Going With the Flow

Transportation fluidity was the topic of today’s roundtable at the National Defense Transportation Association (NDTA) Puget Sound Chapter meeting.

The overall theme was how will we keep freight moving. These viewpoints dominated the conversation:

1. that the driver workforce is becoming the biggest challenge for the trucking industry,
2. that technological and operational responses to the challenges of freight movement will also change the local industry, and
3. that our regional infrastructure has the potential to meet the needs of the future.

Moderated by Lt. Col. Lydia Reeves, Commander, 833d Transportation Battalion, Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC), observed in conversation that the commercial and military freight share the same ground. She added that national responses to priority objectives can result in hardships to either of these sectors. And, that it is relevant for the military to be involved in regional transportation issues.

The panelists themselves provided much of the insight into the challenges of moving freight, as they were charged to do. Dennis Hedlund, General Freight Services, representing transportation services, Dan Gatchet, Washington Trucking Assn. representing the trucking firms and Eric Nowak, Performance Team, for warehousing and distribution centers.

Gatchet early on identified the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) requirement by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) as precipitating a crisis in qualified, certified drivers. In the LA area, many drivers are eastern Europeans, using English as a second language. Along with other criteria for the TWIC, as many as 15-20% of all LA's drivers are forecast to fail to qualify. This result will itself put upward pressure on wages as companies strive to attract, qualify and train drivers.

Also, Gatchet spoke to the clean air initiatives being implemented in the LA basin. The recently imposed container tax will drive up costs. The application of the revenues from the container tax back to the industry is being encouraged to mitigate fleet requirements imposed on these independent drivers and rigs. The goal is to have all or newer 2007 engines by 2012.

Together these impacts may have the unintended consequences of shifting freight to the Pacific Northwest. However, the size of the local LA market will command the large volume of containers be delivered there.

Speakers expressed concerns that the PNW can handle any freight shift. In round numbers, the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma throughput 4 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) each year. Concern was expressed that the physical limits of port gates and operational standards would allow an increase of 1 million TEUs. Those operational standards reflect the hours of operation; warehouses are open 24x7 and ports are daylight operations only, they said.

The forecast was made for operational changes that will have workforce impacts. As companies respond to incentives to move freight during off-peak hours, as is being done in LA now, workers must be found to work those hours and supportive industries must also shift to accommodate the new routine. Already mini-economies are developing in LA as independents will rent their trucks to drivers during their off hours.

When asked what logistics innovations are proving good, speakers replied:

1. TWIC cards will prove beneficial in the long run because it will lead to operational efficiencies.
2. The usefulness of GPS, to know where loads and equipment are, even down to the location in the yard will become a big improvement.

As for Canadian port competition, speakers believe they are very close to becoming competitive and are now mainly bargaining chips in negotiations involving U.S. ports. However, as the needed infrastructure is built-out and Canadian regulatory initiatives gain more value, they will be competitive.

Finally, for an observation about the PNW surface network, speakers offered:

Eric Nowak: The potential is there. There is a need for industry attention to interface with the community to solve or avoid issues like in LA.

Dennis Hedlund: We need to maximize the physical infrastructure and the technology that is available.

Dan Gatchet: The trucking industry needs to engage with the community and embrace training for its drivers.

For those who wish to learn more about NDTA and its Puget Sound Chapter, contact Susan Pearson

Hummers Beware. Opel rules.

A combination of hot rodding and mechanics tricks led to a record 376.59 mpg – 35 years ago! And accomplished by an Opel of all makes! By an oil company – Shell!

This legendary car, the stuff of urban myths, a 1959 Opel T-1 was rescued from the unappreciated obscurity of the Talladega museum and the uncaring cohorts of Ricky Bobby. The rescuer, Cosmopolitan Motors, has the car up for sale. Maybe another attraction for the LeMay Museum!

The Rich Get Richer

Now comes the time when Pierce County reaps its unjust rewards.

The failure of Proposition One last fall can be fairly laid to the feet of King County politicos who either lead or passively allowed action to defeat an opportunity for regionally coordinated road and transit planning and improvements.

Now, that example of regional leadership is being rewarded by the legislative transportation budget. The House transportation budget HB 2878 clearly takes money from Pierce County and gives it to the 520 bridge project. Examples:

• While the Governor's budget proposed $300 million for SR-167, the House budget, HB 2878, cuts that to $114.720 million. Other funds were supposed to come from an anticipated container tax, which thankfully appears to be dead.
• The Port of Tacoma interchange with Interstate 5 has been delayed.
• The SR-704 Cross-Base Highway has been FURTHER delayed.

The regional perspective seems lost on most newspapers. Both the Seattle Times and the Seattle PI focused on the potential for early tolls on the 520 bridge and gave no attention to where the subsidy came from. Only The News Tribune examined the source of the massive flow of funds to the King County project.

As an aside, some $40 million has been earmarked for the Murray Morgan Bridge from the Puyallup's land claims settlement fund. This is understood to be in addition to any monies from the proposed 0.2% increase in the sales tax to be apportioned from the state's share of sales tax monies.

Sound Transit Survey Link Up Here

Sound Transit is asking all to take the transit system expansion survey.

On Thursday, Sound Transit began asking the public to help shape plans to expand the regional transit system. They did so by launching a Sound Transit Web survey. The survey runs through March 9.

Following the death of Proposition 1 last November, the Sound Transit Board this winter is taking a renewed look at regional transit system expansion with the potential of going out for another vote this fall. In the survey, they’re asking such things as what are people’s highest priorities, when a package should come back to voters and how ambitious the transit package should be.

Postcards that are arriving in mailboxes this week are also inviting ideas and urging people to take the survey.

The results of the survey will be presented to the Sound Transit Board in mid-March. Residents who prefer to take the survey in a written form rather than online can call 1-866-511-1398 to receive a copy by mail.

SSLC 2nd Meeting Siting Incites

The Port of Tacoma and Port of Olympia have scheduled a second Joint Commission Study Session regarding the feasibility of siting an integrated rail logistics center in the South Sound region (South Sound Logistics Center). A previous Study Session was held Jan. 31.

The upcoming meeting will be held Wednesday, Feb. 20, from 6-9 pm, at the St. Martin's University, Worthington Center, 5300 Pacific Ave. SE, in Lacey.

At the meeting, the Ports will briefly summarize why a South Sound Logistics Center is being considered, outline future planning steps and address key questions raised by participants at and subsequent to the first Joint Port Commission Study Session. The remainder of the meeting will be dedicated to hearing additional public questions and comments.

The Port Commissions will not make any decisions or take other action at the Feb. 20 session. The primary focus of the meeting is to take public comment and identify any additional questions related to findings from preliminary concept studies, including a market analysis, integrated logistics center research study and an alternative sites analysis. Questions received at or subsequent to the Jan. 31 session will be addressed in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document to be posted on-line at http://www.sslcports.com/ prior to the Feb. 20 session, and provided in hard copy at the meeting.

This public process is part of the Port of Tacoma's research into the concept of a South Sound Logistics Center to determine what it might include, how it would function, what benefits or impacts it might generate, and where it could be sited. The Port of Olympia joined the Port of Tacoma in this research effort through an Interlocal Agreement. The agreement, valid through June 2008, provides a means for the two Ports to work collaboratively during the exploratory stage of the project.

