Cascadia

This article, published by The Seattle Times, mentions Discovery Institute’s Cascadia Center:

Last year, the Cascadia Center at the Discovery Institute convened the Transportation Working Group (TWG), chaired by former Boeing executive and chairman of Gov. Gary Locke’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation, Doug Beighle.

This group of 39 citizens from business, labor, environment and civic groups met over several months to study and formulate shared recommendations. It strongly recommended a consolidated regional governance structure and linked that recommendation to the need for some way to raise money regionally that would be available for all modes of travel, and not just limited to one or another use.

Our common regional arteries are also our common regional nightmare. A multiple-car accident on Interstate 5 backs up traffic in all directions on a rainy afternoon at rush hour, so… important meeting dates are canceled or delayed, kids are left at day care, truckers stew in their cabs over penalties for late deliveries. How to fix it?

Expand road capacity at key choke points? Overdue, but expensive and politically challenging. Add more transit and HOV lanes? Also important, but not well-suited to the increasingly suburb-to-suburb, errand-running environment we live in.

These are two reasons why technology is emerging as a short- and long-term answer to dealing with transportation gridlock.

The Des Moines, Gig Harbor, Tacoma ‘Ferry-Transit-Airport Connector’ grant application has been submitted to the state with ten letters of support. Now we need to rally legislative and community leaders in the South Sound to convince the Legislature to fund the project because they ultimately make the decision. It is time to meet and explain the details of the project Read More ›

Contact: Bruce Agnew or Dave Earling, Cascadia Center(206) 292-0401 (ext.113 or 144)(206) 228-4011 or (206) 920-5593 cell phone Civic Leadership Group Calls for Prioritizing Viaduct and Evergreen Point BridgeEndorses $8 Billion/10 Year State Revenue Package & Comparable Regional Package The Transportation Working Group (TWG), an assemblage of civic leaders drawn from King, Pierce and Snohomish counties and staffed by the Read More ›

The Amtrak Reform Council today urged Congress and the Bush administration to adopt a series of proposals it first made three years ago to try to stabilize the cash-strapped passenger rail service. The group of a dozen transportation, labor and finance experts from both the government and the private sectorsuggested making Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor — the system’s largest and most Read More ›

Original Article Several officials say they are united behind rescuing a 40-mile railroad corridor snaking from Renton’s Gene Coulon Beach Park through the heart of the Eastside to Snohomish. While the route does a pretty good job of hitting major job centers, state and local officials say the rail line misses the biggie: Downtown Bellevue. “As a high-capacity transit line, Read More ›