Cascadia

The Cascadia Center

EASTSIDE RAIL: MORE!

With the Port of Seattle poised to buy the abandoned 42-mile Eastside rail line from Burlington Northern and Sante Fe, a proposal championed by Cascadia Center and others for Eastside commuter rail is gaining steam. Cascadia held two community forums in January, in Kirkland and Snohomish. A Cascadia report on those events, including contact information for public officials who can Read More ›

Greening The Highway From Baja to B.C.

pdf file “By 2050, the number of vehicles in the world is expected to go up by a factor of three. That should scare you. It scares me.” – John Heywood, director, Sloan Automotive Laboratory, MIT, Washington Post, May 20, 2007 “While some stakeholders believe that their particular alternative fuel can meet the 2020 goal exclusively, the staff believes that Read More ›

$6 Billion Columbia Crossing Bridge Project Will Require Tolling

An editorial yesterday by Vancouver, Washington’s daily newspaper, The Columbian, celebrates support voiced during a Portland-region visit last week by U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, U.S. House Transportation Committee Chairman, for the I-5 Columbia Crossing bridge improvement project. It’s a major regional priority due to congestion and safety problems on the current I-5 Interstate Bridge connecting Clark County, Washington and Portland, Read More ›

Passenger-Only Ferries In Puget Sound Gain Momentum

A flurry of developments suggests passenger-only ferries are gaining momentum in Puget Sound. In recent months there have been seven routes in operation: the state’s Vashon Island to downtown Seattle run; King County’s West Seattle to downtown Seattle water taxi; Kitsap Transit’s Port Orchard to Bremerton foot ferry; and four longer, privately operated routes to the San Juan Islands and Read More ›

Regional Focus On Traffic Operations To Relieve Congestion

This article, published by the Puget Sound Regional Council, quotes Discovery Institute Fellow Bruce Agnew: “I applaud PSRC for doing this,” said Bruce Agnew, Cascadia Program Director, at a briefing on the topic at the Regional Freight Mobility Roundtable. The rest of the article can be found here.

Warning Signs For The Fall: A Sneaky Tax

This article, published by The Seattle Times, mentions the Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute: The always-creative Cascadia Center in Seattle has leaped on the aging problems of Interstate 5 by proposing an entirely different approach to both the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement and a reconfigured I-5. The rest of the article can be found here.

New Grant For Bridge Rebuild Prods Regional Tolling Debate

News that federal DOT officials have accepted the offer by Puget Sound transportation leaders to toll a new State Route 520 bridge by September of 2009 in exchange for $139 million in new bridge-rebuild cash from the feds will accelerate a much needed debate about the eventual need for system-wide tolling here. This dialog is coming despite two state gas Read More ›