Additional information about the SSLC process may be found at the project website, or by contacting one of the Ports directly.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:

• Patti Grant (360) 528-8012 Port of Olympia
• Tara (Hazarian) Mattina (253) 428-8674 Port of Tacoma

Innovation in Bridge Financing

The Chamber has reviewed the legislative digest of HB 3158, which provides funding for replacing a bridge so narrowly defined that it can only be the Murray Morgan Bridge (formerly City Waterway Bridge or 11th Street Bridge).

It appears to us that the proposed legislation takes the additional allocation of .2% sales tax allowed to be authorized by the City of Tacoma as a credit against the state's portion of the sales tax already existing.

Your thoughts on this interpretation are most welcome.

HB 3158: A Bridge to Bridge Funding?

Jason Hagey reports today in The News Tribune that Washington State legislators are considering a bill that would allow the City of Tacoma to tap sales tax revenue for fixing the Murray Morgan Bridge.

Introduced this Session by Representative Dennis Flannigan, HB 3158 would allow Tacoma to create a transportation improvement district and impose an additional 0.2 percent sales tax for maintenance and operation, generating $54 million in new funds of the bridge. This new revenue, along with the $26 million set aside for demolition, would bring the total funding available to $80 million--enough to bridge the current funding gap forestalling full rehabilitation of the 94-year-old structure.

The Washington State Department of Transportation closed the bridge, which connects downtown with the Port of Tacoma across the Thea Foss Waterway, last fall after an inspection found it unsafe for traffic.

A Gaggle of Bad Ideas?

Tomorrow afternoon beginning at 3:30, the WA Senate's Transportation Committee will hold a hearing on several bills:

SB 6772 - Concerning regional transportation governance.
SB 6667 - Establishing high-capacity transportation corridor areas.
SB 6543 - Creating a central Puget Sound regional tolling authority.
SB 6771 - Eliminating regional transportation investment districts.
SB 6495 - Requiring the appointment of nonvoting labor members to public transportation governing bodies.
SB 6569 - Permitting public transit vehicle stops at unmarked stop zones under certain circumstances.

Several of these are bad ideas already panned in past posts to this blog. SB 6772 would implement the recommendations of the Regional Transportation Commission, which RAMP opposes. SB 6543 has a misleading title; what it really does is overthrow existing transit agencies to set up a "central Puget Sound regional transit authority"--another aspect of the RTC's agenda. SB 6771 kills the RTID--which most observers think is already effectively dead--but offers nothing in its place; this is a vaccum that the RTC's proposed uberagency would undoubtedly have to fill. Is a theme starting to appear?

RAMP participants are encouraged to testify, sign in, and/or contact their respective senators.

Tacoma-to-SeaTac Light Rail on the Siding?

Sound Transit has not decided yet whether to press for a three-county ballot measure in 2008 as it responds to the failure of the Roads & Transit package last November. A recent survey conducted for the agency showed most voters found the construction plan too big and expensive, and many said the projects would take too long to complete.

One option under consideration is to send a smaller transit-only package to voters this coming November that would build less but complete improvements by 2020. Sound Transit staff yesterday unveiled a list of projects that could be done quickly and on a smaller budget, including:

• Running Tacoma Link light-rail line from downtown west to Tacoma Community College and east to Fife;
• Increasing frequency of commuter rail and bus service to Seattle;
• Putting light rail from Sea-Tac Airport to Tacoma on hold.

Snohomish Looking at TB District, Too

Officials in Snohomish County are also considering creation of a countywide Transportation Benefit District. Marysville Mayor Dennis Kendall has joined the City of Everett in asking Snohomish County officials to create the special taxing district to fix their area's most congested roads; the cities of Lynnwood, Mukilteo, Mill Creek and Mountlake Terrace are siad to be considering following suit.

Snohomish County officlas think that the new tax package would have to be smaller than the failed $2 billion RTID proposal--which proved to be too big for voters to swallow--but the project list would likely would lean heavily on the RTID proposal that identified which projects were most important and how much they would cost.

RAMP Tracking Several Bills in Play in Olympia

During this second week of the short 2008 Session, several bills are being tracked by RAMP participants for their potential to either hinder or support Pierce County's transportation objectives:

• SB 6748, submitted by WA Senator Jim Kastama upon RAMP's request, will make changes in the current transportation benefit district (TBD) legislation to make that potential funding mechanism more viable;
• SB 6754, introduced by Senator Mary Margaret Haugen at request of Governor Christine Gregoire, proposes a financing plan for replacing the SR-520 bridge;
• SB 6771, co-sponsored by Senator Haugen and WA Representative Ed Murray, would eliminate the RTID authority; while it's hard to argue against elimination, there is no rush to do this--RAMP supports keeping every option available, at least for now;
• SB 6772, co-sponsored by Haugen with Eastside Senator Rodney Tom, proposes radical changes in regional transportation governance as recommended by the Regional Transportation Commission; RAMP opposes these changes.

Commission Reports $225B Needed for Federal Highways

The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, created by Congress in 2005 under the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act—A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), released its final report on Tuesday. The report suggests an annual investment of at least $225 billion for the next 50 years to upgrade to an advanced surface transportation system.

The bipartisan Commission's 12 members representing federal/state/local governments, metropolitan planning organizations, transportation-related industries, and associations has been tasked to examine not only the current condition and future needs of the nation's surface transportation system, but also to consider short and long-term alternatives to replace or supplement fuel tax as the principal revenue source for highway improvements.

At the heart of the Commission's recommendations is a plan to replace more than 100 current programs with 10 outcome-based initiatives with oversight from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The Commission also recommends an array of new revenue sources, including:

• An increase in the federal gas tax by 5-8 cents per gallon per year for a five-year period (25-40 cents total);
• A vehicle miles traveled fee;
• New tolls;
• Peak-hour "congestion pricing" on federal-aid highways in major metropolitan areas;
• A new freight fee for freight projects; and
• Ticket taxes for passenger rail improvements.

Need for Cross-Base Highway Aired by KIRO

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News South Sound Bureau Chief Richard Thompson produced a balanced piece on the Cross-Base Highway that aired this past Wednesday evening. Entitled "Supporters, Opponents At Odds Over Cross-Base Highway," the brief report included clips featuring RAMP Co-Chair John Ladenburg and coalition staff.

KIRO's viewers were presented with the following information:

• Supporters say the project would ease congestion and help business in Pierce County;
• Opponents say it will threaten wildlife and destroy an already fragile ecosystem on Fort Lewis;
• Commuters will be happy to learn construction will soon begin on the project's first phase;
• The project will never be finished unless voters approve another $400 million to finish the job.

The report also announced that RAMP is considering a new transportation package for Pierce County voters that would include the Cross-Base Highway--pursued separately, teamed up again with King and Snohomish counties, or working with Thurston and Kitsap counties.

What is a Transportation Benefit District (TBD)?

Following the failure of Proposition 1, regional leaders are reviewing their options for funding badly needed transportation improvements. Discussions with RAMP participatns both in and out of the monthly meetings suggest that RTID is dead as the funding vehicle of choice, and the group consensus may be forming around a transportation benefit district as its most likely successor.

A transportation benefit district (TBD) is an independent taxing district created solely to acquire, construct, improve, provide and fund transportaiton improvements within a defined area. That area can be defined with much more flexibility than RTID conferred--it can encompass a broad array of counties, cities, and port or transit districts depending upon each jurisdiction's willingness to enter an interlocal agreement.

A TBD also has access to a variety of funding mechanisms. Two of these--setting an annual vehicle fee and levying transportation impact fees--do not require voer approval, although they are subject to toher condidions. TBDs can also ask voters to approve several new revenue sources, including increased property taxes, sales tax, annual vehicle fees and tolls.

