said.
For his part, Hull agreed with Baker to a certain extent.
“There is not enough service out in the suburbs,” he said. He further talked about the possible need for more Park-and-Ride spots.
But Hull also noted the bus system naturally grew up around Seattle and it only makes the area’s epicenter would have, historically, the most routes. He said what is needed is more buses, but those aren’t going to be arriving anytime soon thanks to Metro’s money woes.
“It’s not that Seattle has too many buses,” Hull continued. “It’s more that the overall pie is not big enough.”

Tom Corrigan is a writer for the Bothell Reporter. He can be contacted at tcorrigan@bothell-reporter.com.

Sen. Patty Murray was front and center with other regional dignitaries as Sound Transit opened its light rail line, Central Link, in the Seattle Area. Photo by Chad Coleman.

By Craig Groshart
Reporter Newspapers
Sen. Patty Murray knows the impact of growth. As a child growing up in Bothell, she remembers the sign as people entered the city: Population 998.
“And look at it now,” she marvels of the city that now has more than 30,000 residents.
All that growth is wonderful for the economy, she said, but it has crated a “huge transportation problem.”
Fortunately, Murray is well-positioned to do something about it.
As chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, Murray’s job is to write the nation’s transportation funding bill every year. That’s a billion-dollar task.
Among other things, she helps direct funding to maintain and improve the interstate highway system, modernize airports, expand public transit in urban and rural areas, and invest in transportation research and safety programs.
“You have a community that’s growing,” Murray said of this region, “and we’re paying attention to it.”
Murray has been the state’s Congressional leader in securing federal funding for Sound Transit, including a Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) in 2003 which secured $500 million in federal funding for the Link Light Rail project in Puget Sound.
She also has brought nearly $700 million to the state for roads, transit, shipyards and ferries in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"You have a community that's growing and we're paying attention to it." - Patty Murray

Murray doesn’t do it in a vacuum. When she sits down with mayors and business interests from around here, she tells them, ‘you guys have to prioritize what’s important for you,’” Murray said.
“If people can’t agree, there’s a lot of other communities who want the funds,” Murray added.
However, these days, those funds are become more and more scarce as the federal government faces the same recession as every other government agency – and everyone else, for that matter.
At the federal level, the push and pull is between urban and rural, transit and highways, bike trails considered or not.
“It’s a funding formula battle,” Murray noted. “It’s not partisan. You fight for the most you can get for your state.”
The bottom line for Murray and others in Congress is that “we don’t have enough gas-tax receipts,” she said.
More fuel-efficient cars are being produced, people are driving less, those who are laid off aren’t driving much at all. With less gasoline being consumed, less money flows into the federal treasury, meaning less is available to help pay for local transportation projects.
If you’re in Congress, there aren’t any easy answers, Murray said.
How do you raise the gas tax in a recession?” Murray asked. The answer is, you don’t.
Congress needs a plan that enough members with enough courage will vote for, she said, “or we cut everybody back.”
That alternative, she noted, “would hurt Washington state like you wouldn’t believe. This is not going to be easy,” she added.
To complicate matters, the Senate Finance Committee also is involved and, as Murray noted, “they’re a little bit entangled with health care.”
The short-term answer probably will see the Senate pass several temporary extensions of the current transportation bill, Murray said.
Though much is made in the press of what some call “earmarks,” – remember the bridge in Alaska to nowhere? – that isn’t the boondoggle many think it is. In reality, Murray said, less that one percent of the federal highway money goes to special projects.
All senators are asked to give her committee priorities. She has hers, too.
“If it doesn’t pass the smell test,” she said of a request, “I go back to them and they have to really justify it before it gets into my committee.”
Murray said she does respect senators who say ‘yes, this is the priority. I’ve been to the community and talked to every one there. I’m willing to defend it on the Senate floor and I’m willing to stand for reelection on it because it’s that important to me.’
Still, she said, with a full Senate committee of competing points of view, “it’s not easy to get anything through.”
If somebody offers an amendment and it can’t be defended, “it comes out,” Murray said.
The going then gets tougher when the transportation bill goes to the Senate floor “where the same process happens.” Next, the Senate bill must be squared with a House version.
It’s pretty thoroughly vetted,” Murray said of the process.
If things weren’t bad enough, they’re made worse by the bad economy. The Transportation Committee, she said, has only half the money previously available for such projects.
“So I spend most of my time saying ‘no.’ before it ever comes before my committee,” she said.
Nonetheless, Murray has been able to find money for regional transit and transportation projects.
She secured over $110 million for Sound Transit’s University Link and Central Link segments. The money will help provide the first-ever light rail link between downtown Seattle and the University of Washington.
Another $9.3 million has been allocated for the Bellevue to Redmond Bus Rapid Transit project. That work will involve a 9.25-mile corridor that will run streetside between downtown Bellevue and downtown Redmond. The project will provide all-day, rapid transit between the two growing urban centers.
Other money will help establish bus rapid transit service between Tukwila and Federal Way.
Murray also has taken a tour of the Bel-Red Corridor in Bellevue that is envisioned to have light rail and a change of use from light industrial to residential and commercial.
With transportation needs still great but the money more limited, Murray says there’s more pressure on various groups to come together and agree on a project.
When they come in with business leaders, labor leaders, community leaders, when they’ve done their homework, “there is a much better chance of getting it financed,” Murray said.
Of course, she noted, sometimes that agreement doesn’t happen until the night before it has to because people don’t want to give in.
How does she get them to do it?
“I used to teach preschool,” she laughed.
Craig Groshart is editor of the Bellevue Reporter. He can be contacted at 425-453-4233 or via e-mail at cgroshart@bellevuereporter.com.

