Seattle’s Transportation Gridlock

 

Seattle’s traffic isn’t as bad as L.A.’s, but the fact that the two are comparable in this regard is shocking.

The state ferry system, responsible for moving cars and people between the mainland and the myriad islands of the Puget Sound has recently shut down some routes, as they’ve determined that some of their boats are no longer safe. Appropriate funding to ensure that service is maintained has not been forthcoming.

The Alaskan Way Viaduct presents another problem. The elevated section of highway 99 is old, unsightly, and “seismically vulnerable” – cityspeak for “We’re doomed!” in the event of an earthquake.

To top that off, the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge connecting the Eastside to Seattle is in need of enlargement and/or replacement.

All of this comes at a time when planning, spending, and action on these big transportation issues has been lacking, and the economy looks increasingly gloomy, which will certainly tighten public spending that any such project(s) would rely on.

Governor Christine Gregoire has not been the lightning-rod leader on these issues that the state needs (her website shows her strong commitment to ending our problems with its feature on her family dog, Trooper, who has apparently just turned two).

Nobody else (Greg Nickels, et al) has stepped up to the plate to fill the void on transportation leadership.

Gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi recently proposed a statewide transportation plan that addresses many, if not all, of the aging-infrastructure and traffic bottlenecks that confound Washington commuters.

Sadly, his plan isn’t perfect:

Mark Hallenbeck, director of the Washington state Transportation Center at the University of Washington, said Rossi’s numbers are “completely divorced from reality.”

“He lowballs almost all the estimates and never says where all the funds are going to come from. It’s a political statement. It’s complete silliness,” Hallenbeck said.

Rossi isn’t forthcoming on what programs will be cut to generate the promised $15 billion in spending to finance his lofty proposal. Critics like Mr. Hallenbeck above argue that Rossi’s plan would in reality cost much more than $15 billion and slash spending on other programs including education and healthcare. Mr. Rossi supports diverting $10 billion in new and used-car sales-tax revenue from the state’s general fund (which already faces a $2 billion deficit) to help finance the transportation plan. All that ends up turning the state’s budget into a sleight-of-hand game, with taxpayers footing the bill for the deficit in the end. Why not find a way to do all of this without increasing the deficit (or while eliminating it altogether?)

Rossi does introduce some fantastic new ideas. I like the idea to move the auto sales-tax revenue to finance transportation projects. However, it needs to be comprehensive and feasible, eliminating shortfalls in the state’s general fund.

Hopefully, Rossi will get to implement some of his ideas, or at least some of them will be embraced by his opponent in order to ease congestion and please Washingtonians. The last thing we need is old ideas and no action.

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