Olympia Report: Prospective

The 2008 Legislature goes to work today in Olympia. What action should be expected on transportation issues from lawmakers over the course of this short (60-day) Session in an election year?

Members of RAMP's staff team (pulled from the Chamber, Pierce County, Port of Tacoma, Pierce Transit and Sound Transit) are in Olympia today to continue advocacy for the group's recently-adopted Legislative agenda. They will continue lobbying in pursuit of some technical changes to the current law governing transportation benefit districts, as well as for funding--keeping previously-committed funds and getting more funding--for priority projects.

The team expects only a couple of major transportation decisions to be made by state lawmakers this Session--and these two only because Governor Christine Gregoire has laid a great deal of her political capital on the line:

• Developing a plan for funding the $2 billion shortfall for the SR-520 bridge replacement across Lake Washington;
• Crafting a highway tolling bill that will set up the framework for how tolls will be collected.

As reported here previously, substantial action on regional transportation governance is likely to lay dormant this Session.

RAMP Adopts 2008 Legislative Priorities

Yesterday, RAMP's participants adopted their agenda for action on transportation issues in the 2008 Legislature, but the most significant activity this year may very well be outside that arena.

Following an exchange with King County leaders over their proposal to overhaul regional transportation governance, RAMP participants appeared more committed than ever to trying to establish a transportation benefit district (TBD), either alone or with another county, to pay for major highway projects. The Legislative package finalized yesterday states categorically that "RAMP believes that a Transportation Benefit District is the most viable vehicle for advancing towards the next voter-approved funding package" because it's a more flexible alternative to a new Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID) and one which may not be saddled with the baggage of failure last November.

Despite some initial support from Governor Christine Gregoire and key state lawmakers, most handicappers for the upcoming Session see governance as a non-starter--there's too much opposition from Pierce County and, well, pretty much every place outside of King County, and this Session is too short to overcome that opposition. RAMP seeks some minor changes to the current TBD legislation--granting districts authority allotted to the Regional Transportation Investment District, as well as removing the ten-year limitation on voter-approved tax collections--but even that may be too much to expect this year.

The real action in 2008 is likely to be formation of a TBD either for Pierce County alone or for Pierce in tandem with one or more neighboring counties. Representatives from Thurston County are scheduled on RAMP's February agenda to make the pitch for alignment with their jurisdiction.

The RTC Comes To Town (Reprise')

T-Mobile founder John Stanton and former WA Transportation Secretary Doug McDonald met with RAMP today to seek Pierce County support for reform of regional transportation governance. Their reception by the group was polite but less than encouraging.

Stanton shared his belief that the failure of Proposition 1 was due, in part, to voter fatigue following a series of large, uncoordinated funding requests. He reiterated recommendations of the Regional Transportation Commission, which he chaired, calling for an overhaul of transportation agencies--a move that he feels will lead to more coordination, higher public credibility, and better leveraging of extant transportation funding sources.

McDonald suggested that sub-area equity--a pillar of RAMP's Legislative priorities now for several years--might work against Pierce County's goals. "You won't be able to finance mega projects like SR-167," he opined, "without tapping funding from the entire region." He said that the recent failure of Proposition 1 "convinced him" that he should join Stanton and others in seeking a major new agency that would replace groups like Sound Transit and the Puget Sound Regional Council.

RAMP's participants weren't buying. WA Senator Jim Kastama (who was a leader in crafting the Nickel Package as well as the RTID legislation) was quick to disagree. He claimed that King County did a much poorer job of prioritizing investments for the Roads & Transit package, and that this weakness would be magnified in a proportionally representative body--the entity proposed by the RTC.

Following a robust discussion, participants moved forward to adopt RAMP's 2008 Legislative Priorities. At the forefront was the statement that "a Transportation Benefit District is the most viable vehicle for advancing towards the next voter-approved funding package, whether Pierce County moves forward unilaterally or in cooperation with other counties."

Sound Transit's Accountability Stands the Test (Again)

One of the major refrains from those who opposed November's Roads & Transit package was that of the "lack of accountability" from regional transportation providers--Sound Transit in particular--yet the latest state audit of the transit agency, which was released Thursday, was very clean.

The audit looked at how Sound Transit has complied with state laws and regulations as well as its own policies and procedures. The audit also examined management’s accountability for public resources.

The state accountability audit is one of several outside independent audits of Sound Transit each year. In addition to the State Auditor’s annual review, the agency contracts with an independent auditor for a yearly financial audit; since the agency receives federal funding on its projects, the independent auditor performs a Single Audit after which the Federal Transit Administration conducts quarterly reviews. Last year, Sound Transit received its first performance audit by the state under I-900, in which the agency also received high marks.

Demand Management to Get New Push in 2008

In order to address growing congestion across the region, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has established a triad of key congestion management objectives:

• Managing demand (i.e., building HOV lanes, supporting Commute Trip Reduction efforts, and using technology to offer more real-time information);
• Operating efficiently (i.e., installing ramp meters, synchronizing traffic signals, and deploying incident response units);
• Adding capacity (i.e., completing capital projects).

Managing demand will get renewed emphasis in Pierce County in 2008, as City of Tacoma and transit officials are planning to launch a new push to get workers out of their solo drives and into commute alternatives. Local business leaders are also coming to the table with a new program--Destination Downtown Door-to-Door (DDDD or "D to the fourth")--which takes its name both from Tacoma’s current urban center plan (“Destination Downtown”) and from the observation by City Manager Eric Anderson that an effective transportation demand program will provide downtown stakeholders with a variety of travel choices “from door to door.”

Both public and private transportation leaders are keen to implement successful strategies to manage transportation demand already tested in Portland and Seattle. Funding for these new programs is derived from WSDOT's Trip Reduction Performance Program (TRPP).

Another Voice: Shawn Bunney

There's already been some Sturm und Drang across the blogosphere regarding Shawn Bunney's recent letter to Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, in which he blames King County Executive Ron Sims and The Seattle Times for the defeat of the Roads & Transit package in November. The letter was sent November 28th and widely disseminated around Pierce County, even being incorporated into Bunney's year-end report to his constituents.

Bunney's been involved in the regional struggle over transportation funding as chair for the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID), the agency whose mission was to develop the roads portion of the package. The letter is certainly a brash one--some might say its tone is downright nasty--and it ends with a request for Gregoire to embrace transportation needs more widely dispersed than just King County.

In the letter, Bunney attacks Seattle and King County interests for grabbing--and continuing now to grab for--an inordinate share of the region's revenues for mobility investments:

I am sure that before voters went to bed on election night some Seattle legislators were busy ramping up for another raid of the region's roads funds... funds they say are for a $4.4 billion "Safety" project called the 520 Bridge.

This is the same group that siphoned $700 million in gas taxes out of Pierce County in the past 15 years.

We heard this same story yet again in 2006 when the same Seattle interests took almost $400 million out of Pierce County wallets to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct; a viaduct, it turns out, not wanted by Seattle because it blocks the view.

Certainly Bunney's argument has merit--as has been previously observed by this blog, Pierce County (and every other county in the state save one) has been shorted its fair share of funding, as in 2005 when the Transportation Partnership package delivered 65% of the statewide revenues to King County. That's a sure sticking point which any effort to develop a new regional package will have to address before it can move forward.

