Original Article A group of business, labor and environmental representatives organized by the Discovery Institute asked the Legislature yesterday to make replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and seawall, and the state Route 520 bridge the state’s top priorities for state funds. To help pay for it, the Transportation Working Group urged lawmakers to pass a 10-cent increase in the 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 ›
Original Article Stanwood studies train service An official from the Cascadia Project tells officials about the benefits a different type of passenger rail service could bring to the city. By Scott Morris Stanwood officials want to hear more about a regional transportation dream that could revive the long-defunct train depot at the east end of downtown. On Monday, the city’s Read More ›
When the big-picture types at the Discovery Institute think about Seattle’s future, they see a subterranean, multi-modal transit center under Benaroya Hall. The dream is to connect light rail, commuter rail, monorail, buses and ferries at Second Avenue and University Street. Welcome to the Mid-Town Transit Hub. On the hub’s lowest level, commuters could catch Sounder trains traveling in the Read More ›
In a recent tour of the transportation policy horizon, Seattle Times’ editorialist James Vesely offered an intriguing observation. “Environment-first groups have the big idea on their side But the other side has no competitive big idea. They talk capacity while the greens talk about how we live.” Transit theologians have hammered at the notion that auto use is morally wrong. Read More ›
With the monorail initiative’s passage, there are now seven separate transportation agencies in the Puget Sound region. Some think that’s just nutty. Two organizations, the pro-business Discovery Institute and the more pro-transit Transportation Choices Coalition, have called for the creation of just one superagency that would create a unified strategy for fixing the gridlock. The Discovery Institute’s Cascadia Project, which Read More ›
During the past decade, SUVs seemed to take over the roads. Average incomes rose. The price of gas remained relatively low. And yet, despite all that, per-capita gasoline consumption in Washington actually dropped 2 percent, according to a new report from the Seattle think tank Northwest Environment Watch. The report attributes the decline mostly to “smart-growth” policies aimed at reining Read More ›
That collective shudder across Puget Sound this month had nothing to do with terrorism or tectonics. It was big-league sticker shock. Mired in traffic, our region learned from state transportation planners that expanding the 405, 167, 520 and 509 corridors and undergrounding the Alaskan Way Viaduct could cost taxpayers as much as $30 billion. That’s $30 billion with a “B,” Read More ›
OLYMPIA — Increasingly popular passenger trains rumble between Portland and Seattle four times a day as the upgraded Amtrak Cascades service continues to attract business travelers, sightseers and Mariners fans seeking an alternative to airports and Interstate 5. Ridership has risen sixfold in the past eight years, turning the 466-mile Eugene-to-Vancouver, B.C., corridor into one of Amtrak’s fastest-growing services. Rider Read More ›