washington department of transportation

^{Matt Rosenberg
September 22, 2009
Cascadia}

Time To Go “All In” On Tolls

_{Matt Rosenberg
September 22, 2009
Cascadia}

Just putting tolls on the Evergreen Point Bridge is not going to cut it. Instead, the region needs to apply tolls all along the 520 corridor and broadly across our highway system. Here's an encouraging progress report. The four-lane Evergreen Point Floating Bridge across Lake Washington on State Route 520 is a relic of a bygone era, congested and disaster prone. How urgent is the need for a planned six-lane replacement? The Washington State Department of Transportation has gone so far as to graphically model on YouTube how the bridge might buckle under duress, threatening lives and paralyzing the region's highway network. And is the region stepping up to the challenge? Less than half the funding is secured. The Seattle-side configuration is still being debated. More broadly, the project begs a more comprehensive regional tolling strategy because our bridges and highways are all connected. We can't keep doing transportation mega-projects on a disjointed, one-off basis. A key to any solution is tolling, and soon. Here and nationwide, 40 years of sizzling growth in vehicle miles traveled has left too many sections of highways, arterial roads, and bridges overburdened, in disrepair, and obsolete in the face of seismic and other hazards. Those ballyhooed federal stimulus funds were a mere drop in the bucket, amounting to less than one-quarter of what a landmark Congressional commission report says is needed annually. The per-gallon gas tax is badly failing at the federal and state levels. The federal gas tax trust fund is bankrupt, and living on bailouts. Even tripling state gas tax contributions to pending mega-projects in Washington state would do little to close wide funding gaps, state data show. A big new federal transportation bill — which may well include the first hike in the U.S. gas tax since 1993 — will help some, but not that much. (More) Read More ›

^{Matt Rosenberg
June 4, 2009
Cascadia}

Talking Corridor Tolling

_{Matt Rosenberg
June 4, 2009
Cascadia}

The first thing you need to know about KIRO-FM 97.3 News Talk host Dori Monson is that when he says he’s “filled full of Diet Coke, caffeine and righteous rage,” he’s not kidding. Okay, maybe he’s exaggerating a bit, showman that he is. Let’s just say he’s a high-energy guy and a strenuous advocate of fiscal accountability and limited taxes, as I Read More ›

^{KIRO - FM 97.3
June 3, 2009
Cascadia}

Corridor Tolling Radio Discussion

_{KIRO - FM 97.3
June 3, 2009
Cascadia}

Matt Rosenberg of Discovery Institute was interview on the Dori Monson Show (KIRO-FM 97.3). The audio of the interview can be found here.

^{Aubrey Cohen
May 27, 2009
Cascadia}

High Speed Rail Dreams Depend On Dedicated Tracks

_{Aubrey Cohen
May 27, 2009
Cascadia}

This article, published by Seattle PI, mentions the Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute: “True” high-speed rail would exceed 150 mph, but the Amtrak Cascades line between Eugene, Ore., and Vancouver, B.C., is more likely to see incremental progress from the current top speed of 79 mph to between 110 and 125 mph (the top potential speed of the current Talgo trains), Cascadia Project rail fellow Ray Read More ›

^{Cascadia Center
February 26, 2009
Cascadia}

New SR 99 Deep Bore Tunnel Project Fact Sheets And Maps From WSDOT

_{Cascadia Center
February 26, 2009
Cascadia}

Two community open houses were held earlier this week, in Ballard and West Seattle, by the Washington State Department of Transportation, King County DOT, and the City of Seattle DOT. At the events, WSDOT made available some new fact sheets and maps to help answer questions about the inland downtown deep bored tunnel picked to replace the earthquake-prone Alaskan Way Read More ›