Regional Traffic Congestion--Still Getting Worse

The Puget Sound region’s economy and population have continued to grow--and along with them, traffic delays--according to the Washington State Department of Transportation's Annual Congestion Report. Released yesterday, the report provides detailed analysis of the 38 most congested highway routes in the region, and (not surprisingly) it shows that commuters are traveling at slightly slower speeds and spending longer periods of time in traffic.

From 2004 to 2006, the Puget Sound region added 91,000 new jobs and 107,000 new residents; consequently, more people had to travel on the same roads at the same time. Overall, average travel times increased on 32 routes, decreased on three routes and remained constant on three routes. Travel time increased from one to seven minutes over the two-year period.

To effectively address growing congestion across the region, WSDOT will continue to emphasize key congestion management objectives--"maximizing system throughput and enhancing reliability"--through sustained focus on three strategies:

• Managing demand (i.e., building HOV lanes, supporting Commute Trip Reduction efforts, and using technology to offer more real-time information);
• Operating efficiently (i.e., installing ramp meters, synchronizing traffic signals, and deploying incident response units);
• Adding capacity (i.e., completing capital projects).

Two Surveys, One Conclusion

Two new surveys are hitting the streets this month, both of which purport to read the tea leaves left in the wake of November's election results. While the two sources are very dissimilar, the results are surprisingly alike.

The first, released December 7th, is a "stakeholder" survey done for Sound Transit by Cocker Fennessy. The survey consisted of 31 executive interviews with business, community and transportation leaders, and an online instrument involving 2,412 individuals.

In brief, the executive surveys, which included RAMP Co-Chairs, makes the following observations about why Roads & Transit failed and what any new proposal needs to be successful:

1. Cost and complexity were key reasons for the defeat;
2. Regional conversation is needed about leadership;
3. Lack of trust and frustration with government;
4. Never saw personal benefits of Roads & Transit;
5. Struggling to ID “right” tax formula;
6. Lack of consensus re: content, timing and projects for next measure;
7. Regional solutions preferred;
8. Relationship and coalition-building needed

Tomorrow, the Washington Policy Center (WPC) will release a poll conducted by Moore Information. Statewide and, in particular, across the Puget Sound region, the public "cares about traffic congestion and is not happy with the government’s performance of addressing it," according to WPC.

According to this survey, the major reason Proposition 1 lost in last month's election was concern about the possibility of higher taxes; yet, nearly half of respondents who voted against Proposition 1 say they would have considered voting for the measure if they had been convinced it would reduce congestion.

Both of these latest glimpses into the collective mind of the electorate match with earlier surveys and consensus developed by RAMP participants. Traffic congestion remains a front burner issue but the public has at least a healthy distriust for government attempts to address it--particularly large, poorly-focused attempts.

King County's 'Plan B': What's In It For Pierce?

As predicted by RAMP's Co-Chairs at the group's most recent meeting, King County leaders are now beginning the push to implement the flawed recommendations set forth last year by the Regional Transportation Commission. An oped in last Thursday's edition of The Seattle Times offers the opinion that Proposition 1's recent failure should mandate folding the project and financial planning powers of Sound Transit, the Regional Transportation Investment District, Puget Sound Regional Council and dozens of other regional transportation agencies into a new regional transportation agency.

Even a cursory glance at the piece, co-authored by Phil Talmadge (a Tukwila attorney and former state Supreme Court justice) & Mark Baerwaldt (a Belltown entrepreneur and financier), should give pause to readers from the South Sound. For starters, its list of vital regional projects lists the Murray Morgan Bridge--not SR-167--along with the Viaduct and SR-520; that reflects the same rough percentage of funding dispersion as the 2005 Transportation Partnership package from which King County derived 65% of the statewide revenue versus 5 percent for Pierce County and even less for everyone else.

It's abundantly clear from November's election results that the region's voters believe that bigger is not better. The curious logic behind this piece seems to be that, nonetheless, what voters now want is an even bigger agency that can mastermind transportation investment with even less local input.

The piece also decries the high cost and low benefit its authors anticipate from the light rail line soon to be linking Seattle with SeaTac Airport; a cynical South Sounder would view this as knocking a done deal (the dollars are already there to finish that line) so as to avoid stating their real objection--that Tacoma and Pierce County "don't need" high capacity alternatives to the highway system.

There are, however, some suggestions with which RAMP participants can agree, such as the following:

• Holding transportation agencies accountable for producing verifiable and quantifiable results;
• Expanding bus service on busy corridors;
• Providing financial incentives to increase bus ridership;
• Providing the maximum number of vans for van pools;
• Crafting incentives to major employers to stagger their hours of business;
• Sequencing traffic signals in cities to increase traffic flows and save energy;
• Initiating pilot projects for congestion pricing--automated tolls based on demand or capacity--on our most clogged highways.

All of these initiatives can be implemented without any new agencies--what's needed is more resources spread more equitably across the region. How to do that seems to be absent from this oped's advice.

RAMP Accelerates Forward Motion Towards a Solution

With leadership from its Co-Chairs and participation from a record crowd of attendees representing a broad cross-section of Pierce County decision-makers, yesterday morning RAMP initiated a robust discussion about how to fund this area's transportation needs for the future.

Ian Stewart from EMC Research presented results of a recent regional survey conducted for Sound Transit reflecting how voters viewed the Roads & Transit proposal that they rejected. In brief, the survey results suggest that the region's voters rejected Proposition 1 because they saw the measure as a whole as too big and too expensive; nevertheless, traffic/transportation issues continue to be the runaway top concern for those same regional voters.

Members of the RAMP Staff Team presented a matrix comparing three possible new funding strategies, then discussed relative merits of each approach:

• Regional Transit Investment District (RTID) - Pierce County is now eligible to "go it alone" on a roads package, or it can make another attempt in cooperation with King County;
• Transportation Benefit District - another way to proceed that would require some additional jurisdictional structures to be created but (perhaps) allows more flexibility;
• Local Option Gas Tax - one other discreet source of taxing authority that could provide transportation dollars and/or supplement revenues from the other approaches.

The staff team--which includes experts from Pierce County, Pierce Transit, Sound Transit, the Port of Tacoma, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, WSDOT and the City of Tacoma--will work this month to "flesh out" information on the three options, including more finely tuned projections for potential revenues from each approach. An expanded matrix will be presented to participants at RAMP's next meeting: Wednesday morning, January 9th (one week later than the normal schedule).

At that same meeting, participants will be briefed on findings from comprehensive polling of Pierce County residents--information that will add to the regional data--just now being completed by EMC Research. Participants will also be asked to finalize RAMP's 2008 Legislative Priorities.

By-the-Mile Tolling in Oregon: Panning Out or Panned?

As reported some months ago in this blog, Oregon has been testing on-board Global Positioning Systems that could one day allow mile-by-mile pricing for all car travel in the state. A few weeks ago, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) released the final report on their "Road User Fee Pilot Program"--which declared the project "feasible."

According to the blog Portland Transport, the proposed system detects whether a vehicle is within one of three zones and logs mileage within each zone into separate categories for billing purposes. The zones are out-of-state (no charge), in-state (nominal charge), and within the Portland metro area (nominal charge with option for congestion pricing). The mileage fee would be collected at the fuel pump in lieu of a gas tax (for those who have the proper equipment to communicate with the fuel pump), while out-of-state drivers (or those otherwise without the proper equipment) would be charged the fuel tax in lieu of a mileage fee.

Washington's neighbor to the south is often in the forefront of new initiatives--for instance, Oregon was the first state to implement a gas tax, in 1919. So how likely is the advent of such a system there?