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.

An electronic sign over Highway 167 tells drivers the cost of using the carpool lane as a single-occupancy vehicle. The cost goes up or down throughout the day as congestion increases or decreases in the carpool lane. HOT stands for High Occupancy Toll lanes. Photo by Charles Cortez.

By Robert Whale
Reporter Newspapers
The Washington Department of Transportation’s decision to open nine miles of High Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lanes in May of 2008 between Auburn and Renton was aimed at giving the solo driver a choice, an opt-out from a too-often congested State Route 167 in south King County.
More than a year later, some like it HOT, some don’t.
Yes, there is room for improvement, Craig Stone, deputy administrator of the Urban Corridors program of Washington State Department of Transportation, told the Auburn City Council at the one-year mark last spring, but added that “in overall terms of technology, driver expectations and safety, it seems to be going pretty good.
“…people who are making a long trip between Sumner and Bellevue come in and give us great reviews,” Stone said. “The ones who don’t like it are the ones who got onto 167, went a couple interchanges and got back off. They say, ‘You restricted me, I had to wait to get into that lane, then I had to get back out again.’”
A single HOT lane runs in each direction of SR 167 between the Auburn and Renton. Two general-purpose lanes in each direction are open to all vehicles and toll free. Solo drivers pay a variable, electronically collected toll using the Good to Go! transponder to drive in the HOT lane when space is available. Carpools of two or more vehicles, van pools, buses and motorcycles use the lanes Toll tree without a transponder.
Here is some of the most recent program data as compiled in the SR 167 HOT Lanes Pilot Project First Annual Performance Summary, May 2008-April 2009:

• More than 30,000 Good to Go! transponder users had paid to use the HOT lanes during that one-year period
• The program generated $316,000 in gross revenue in that time.
• The average number of total tolled trips continued to increase — from 1,050 trips per weekday in May 2008 to 1,710 trips per weekday by April 2009.
• The average number of peak-hour tolled trips also continued to increase – 140 northbound trips in May 2008 compared to 270 trips in April 2009, and 100 southbound trips in May 2009 compared to 160 trips in April 2009.
• Variable tolling makes better use of carpool lanes and improves traffic flow in the corridor without affecting service for carpools and buses.
• Traffic conditions on 167 in the general purpose and HOT lanes has improved, and in both directions, vehicle speeds and overall volumes have noticeably increased during the peak period.

