The Puget Sound Transportation Debacle!

I just read an interesting, but sad, article by Victor Davis Hanson about the high speed train that was being built in California and I couldn't help but realize the similarities between it and my state's failure to have a vision for the future when it comes to transportation needs in this region of the country. Ours, it seems, is just as big of a debacle as theirs.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, but more specifically in the Puget Sound of western Washington, the population is densely concentrated and mostly liberal, if not radically socialist in some instances. Because of the diversity of businesses - Boeing, Microsoft, Nintendo, the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma - to name a few, the regional economy has been stronger than most other regions in the country over the last decade.

I've cringed in the past every time our Seattle Seahawks football games were broadcast on a Monday night game during the fall when the weather was beautiful, because I knew others watching in the rest of the country were viewing gorgeous views of the Olympic Mountains to the west across the Sound, and Mt. Rainier to the southeast; towering in the distance over Seattle. This was an invitation to them to come and enjoy the fantastic summers which occur occasionally here.

As a consequence, the growth of workers moving into the region from out of the state during this same period has increased exponentially. The commute from the suburbs both north and south of Seattle, geographically constrained by a narrow strip of land with the sound on the west and Lake Washington on the east, the I-5 corridor's commute has become a nightmare. 

Traveling a distance of around 30 miles during peak commute times in the a.m. and p.m. can take as much as two hours; especially on the rainy days. And there are a lot of those in the Pacific Northwest!

So, the region's Sound Transit and state's Dept. of Transportation's solution to this growth has been to implement High Occupancy Vehicle, or HOV, lanes along both I-5 and I-405 along the eastern side of Lake Washington through Bellevue, to relieve the congestion. Some sections of the I-405 on the east side - already paid for through various state and federal taxes - are charging peak commuter fees for HOV lane occupants!

While some segments of I-5 have been widened - such as the current section between Tacoma's SR-16 and the Tacoma Dome grade over the Puyallup River - much of the corridor remains gridlocked every business day; if not on many weekends.

Sound Transit, an appointed board of individuals with connections in high places within the state's governmental infrastructure, has over the last decade or two, proposed and implemented its solution of floating initiatives for tax payers to vote on promises of alleviating the congestion by building a light-rail system. Initially, it started with a proposed expansion of the Monorail system which, at that time, was still operating from the 1962 World's Fair. This failed to pass the voters' smell test for an adequate proposal that would produce a satisfactory "bang for the buck" solution.

Then Sound Transit passed "ST1", which was a light-rail system which would connect the Sea-Tac Airport to downtown Seattle. However, cost overruns put this portion in the red financially. "ST2" was passed by the voters to extend the light-rail system from downtown Seattle up to the University of Washington. Yet, this too went into financial red ink. These two "in the red" initiatives totaled $1.5 billion!

Only last fall, Sound Transit managed to convince both the legislature, and voters, to pass yet a third project to further expand the light-rail system out in three directions, but had a unique timetable for collecting taxes and completing these extensions.

While the taxes are now being collected - increased property taxes by an average of $100 per month in three counties, car tabs increased by as much as four times the previous amounts charged for newer cars, and a smaller sales tax in certain sectors - the timetable for collecting the total of $54 Billion will be over 30 to 40 years! Yet, there is no specified build requirement timeline by Sound Transit for any extension project to begin for the north or south segments!

So, those of us now paying these taxes to support a 19th century technology to solve a 21st century problem, will NEVER get to step onto one of these "rapid transit" trains, because they won't be built soon enough before we die!

Oh, and did I mention that Sound Transit is currently requesting federal funds to be used for paying off the $1.5 Billion in red ink for ST1 & ST2? Oh yea!