The most recent issue of Willamette Week (in an article entitled "Miles from Nowhere") predicts that it won't happen for several reasons:

• Environmentalists question why the state would switch to a system where a Hummer owner would be treated the same as a Prius owner;
• Civil libertarians raise alarms about the mileage tax’s underlying technology that uses a global positioning system to count the number of miles driven;
• ODOT itself believes that it’s unlikely that a relatively small state like Oregon could be the first to implement a mileage tax;
• The prototypes used in the pilot are not commercially viable, meaning that the technology would have to be developed.

RAMP Gathers Support for Next Funding Effort

RAMP's Co-Chairs are inviting broad participation in an upcoming discussion about this area's future mobility--a discussion that will help Pierce County move forward in a coordinated, effective manner to prepare for the 2008 Legislative Session and, beyond that, the next effort to secure funding needed for critical transportation projects.

Co-Chair David Graybill will be addressing the Tacoma City Council's Committee of the Whole next Tuesday afternoon to invite their participation in the consensus process. RAMP's other participants are likewise being encouraged to take part, and RAMP is making a special effort to communicate with those jurisdictions that haven't been involved or that have been only occasionally involved to encourage their involvement in this process.

Particpants in the December 5th RAMP meeting will consider a number of potential venues for funding Pierce County transportation projects, including:

• Forming a Pierce County RTID;
• Working with other counties (King & Snohomish/Thurston & Kitsap) to form a new regional RTID;
• Creating new Transportation Benefit District(s);
• Pursuing local option gas tax increase(s);
• Developing a congestion pricing pilot project

Participants will have a briefing on why the public rejected the recent Roads & Transit proposal from Ian Stewart, principal in EMC Research, who has recently completed a regional survey on behalf of Sound Transit.

Survey Says: Voters Rejected Package, Not Projects

Sound Transit has just released results of a recent public opinion survey of about 1,000 registered voters across the region. The survey work was conducted by EMC Research and Moore Information to help analyze and understand the results on Proposition 1. In brief, the survey results suggest that the region's voters rejected Proposition 1 because they saw the measure as a whole as too big and too expensive; nevertheless, traffic/transportation issues continue to be the runaway top concern for those same regional voters.

Few voters understood the costs of the package or what it would cost them personally, the survey results suggest, and the vote did not seem to be a referendum on individual roads and transit projects in the package. Looking forward, voters indicate a strong preference towards future transportation measures separating roads from transit and addressing fewer projects in each package. Survey respondents also said that future transportation measures should take a more incremental approach and contain strong, clear accountability measures.

Researcher Ian Stewart will present results of the survey at the next RAMP meeting, December 5th.

TIB Awards $68.1 Million Statewide, $6.6 Million Locally

The Washington State Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) awarded road and sidewalk improvement grants to sixty projects statewide, totaling $65.4 million, at its November 16th meeting in Tacoma. In addition, 46 towns and cities were awarded a total of $2.7 million for road and sidewalk maintenance. The grant funding comes from the revenue generated by three cents of the statewide gas tax dedicated by the Legislature to TIB programs.

Pierce County was notified that it will receive $5 million to widen 94th Ave. E., as well as to build sidewalks and bike lanes on both sides of this heavily-congested roadway. The City of Lakewood will receive $1.6 million to complement private developer improvements recently completed on Bridgeport Way.

Additional grants Bonney Lake, Buckley, South Prairie, and Milton of nearly $500,000 will be targeted to providing new sidewalks and sidewalk maintenance in those cities.

Another Voice: Brian Sonntag

Brian Sonntag, Washington State Auditor, offers some recommendations in today's edition of The News Tribune based upon his department's recent performance audit on traffic congestion. Sonntag, former Pierce County auditor, has been state auditor since 1993.

The performance audit identified steps that could reduce congestion between 15 and 20 percent over the next five years, claims Sonntag, without requiring additional resources. Among the recommended actions are the following:

• Increase discretion over using HOV lanes;
• Coordinate traffic signals on arterials with freeway exit ramps;
• Expand promotion of car pools and public transit; and
• Improve responses to traffic accidents.

According to Sonntag, the audit also points out that reducing traffic congestion "has not been a top priority among state transportation officials." He recommends that WSDOT should address congestion on the same priority level as safety, highway maintenance and preserving existing roads and bridges: "They all are compatible, not mutually exclusive."

Sonntag also recommends a single agency to oversee transportation planning in the region, in which he identifies "128 public entities with responsibilities for transportation planning and spending in Puget Sound"--clearly, this number includes general purpose "agencies" such as cities and towns. "One organization needs to coordinate the myriad of transportation planning activities and be positioned to decide what is best for the Puget Sound region [emphasis ours]. Say, a Regional Transportation Commission?

The Road(s)--and Transit--Ahead

As the fall-out continues from last week's failure of the Roads & Transit package, a variety of leaders are offering their perspectives on what happened and, perhaps more important, what to do next.

Don Brunell, President of the Association of Washington Business, echoes the sentiments of RAMP Co-Chair John Ladenburg that action is badly needed:

Despite $11 billion in new taxes and fees over the last five years, traffic congestion is choking the state's economy and leaving drivers trapped in 30 mph "rush hour" traffic. If we wait, congestion will only get worse and costs will go even higher. For example, the cost of road repair materials has increased an average of 33 percent in the past three years. And if we wait too long, we could experience a tragedy like the collapse of the I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis.

Brunell recommends the following directions for future action:

• Hand major projects over to the private sector (companies like Cintra are building the roads, and motorists pay them back through tolls);
• Implement "congestion pricing," on Washington's highways, whether those roads are publicly or privately operated.

Meanwhile, Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl reports that her agency "will reach out to the public and our key stakeholders to ask questions, listen to their answers and learn more about how we should move ahead." ST has employed EMC Research and Moore Information to survey the region's voters as part of that process.

Back to the Drawing Board

Proposition 1, which would have raised taxes to pay for $18 billion worth of road and transit projects, failed at the polls Tuesday by a wide margin in all three Central Puget Sound counties. At this month's RAMP meeting (held yesterday morning), local transportation leaders were still trying to regroup after the drubbing at the polls.

"We're going to have to work through the noise about the campaign and its failure over the next few weeks," Shawn Bunney, Chair for the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID), stated. We have to go back to the people of our region and ask: "Did you really not want transportation to work?"

RAMP Co-Chair John Ladenburg observed: "There will be lots of conflicting theories, but one thing's for sure--doing nothing is not an option." Ladenburg is the Pierce County Executive and the Chair for Sound Transit.

The impassioned "morning after" soul-searching gave way to steely resolve as RAMP participants began their scheduled discussion about priorities for lobbying in the 2008 Legislative Session. Governor Chris Gregoire and other state leaders seem to be focused mainly on one project--replacing the SR-520 bridge across Lake Washington. Senator Mary Margaret Haugen, Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, believes it’s time to take another look some sort of super agency--like the Regional Transportation Commission--to coordinate all agencies across the region that plan, fund and operate road and transit projects.

"We need to be at the top of our game going into Olympia this year," Ladenburg said. He and RAMP Co-Chair David Graybill called for a transportation summit of sorts at next month's RAMP meeting (December 5th). At that meeting, participants will be asked to consider several related issues, including:

• How does Pierce County gain statewide--even regional, for that matter--recognition for its infrastructure needs (e.g., the I-5 bridge over the Puyallup River is just as ready to fall as the Alaskan Way Viaduct)?