The lanes operate daily from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Toll rates automatically rise and fall with the level of congestion so that traffic in the lane always moves smoothly.
Since opening day, the Washington State Patrol has made more than 4,300 HOT-lane-related traffic stops, citing more than 2,000 drivers for HOV/HOT violations and more than 300 drivers for crossing the double white line that separates the HOT lane from the general purpose lanes. According to the report, however, the compliance rate is estimated at 95-97 percent.
Auburn City Councilman Bill Peloza finds the HOT lanes “extremely convenient.”
Three vehicles in the city of Auburn’s fleet are equipped with Good to Go! transponders, and when Peloza checks one of these cars out to get to a regional meeting, he uses the HOT lanes at least up to Kent where he makes the turn to get to I-5.
“I think it’s well spent taxpayers’ money,” said Peloza. “I think also that the payment for the leg between Auburn and Renton, which can vary from 50 cents to a $1.50 depending on the traffic conditions, is reasonable. It could even warrant more money for the convenience of people saving time because, let’s face it, time is worth a lot more than 50 cents or $1.50.”
“By implementation of the HOT lane program, the state was trying to make the carpool lane more efficient by opening that space for general use that would often go underused as an HOV lane, even when the general purpose lanes were heavily congested,” said Chris Hankins, a transportation planner with the City of Auburn. “The other element was managing the flow of the additional traffic of the carpool lane when that space was actually available.”
The four-year pilot program covers the years of 2008-2012, and the state Legislature will decide whether it continues beyond 2012.
Robert Whale is a writer for the Auburn Reporter. He can be contacted at rwhale@auburn-reporter.com.

Clients pay Jim Hebert of Hebert Research for his insight - to study what is really happening on the ground, to uncover trends, patterns of spending, of consumption, and, pertinent to transportation, of ridership, travel habits, and work and lifestyle choices. Photo by Chad Coleman.

His clients pay him for his insight — to study what is really happening on the ground, to uncover trends, patterns of spending, of consumption, and, pertinent to transportation, of ridership, travel habits, and work and lifestyle choices.
In this capacity he was a part of the team that designed the southern most sections of the newly opened light rail from Seattle to Tukwila.
But far from being an agency number cruncher, Hebert has allegiances and connections, particularly in the Bellevue business community.
He is a former board member of the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce and Bellevue Downtown Association.
On the wall of his Bellevue office is a framed newspaper article heralding well known Eastside businessman and creator of Bellevue Square, Kemper Freeman, a friend as well as a business associate.
Freeman is one of the driving forces behind the Eastside Transportation Association (ETA), a group with a history of opposing public transit initiatives, particularly light rail.
It is Freeman’s name on the writ of prohibition the ETA launched against Gov. Christine Gregoire recently to stop Sound Transit using lane space on the Interstate 90 for an Eastside expansion.
(He likens Freeman’s battle against Sound Transit as “David against Goliath,” with Freeman playing the role of David.)
This is the same Sound Transit that Hebert’s wife, Cynthia Sullivan, was once a board member of.
During her time on the King County Council, Sullivan was a passionate advocate of light rail in the area, and once said “we are going to get it built. I am not going to back away from it.”
So possibly more than any other figure, Hebert represents the diversity of interests all jostling for control of the area’s transportation future – business people, politicians, engineers, and lobbyists.
“At times they are on the same page,” he said. “Generally it is an adversarial relationship.”
