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).