• Should Pierce County break away from King and Snohomish counties to present its own roads package to voters, as allowed by state law if the regional Roads & Transit measure failed?


• How do we effectively address not just building projects but providing congestion relief?

Prop 1 Campaign Cash--and Rhetoric--Continues to Mount

Those for and against Proposition 1 (the Roads & Transit proposal) have raised more than $4.9 million in cash and in-kind contributions, dwarfing fundraising for the three previous statewide transportation measures. Backers have raised and spent nearly 84 percent of the money, $4.1 million, as the measure faces what is expected by both sides to be a close vote.

The Seattle media seemed to rally a bit in support of the proposition, with the Seattle Times editorial columnist Lance Dickie opining:

Tuesday's election is adorned with black crepe, but I will not be surprised if a three-county package of highway and Sound Transit improvements wins approval.

Wishful thinking? Nope, not even civic optimism. Voters idling off $3-a-gallon gasoline in traffic feel stranded and they want choices. They know it is long past time to get started.

That's a far cry from yesterday's rail-bashing (at least south of Tukwila) editorial by Bruce Ramsey.

Even farther was Joel Connelly's column in the Post-Intelligencer:

As folks decide on Prop. 1..."No" side partisans are freely giving assurances of a brighter tomorrow if the voters refuse to jump for this package of steep taxes.

Sierra Club leaders told me over lunch that Sound Transit can come back with a light rail-only proposal. An editorial writer with Seattle's duller daily opined that local officials will hammer together a more modest proposal.

"Neither one of them is right. ... I don't see anything on the ballot in 2008. I do not see how Sound Transit could go back next year," said state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

"Congestion pricing" is the new catchphrase, on tongues ranging from King County Executive Ron Sims to professional naysayers on the political right. But do not ask for whom the tolls will be rung up, or what agency gets to pocket them.

In other words, there is no viable alternative to Roads & Transit--RAMP's position from the beginning of this campaign.

Light Rail to Tacoma: Bonanza or Boondoggle?

Regular readers of this blog know that both King County Executive Ron Sims and the Sierra Club say taking light rail to Tacoma doesn't make much sense. Today's front page article in the Seattle Times considers the pros and cons to this point of view.

The article reports that, when the King County Office of Management & Budget did a "rough" cost-benefit analysis of each proposed light-rail segment in Proposition 1, as well as bus and commuter rail, it estimated that for every $1,000 spent the Tacoma extension would carry 69 passengers; by comparison, the analysis found that light rail to Bellevue would carry 106 people per $1,000 and the extension north would move 369 people per $1,000. Sound Transit responds that its ridership projections from Sea-Tac to Tacoma are the same as its projections for the light-rail route to Redmond. Analysts arrived at the estimates by "taking projected costs of the projects and dividing them by estimates of how many people would ride each segment"--in other words, estimated guesswork. Does anyone doubt that a similarly "rough" estimate by Pierce County might derive a much different estimate?

Sims questions Sound Transit's projections that people would ride light rail to places inside Pierce County instead of traveling all the way to Seattle. That's a difference he needs to resolve with the Puget Sound Regional Council--the source of long-term regional employment estimates--not Sound Transit.

Elsewhere in that paper is a rail-bashing (at least south of Tukwila) editorial by editorial columnist Bruce Ramsey, in which he concludes with this intellectual exercise: "Imagine what it will cost, and how many people who now stream by Fife's car dealerships will get out of their cars, buy a ticket and wait for the train that stops at South Federal Way, Federal Way, Redondo, Des Moines, South 200th Street, Sea-Tac Airport, Highway 518, and on up the Rainier Valley into downtown Seattle." Unlike John Lennon, Ramsey doesn't seem to like what imagination brings to life--or maybe he just can't imagine the rail traffic going anything but one way, into Seattle.

Patrick O'Callahan, political columnist for The News Tribune, notes in that newspaper's editorial blog today that "[s]ome opponents of Proposition 1, like Ramsey and King County Executive Ron Sims, have decided it would just cost too much to extend Seattle's light rail line down to low-rent Pierce County."

South Tacoma Tagged for Non-Attainment

As reported in an earlier post, the Washington Department of Ecology is considering designation of most of the Pierce County metropolitan area non-attainment area. The proposed area includes the entire Pierce County Comprehensive Urban Growth area (CUGA), except for areas to the south and southwest (including Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base), and areas to the east of the Puyallup River-White River valleys (including Sumner, Auburn, Pacific, Bonney Lake, and Orting).

Cities within the proposed non-attainment boundary include Tacoma, Lakewood, Steilacoom, Fircrest, University Place, Ruston, Milton, Edgewood, Puyallup, and Fife, as well as the unincorprated areas of Frederickson, Parkland, Spanaway and South Hill.

Ecology will hold a hearing to receive public comment on the draft PM2.5 recommendations and the proposed non-attainment area boundary on Wednesday, December 5th, beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Pierce County Library & Administrative Center (3005 112th St. E.) in Parkland. Comments can also be sent by mail, e-mail or FAX until 5:00 p.m. on December 10th; comments should be directed to:

Doug Schneider
Department of Ecology
P.O. Box 4700
Olympia, WA 98504-7600
FAX: (360) 407-7534
Email: dsch461@ecy.wa.gov

Prop 1 Maintains Narrow Lead in Polling

The Washington Poll, a non-partisan, academic survey research project tied to the University of Washington, shows Proposition 1 still ahead with Puget Sound voters.

Some 51 percent of those who said they’ve already voted say they supported the measure and 49 percent of those who are yet to vote are certain or likely to approve the package. 36 percent of those who have sent in their absentee ballots claim to have voted against Roads & Transit, while 38 percent who have yet to vote report that they are likely to vote the plan down.

Voices for Proposition 1

From the chorus of voices raised over Proposition 1, here are excerpts from some statements that bring both light and heat to the subject:

As to the zealotry in our community, the salvation-in-cycling cult has been joined by the cars-are-evil crowd in implacable opposition to improving the roadways, the down-with-light-rail adherents who insist more buses are the answer to our needs, the anti-tax disciples who decry anything that costs money and the global-warming prophets who denounce the whole business as an effort that will simply hasten the day of ecological doom. It's hard to hear any dispassionate voices in what ought to be an intense but levelheaded discussion about our region's future...

A decade ago, Sound Transit was considered a disaster. Currently, it is hailed as a public enterprise that gets things done. Much of the credit, even Sound Transit critics acknowledge, goes to Joni Earl, Sound Transit's CEO, who took over an agency with "a lousy reputation" and is credited with its near complete turnaround. Earl happens to be a public servant who turned down a raise five years ago based on her exceptional performance because Sound Transit had not achieved two major milestones it had set for itself....

She points out...two unarguable facts in all of this: Droves of people continue to move into our midst every year and we've delayed coming to grips with our transportation needs for far too long. No plan is perfect but now is the time, she says, to get on with it; "It's only going to get more expensive
if we delay."

Hubert G. Locke, The Seattle P-I

Prop 1 certainly moves us in the right direction, adding long overdue regional funding for transit and roads. Without "some for each" this effort would fail. As the primary source for Sound Transit, the regional funding in "Prop 1" will dedicate $10.8 billion toward a solution and as a secondary funding source for roads, this measure will add $7 billion toward long overdue progress.

Some of these projects have been "on the books" for a very long time. If not now, when? It took leadership this long to agree on this proposition. If we don't fund it with a yes vote, how do we expect our Puget Sound traffic nightmare to ever end?