The way Hebert sees it, the transportation plans currently on the drawing board do not adequately connect with the patterns of work and lifestyle that he is documenting – particularly the growing pattern of the “reverse commute,” people who live in Seattle and work on the Eastside, rather than the other way around.
“This is a very interesting phenomenon,” Hebert said. “When we lived in North Wedgwood, my wife would be able to catch the bus to her work in Seattle, but I would have to drive to work in Bellevue. That pattern has continued. There are more desktops on the Eastside than rooftops, it’s become an employment center. The leadership has chosen to build businesses here, and the employees have followed.”
Hebert said that high house prices on the Eastside, and the appeal to young people of Seattle’s urban experience, have accentuated this trend.
“The real estate market will tell you that people will drive to where they qualify for a mortgage,” he said. “Essentially, Snohomish, Seattle, Pierce counties, have become the suburbs of the Eastside. It’s a mega trend.”
Though these are ideas familiar to many, particularly Eastside workers and residents, Hebert said transportation planners are not taking them on board.
“This is very disconcerting, this disconnect with suburban communities,” he said. “They don’t realize the model is changing, and they need to adapt. The public won’t change. When people lead, the leadership should follow.”
He said that the light rail concept was making false assumptions about the American public, and, as a result, was not popular among Eastside business people.
“You have to ask yourself, why is the Eastside business community not supporting a service that they don’t have to pay for? Because they don’t see the benefit for themselves and their employees,” Hebert said. “They see it as only serving those it’s convenient to.”
He added the light rail plan assumed that people would walk a certain distance to get to a station.
“Studies have shown that the average American individual will not walk further than 1100 feet,” he said. “This is not Europe.”
Hebert said that he personally was interested in other means of reducing congestion on Eastside roads.
In his office, employees go home in two shifts, at 5 p.m. and at 9 p.m.
Employees are given bus passes, and those leaving at 9 p.m. are driven to the Bellevue Park and Ride.
He said employers should be looking at things like encouraging their employees to do their shopping, or fitness workouts, after work.
“This balances out the peak flows,” Hebert said. “It is about changing lifestyle to match traffic patterns.”
But, he admitted, public transportation usage constitutes a very small percentage of trips from and to the Eastside.
“The public understands one bus will replace plenty of cars. But not their car,” he said.
Hebert said he had noticed people are buying fewer cars, driving their old cars longer, and taking into account gas prices by combining trips.
Whilst shedding the car in favor of public transit is an effective cost saving change, Hebert said Eastsiders “work around the calendar, rather than the checkbook.”
Which brings the conversation to tolls, particularly variable tolls, where as roads become more congested the toll price increases, encouraging drivers to use less congested routes.
“As an economist and a researcher, this is a variable that allows us to manage demand,” Hebert said. “Tolls are very price elastic. But you have to consider is it fair? Is it just to all? It comes back to the checkbook and the calendar. For an attorney making $520 an hour, then the cost of a toll is minimal if it gets them there faster. But for a younger person, maybe in an entry level position, then the toll is going to be more of a concern.”
Hebert said that, given the car is still king when it comes to getting around the Eastside, the condition of roads was a big concern.
In a recent survey of his, the question of how well roads are maintained scored a ‘D’, and about 47 percent of respondents gave “extremely low” scores on things like resurfacing, striping and signage.
But, in the bigger picture, Eastside residents have other, more pressing things on their plate.
According to Hebert’s research into the top priorities for people at the moment, transportation rated equal fourth, with the economy, behind healthcare, taxation, education and the environment.

