Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has proposed abandoning congestion as a metric of street performance.
Read Seattle Times’ Brier Dudley’s op-ed here.
Mayor Murray’s proposal is like an “inconvenient truth,” but coming from the “left.” We have wasted twenty years and billions of dollars on non-solutions to traffic and non effective light capacity rail that just moves people off buses onto gold plated trains. Seattle wants people to not drive alone – fine. We all want to see SOV use go down. If that’s the case, then we need to provide real alternatives to driving alone and we need to use science and math instead of wishful thinking and pitting one area over another.
Make it easer to carpool not harder, like it is now on I-405. Treat bus riders like first class passengers not 3rd. Speed the buses up. Spend money on service not Taj Mahal stations and million dollar parties. Lower bus fares. Fix the roads and bridges that are in dire need of repair, build sidewalks and bike paths, put in more ferry service, have a civil discussion about types of pricing that enhance the common good, not punish people with few if any alternatives. And most important, stop denying the truth and manipulating the data to suit political needs.
Tell your elected officials we need a viable, sustainable, affordable, REGIONAL transportation plan now.
Puget Sound Regional Council, Sound Transit Board andWashington State Legislature.