Pat Maddock, Tacoma-Pierce County Association of REALTORS

There's a reality for business owners across the central Puget Sound: More than $1.4 billion a year is being sucked out of this region as we idle in a traffic morass judged the nation's 19th worst by the Texas Transportation Institute. And things could get much worse.

State Auditor Brian Sonntag's performance audit of the Washington State Department of Transportation clearly predicts what happens if this November's Roads and Transit package (Proposition 1) is rejected: The measure's failure would "far more than double the current level of congestion" on our roadways.

Far more than double the current level of congestion. That's why after thoroughly examining the $17.8 billion Roads and Transit package, Washington Roundtable members and a broad spectrum of other businesses are confident that, dollar for dollar, its benefits far outweigh its costs.

Confidence is an important concept here. First, we are confident in our region's long-term economic prospects. We are confident that our businesses can continue to produce jobs that pay family wages and grow a tax base that pays for essential services like transportation. But we must make key investments to our aging transportation infrastructure.

Steve Mullin, Washington Roundtable

Two New Transportation Blogs

While blogs like On RAMP have been active in other regions across the nation--offering informed insights on transportation issues from places like Portland, Houston, the Bay Area and Connecticut--similar sites in the Puget Sound region have been few and far between.

Or so it seemed. Recently, the authors of this blog have become aware of one blog that focuses on regional transportation, trade and technology issues, and have noted the debut of another blog offering to provide a citizen's forum on transportation issues:

Cascadia Prospectus, the group blog of the Cascadia Center aims for "the sweet spot between vision, accountability and investment" and offers to provide news, commentary and insight on transportation, trade and technology. The Center supports development of a balanced, integrated, and expanded transportation system for people & goods in the central Puget Sound and beyond: Washington, British Columbia, and Oregon.

Let's Improve Transportation (LIT) is "an experiment in participatory democracy" through which residents of King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties are invited to join an online experiment via the Internet at their own convenience. The purpose of this experiment is "to evaluate a new and potentially more meaningful way to involve citizens in the process of regional transportation decision-making."

Note: RAMP provides the links above for informational purposes only; links do not imply endorsement or recommendation by RAMP or its participants, and RAMP is not responsible for the contents of any "off-site" web page referenced from this server.

Another Level of Attainment?

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA) is in the process of developing an action plan implementing new federal standards for clean air, incorporating such factors as ozone and particulate matter (2.5 microns or smaller).

The federal Clean Air Act requires “transportation conformity”--assuring that local and regional transportation plans, improvements and projects conform to the federal regulations. Current data locally indicates that the implementation plan's new emphasis will no longer be on stationary sources (plants), but rather on transportation conformity (trucks, locomotives, ships) for diesel engines.

Currently, the Tacoma area exceeds the new federal limit on particulate matter in an area centered on S. 78th & 'L' St. This level of pollution has been determined by its characteristics and timing to be the result of residential wood smoke; a study is underway to determine whether or not other sources may contribute to this problem.

This seemingly obscure decision to designate the boundaries of a non-attainment area, separated by a few years from potential effects, carries real consequences. A non-attainment designation can adversely affect economic development, transportation infrastructure development and growth in military installations.

The timeline for this process is as follows:

1. October 26th
   PSCAA completes initial analyses for designation and informal consultation with Tacoma/Pierce County stakeholders
2. November-December
   WA DOE holds public comment sessions, then sends draft recommendations to Governor
3. December 1st
   Legislative Workgroup to recommend wood smoke reduction plan
4. December 18th
   Governor submits designation areas to EPA based upon monitoring data from 2004 - 2006
5. December 18th, 2008
   EPA designates final areas--could consider data from 2005 – 2007

States have three years after designation to develop a plan and two or more years longer to meet the standards.

Roads & Transit Coverage Accelerates

The past several days have evidenced a flurry of newspaper stories and editorials throughout the Central Puget Sound regarding the impending Roads & Transit vote. While the official polling date is November 6th, many voters already have their absentee ballots in hand.

Sunday's edition of The News Tribune offered extensive coverage, including a slightly negative feature by Joe Turner (sort of a cost/benefit analysis minus the benefit part), a pro/con pitting former state senator and former state Supreme Court justice Phil Talmadge (is there no credible Pierce County spokesperson?) against RAMP Co-Chair David Graybill and Patty Rose, Secretary-Treasurer for the Pierce County Central Labor Council. The coverage was capped by a second endorsement by the editorial board, stating:

Much of the opposition to Proposition 1 is rooted in the region’s old, tiresome roads-vs.-transit dispute....In reality, the region cannot get enough of either.

For a wrap-up of other media coverage of the debate over the Roads & Transit package, check out the campaign website.

Does Parking Need to Be the 'Ugly Stepsister' of Transportation?

Parking--the endpoint for any vehicle trip--tends to be the "ugly stepsister" of the transportation world. New technology and a new paradigm for how that service is delivered is changing parking systems across America.

Typically, cities use parking regulations as a weapon to discourage people from parking downtown, as an incentive to use mass transportation, as a means to raise municipal revenue, or all three. New devices offer ways to increase customer choice, transforming that paradigm.

Portland Transport, the Rose City's version of On RAMP, recently posted a piece that reveals the experience of cities that have moved away from the old pay-for-space approach to a smarter parking system. New devices allow customers to buy parking anywhere they can within a specific district for the exact time they choose, and drivers also have payment options: cash, credit or even a prepaid gift card.

Boulder has recently deployed a Downtown Gift Card that can be used to pay for shopping, movies, and dining as well as municipal parking. Such cards are a way to make parking an integral part of the whole experience of visiting downtown.

Invitation to RAMP Participants

If approved, will the Roads & Transit package (increasingly now known around Pierce County as Proposition 1), be built on time and on budget?

Is there enough in the proposal for Pierce County to justify the resulting tax increases? Is it the right mix of roads and transit? What are the alternatives if this proposal is rejected by voters?

Next Wednesday, The News Tribune is hosting a forum with five experts representing the pro and con positions on the measure :

When: Wednesday, October 10th, 7:00 -9:00 p.m.

Where: Baker Community Room, The News Tribune (1950 S. State St.)

What: Panelists will present their perspectives and answer audience-generated questions

Who: The panelists are Shawn Bunney, Pierce County councilman and chair for the Regional Transportation Investment District; John Ladenburg, Pierce County executive and chair of Sound Transit; Tim Gould, chair of the Sierra Club’s transportation committee; Jim Horn, chair of the Eastside Transportation Association board; and David Graybill, president of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber; the discussion will be moderated by Hunter George, The News Tribune’s politics editor

Also: Doors open at 6:30; cookies and coffee will be provided.

Auditor's Review Vets Sound Transit Performance

Submitted by Paul Ellis

The Washington State Auditor’s office today released an extensive performance audit of Sound Transit’s Link light rail construction program. The performance audit was conducted in compliance with Initiative I-900, approved by Washington voters in 2005.

The audit identified three overarching findings:

1. Sound Transit was unable to complete the Link light rail line at the cost and within timeframes communicated to voters in 1996;


2. Sound Transit initially lacked procedures for land acquisition, environmental compliance, permitting and construction management, contributing to its inability to meet project costs and timeframes communicated to voters in 1996;


3. Sound Transit has extensively improved its construction planning and management processes since 2002.

Areas identified for improvement include but are not limited to environmental compliance, management of change orders and how we track and implement lessons learned. The audit concludes that Sound Transit has made major strides and has developed the processes and procedures that are responsible for the agency’s successful delivery of projects.