Jake Lynch is the editor of the Issaquah Reporter. he can be contacted via email at editor@issaquah-reporter.com.

When using an ORCA card to ride Link, tap your card at a card reader on a yellow pole before boarding the train. When you get off the train, tap your card again at the ORCA reader. The correct fare will be deducted. Photo by Chad Coleman.

“In the Puget Sound, there has always been a high degree of commuters using multiple systems to get around. In the past, transportation has depended on flash projects – getting from Point A to Point B by visually showing a pass to the driver,” Carlson explained. “We have come up with a more convenient way to connect Puget Sound commuters and to distribute revenue regionally.”
The all-in-one ORCA card uses smart card technology to automatically account for different fares and transfers on Community Transit, Everett Transit, King County Metro Transit, Kitsap Transit, Pierce Transit, Sound Transit and Washington State Ferries. The ORCA program offers users the advantage of reloading funds, known as the card’s E-purse value. Users can reload an ORCA card online, by phone, mail or at transit or light rail stations around the Puget Sound.
An ORCA card also can be loaded with a transit pass that can be used for unlimited trips during the period the pass is valid.
The card is free if requested before February 1, 2010. It will be available for purchase online, at any of Sound Transit’s customer service offices, at transit and light rail station link TVM (kiosks), or local grocery stores including some Safeway and QFC locations.
While researching a new pass program, Carlson and her team looked elsewhere for implementation ideas. Large cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C ., and Houston all use some form of all-in-one transportation.
“Most major cities have some type of program similar to ORCA but we wanted to take it one step further,” she said. “We have seven separate agencies who have agreed to come together and collaborate on this one program. That is huge.”
The ORCA system will be able to track data in a more efficient way, Carlson said, from the number of morning commuters to the most populated modes of transportation.
“This will allow us to make adjustments and improvement in the most accurate way possible,” she noted.
As the ORCA card program continues to roll out, more options of transportation will be available including Van Pool.
If a card is lost or stolen, the it can be canceled and funds can be transfered to a new card. E-purse funds can be added according to travel needs or can be automatically programmed to upload funds from a direct account on a monthly basis.
“OCRA card users can go online and reload the card’s fare on the Web site and the great thing is that the electronic purse (E-purse) doesn’t expire,” Carlson explained. “With the ORCA program, we are making things better for the customer and it provides us with data from a business standpoint.”
The ORCA card program also offers a number of advantages to business owners and large corporations. ORCA enables businesses to pick the transit products that best fit their business needs while providing them with tools to make it easier to manage their transportation programs. Businesses have the choice of two programs – the Business Passport and Business Choice.
“From a business standpoint, the ORCA card programs just make sense,” Carlson said. “We have already issued 25,000 cards to Microsoft employees. Companies such as Boeing can use the ORCA business Web site to track how much ridership they have to save on cost. For large businesses, this could result in huge savings.”
The Business Passport includes a comprehensive, annual transportation pass program that offers employees options for their commutes. With the Passport option, employees can choose to ride by bus, transit, rail, vanpool and guaranteed ride home service.
The Business Choice option gives employers the discretion to provide ORCA cards to as few or as many commuters as they choose and can load each card with a variety of product options including a monthly pass, E-purse or E-voucher. The advantage of the E-Voucher is that it allows the employer to provide a set value that their employees can convert to an e-purse or monthly pass. If the voucher goes unused for 30 days, the value is refunded to the company.

How to get your ORCA card
Ten customer service offices and three retail outlets are located throughout the four-county ORCA region Visit www.orcacard.com for more information on these locations. ORCA cards purchased from customer service offices and retail outlets are fully functional and immediately ready for use.
You also can order a new ORCA card online at www.orcacard.com or by phone at 1-888-988-6722 or TTY Relay at 711:1-888-889-6368. ORCA cards ordered online or by phone are typically processed and delivered by mail in five to seven business days. Once a new card arrives, it must be tapped on a card reader before it is fully functional and ready for use.

How to use your ORCA card
When using an ORCA card to ride Link, tap your card at a card reader on a yellow pole before boarding the train. Present your valid ORCA card to the fare inspector upon request. When exiting, tap your card again at the card reader at the station to complete your transaction and ensure that the correct fare is deducted.

How to reload an ORCA card
Users can reload an ORCA card at any Link TVM with either a pass or more E-purse value. Simply insert your card in the ORCA card holder and select the product you would like to load onto your existing card. Card reload transactions done on a TVM are immediately processed and ready for use.
You also can reload an ORCA card at an ORCA Customer Service Office or a participating retail outlet or online at www.orcacard.com, 1-888-988-6722.

Lindsay Larin is a writer for the Bellevue Reporter. You can contact her at llarin@bellevuereporter.com.

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.

Prediction: The next 15 years will see a transition in automobiles far faster than imagined today.

By Glen Hiemstra
www.futurist.com

Prediction: The next 15 years will see a transition in automobiles far faster than imagined today. The vehicle future includes:

Plug-in hybrids
This is the strategy behind the GM Volt. While current hybrid vehicles use an electric motor to supplement a gasoline engine, in a plug-in hybrid the concept is reversed. A small gasoline motor is used solely to run a generator to recharge batteries when needed, while the drive train is all-electric.
GM is working with two different companies on next generation batteries aiming for high power, fast charging and long life cycle performance that will tip the scale toward an electric future. The question for GM is whether they can survive long enough to implement this new technology. Other companies, Toyota included, intend to introduce similar plug-in hybrids in the next two years.

Fuel-cell electrics
A decade ago it was assumed by many experts that next generation vehicles would mostly be all-electric vehicles powered by hydrogen-based fuel cells. It is an elegant idea – a car so clean it emits only water from the tail pipe. An even greater advantage is that a fuel-cell car is, potentially, a mobile private power station.
Since a car is typically driven an hour or two a day, the rest of time a fuel cell car could generate enough electricity to power most needs of a typical home.
The problem is that while hydrogen is abundant, it must be separated from other substances, ideally water, and then transported and stored. All of this is complex and expensive.
Because of these problems, most experts today have reversed course, and do not consider hydrogen fuel cells to be a significant part of the vehicle future. However, both Mercedes and Honda continue to place bets on a hydrogen future, and the state of California continues to work toward a hydrogen infrastructure.

Plug-in all-electric
This is the dominant play, I believe, and the one with the most critical implications for the lubricant industry. A plug-in electric is a simple solution. All you need is an electric motor (or four of them, one for each wheel), and a battery pack capable of the same high power, and fast charging time as needed in a plug-in hybrid. You also need the battery to be capable of longer life for longer distances.
The Tesla is a proof-of-concept car that can travel upwards of 200 miles on a charge. AltairNano, A123 Systems, and other “nano-battery” developers aim for life-cycles of 15,000 charges, such that a battery would outlive a car. Charge times are on the order of 10 minutes with high voltage systems that could be standard at filling stations.
The nation of Israel may be the first to go all-electric with a service station strategy of swappable batteries: drive in, replace your battery module, and drive out. Mercedes includes a plug-in electric in a reported plan to phase out gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2015.

Cars on today's roads still are mostly gasoline-driven, but all that is likely to change in the future as companies work to perfect plug-in hybrids, fuel-cell electrics and plug-in all-electrics

By Matt Phelps
Reporter Newspapers

Futurist and Kirkland resident Glen Hiemstra sees many factors driving regional transportation, including the growth of the retirement population, the success or failure of Light Rail and advancements in battery technology.

For commuters, he also sees choice.

Hiemstra, founder of the Web site www.futurist.com, envisions a day in the next three decades when people participate in a ride share system that provides a small electric vehicle from their residence to some kind of mass transportation hub such as light rail.

“Automobile travel is likely to become increasingly expensive,” said Hiemstra, who said that there will need to be major advancements in battery technology to continue on the path toward sustainability. “The lack of an alternative will mean that people will stick it out as long as they can.”

That fact will mean maintaining the current infrastructure. But the region has some restrictions in size and population.

“We have such an auto driven culture,” said Hiemstra, a consultant who also gives speeches, writes a blog and authored the book “Turning the Future Into Revenue: What Businesses and Individuals Need to Know to Shape Their Future.”

But the futurist predicts that will change over the next few decades.

“People will start to look for an alternative, and there will be increasing pressure for public transportation,” said Hiemstra. “Over the next three decades we might see an extension of light rail. But that is a big “if”: if light rail is viewed as successful.”

Hiemstra sees great pressure to extend light rail out of Bellevue and Redmond.

“There will be a shift from buses to light rail access,” he said.

He also envisions the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad or city streets as a place for light rail.

One factor contributing to the changes in transportation is the growth of the population over the age of 65. Hiemstra said that the retirement population could reach 25 percent in the next few decades.

“As local population ages there will be a greater need for large-scale transportation,” said Hiemstra.

He said the private sector could become increasingly involved in residents’ day-to-day needs.

Retirement communities that utilize vans for their residents and even private companies that provide service to the local population could become a way for people to reach shopping destinations, work and bigger hubs of transportation.

The increased efficiency of electric ride-share programs could have a big effect.

“You could have a bank of electric bikes or small one-to-two person car vehicles that would take you the last few miles to your house,” said Hiemstra. “There are already some companies providing it.”

That idea is already taking shape in Europe with some startup companies.

“We will have a much greater number of transportation options,” Hiemstra said.

One element that could reduce the need for more transportation is the rise of realistic three-dimensional communication through the internet or other yet-unthought-of communication systems.

“It would replace the need for business travel over the next three decades,” Hiemstra said.

He said that the expansion of freeways will eventually reach capacity and a point where adding lanes becomes non-productive.

“It will happen after about one or two more rounds,” Hiemstra said. “Our population will also max out. There has been talk about a freeway to the east near Redmond and Issaquah up to Everett. But it is more likely to be an expansion of Light Rail or something like that.”

As far as transportation across Lake Washington is concerned, Hiemstra does not see any use of maritime transportation such as passenger ferries.

“It would only service a few thousand people,” he said.

Matt Phelps is a writer for the Kirkland Reporter. He can be contacted at mphelps@kirklandreporter.com.