The performance audit focused on the Link light rail construction project, which is currently nearing 80 percent completion. Areas identified for improvement include environmental compliance, management of change orders and how we track and implement lessons learned. The audit states Sound Transit has made major strides and has developed the processes and procedures that are responsible for the agency’s successful delivery of projects.

The audit makes several recommendations, many of which Sound Transit has already begun implementing; with a few exceptions, the transit agency generally agrees with those recommendations. Overall, the audit identified potential savings of approximately $5 million and cost the State $455,410 to administer. The Link project budget is $2.7 billion.

Sound Transit is one of the most closely reviewed and audited agencies in the state. The performance audit identifies 48 different federal, state and independent audits beginning before voters approved the Sound Move ballot measure in 1996, and notes the agency is marked by a “culture of continuous improvement.” Recently, an independent Expert Review Panel appointed by the State of Washington issued a final letter affirming that Sound Transit used its lessons-learned to build a solid Sound Transit 2 plan (the basis for the transit portion of the Roads & Transit package submitted to voters).

Sound Transit says it is committed to maintaining transparency and serving as an effective stewardship of the taxpayers’ dollars; to that end (as required by law), the agency will be holding a public hearing on the audit next Thursday, October 11, beginning at 1:00 p.m. in the Ruth Fisher Board Room at Union Station (401 S. Jackson, Seattle).

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community’s largest transportation planning effort.

Staking the Middle Ground

Submitted by Paul Ellis

Most political strategists will say that the best place for a campaign to aim its efforts is into the broad middle ground of voters--and that one way to judge that positioning is when those on either extreme of an issue are taking shots. If so, the Roads & Transit campaign is clearly in that sweet spot.

From the right, the Washington Policy Center (which has never seen a transit project it liked) attacked the proposed package this week in its latest Policy Note. The Center claims that "by every measure, the roads and transit plan is unbalanced and favors public transportation 3 to 1."

From the left, the Sierra Club, Cascade Bicycle Club and Conservation Northwest (none of which ever have seen a road project they liked) continue to contend that building new road capacity cancels out the environmental and climate benefits of building new transit--an extreme position even for the enviros.

Meanwhile, King County Executive Rom Sims is taking potshots against the plan with comments like these:

• Light rail would connect Seattle to Tacoma (already served by faster Sounder
  Trains) and run along Highway 99 (where last year's King County Metro "Transit
  Now" tax increase is ramping up bus-rapid-transit service).
• Instead, expanded bus service could generate much higher ridership in this corridor while
  freeing up funds for light rail to Southcenter and Renton. In Pierce County, we can achieve more traffic relief by extending light rail within Tacoma to the University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran University.

Sims commends the Sierra Club and its partner organizations for "showing great courage"--apparently for being the odd parties out from the environmental consensus behind the package. He is apparently unaware of the extensive local discussion--coordinated by RAMP--that helped define the stable of projects now in the ballot proposal.

Like some other King County leaders, he'd like to see south end projects scrapped in favor of more money for SR-520--a project that's still short of needed dollars despite massive injections of capital from the Washington State Legislature. As state transportation leader Ed Murray has told his constituents up north: "RTID has chosen to peanut-butter it and spread the money all over the place; when you're building roads in Pierce County to developments that don't even exist but you're not financing a bridge that's falling down, that's a very questionable approach."

Just to keep the facts in perspective, here is The News Tribune's editorial response today to Executive Sims.

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community’s largest transportation planning effort.

Tacoma Electeds Divided Over Roads & Transit

Submitted by Paul Ellis

A dust up is brewing for the Tacoma City Council Chambers next Tuesday evening as the city's elected officials consider competing resolutions related to Pierce County Proposition 1--the $18 billion (regionally) Roads & Transit package.

Councilmember Tom Stenger has introduced a resolution to oppose the issue on the November ballot. It states the following reasons for opposition:

• Sound Transit has failed to fulfill its promises from the 1996 package, including failing to provide ten commuter rail round trips per day and failing to provide "reverse commute" service;
• Sound Transit's plan creates serious disadvantages for Tacoma residents, including a design at Tacoma's Pacific Avenue Crossing that provides for a dangerous at-grade crossing and requiring Tacoma taxpayers to pay taxes for 20 years before light rail connects from SeaTac Airport to Tacoma;
• RTID takes over $10 from Tacoma to be spent in the suburbs while spending only $1 in the City; and
• Tacoma has been excluded from the RTID planning process and its needs, which are as great as anybody's, were not fairly considered.

Stenger, it may be recalled, was the City of Tacoma's representative to regional planning bodies until that privilege was revoked by the City Council following outbursts of intemperate language and what some characterized as inappropriate responses to citizens.

Julie Anderson, Tacoma's current representative to the Sound Transit Board, has also introduced a resolution expressing the City Council's support for Proposition 1. This resolution cites a number of reasons for support of the ballot measure, including:

• The package contains several road projects of benefit to Tacoma, including completion of State Route ("SR") 167, from Puyallup to SR 509; creating a direct southern access to SeaTac Airport by completing the connection between SR-509 and Interstate 5 ("I-5"); and funding for an I‑5 access ramp to the Tacoma Mall, bypassing the congested South 38th Street and Steele Street intersection;
• The package also contains several transit projects of benefit to Tacoma, including extending Link light rail from SeaTac Airport to the Tacoma Dome Station intermodal terminal; funds for additional Sounder commuter rail service; and expansion of Sounder Station parking in several locations.

The majority of city leaders seems to appreciate the value of the proposed package and are likely to vote to support Roads & Transit, but Tuesday evening's fireworks may be worth watching.

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community’s largest transportation planning effort.

Life in the Fast Lane Soon for SR-167

Submitted by Paul Ellis

It won’t be long now before some commuters on SR-167 in South King County begin paying a toll between 50 cents and 3 dollars to travel between Auburn and Renton. The Washington Department of Transportation expects to open the high occupancy toll (HOT) lane pilot project next spring, allowing solo drivers to buy their way into the car-pool lanes. Consultants have estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000 of the 120,000 drivers who use that portion of the highway daily will be willing to pay a toll to drive in a faster lane.

Motorists who already have a Good To Go account for the Tacoma Narrows Bridges will be able to use the lanes, too, because the toll amount will be electronically deducted from their accounts. Unlike the toll on the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which is fixed, the toll on SR-167 will vary based on how quicky (or slowly) traffic is flowing. When general traffic lanes are heavily congested, the toll in the carpool lanes will be higher because drivers will be able to save more time by switching to the carpool lane. When traffic is free-flowing, the toll will be lower. Travel will remain free to buses, vanpools, carpools and motorcycles in the car-pool lanes and for all traffic in the general-purpose lanes.

This dynamic pricing model, which is close to real-time, also will let solo drivers know exactly how much they will be charged before they switch to the car-pool lane because the price will be displayed on roadside signs. Electronic Transaction Consultants Corp. of Richardson, TX was hired by the state to develop the computer software that looks at traffic volume and speeds to vary the toll. Feedback from the traffic model also will let highway officials know when to close the car-pool lane to solo drivers because too many cars will slow down buses and disrupt their schedules.

The HOT lanes themselves have been built, but the tolling equipment has yet to be installed. The northbound HOT lane will run 12 miles from 15th St. S.W. in Auburn to I-405, and southbound nine miles from I-405 to about S. 288th St. A nine-mile extension of the southbound carpool lane on SR-167 is slated for 2009-2011, and that may later become part of the HOT lane corridor.

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community’s largest transportation planning effort.