Start with the transportation facts of life. Population in the four counties of Central Puget Sound will have grown from the 2008 total of 3.6 million by another 1.4 million in 2040. Jobs will increase by 1.1 million, and — based on the region's collective proclivities to date — total vehicle miles travelled (VMT) by more than 40 percent. Barring some big paradigm shift, the percentage of daily "passenger" work trips which occur on transit will grow from 8 percent of the current (2006) total to only 9 percent in 2040. For far more numerous non-work passenger ...

On the subject of balancing budgets & what is affordable in this economy, read #4 from Seattle Weekly (click here):

“We’re getting more public transit we don’t use and less of the transit we do“.

“They’re bright orange, they’re empty, and they seem to putter back and forth endlessly without reason: That’s the South Lake Union Streetcar. Then there’s the Metro buses: Yellow and aquamarine, they’re packed to the gills every rush hour with overburdened commuters. Which transit system would you rather see get more money? Sorry. Mayor Greg Nickels’ toy gift to Paul Allen is the one slated for expansion, as the Seattle City Council voted to explore extending the line to Pioneer Square and the U District. An extension to First Hill was slipped into the Sound Transit package approved by voters last November. Meanwhile, King County Executive Ron Sims announced in February that bus service may need to be cut by 20 percent due to a projected $100 million funding shortfall in 2010. Granted, the trolleys and buses are funded from different sources, but come on—$40 million per mile to lay down new putt-putt tracks when we could increase our bus trolleys for a fraction of that?

Sounds like it’s time to seriously rethink our whole scheme for getting from point A to point B.”

The Seattle Weekly reports that the Washington Poll has released new results from a poll stating:

“Surprisingly, two initiatives that were winning flipped—Eyman’s 985, which had been up two points, is now down fifteen, while Prop 1, sadly, has gone from up seven to down eight, with an increasing number of undecideds. It seems voters have been reading the M.F. Truth.”

Here’s where to find the poll: http://www.washingtonpoll.org/results.html

We’ll see – I wonder whether it will take days for that outcome to become apparent.

Washington State really needs to make the mail-in ballots due by election day.

Do you know many ballot issues you’ll be facing this November? Twelve: Three statewide initiatives, one regional vote on light rail and eight proposed amendments to the King County Charter (or constitution), some of which matter a lot. How should you vote? Glad you asked.

 Read Ted Van Dyk’s scathing article outlining his votes on Initiative 985, Sound Transit’s Proposition 1, and Initiative 1000 at: http://crosscut.com/2008/10/21/2008-election/18580/

“Sound Transit, light rail’s prime- and sub-contractors, and the network of law firms, P.R. firms, consultants, and others profiting from light rail have mounted intense 2007 and 2008 campaigns for Prop. 1′s passage. Local newspapers have published essays by local attorneys, former public officials, and civic leaders which were, in fact, written by Sound Transit’s P.R. firm. The light rail network has channeled campaign contributions to public officials and has subsidized supposedly independent groups supporting light rail. State Auditor Brian Sonntag is investigating payments of taxpayer funds by the City of Seattle (authorized by Mayor and Sound Transit Board Chair Greg Nickels) to the Sound Transit-supporting Transportation Choices Coalition, which is campaigning for the light rail proposal. Sound Transit itself was created by a ballot measure which grossly misrepresented the costs, time of construction, and benefits to be derived from a light rail system.”

….”No independent, reputable transportation or public-finance analyst would tell you that light rail makes any transportation or financial/economic sense in the King, Snohomish, and Pierce county region.”

….”Special recognition should go, here in Seattle, to the critical analysis applied to the issue by King County Executive (and former Sound Transit Chair) Ron Sims, former WSDOT Director Doug MacDonald, former state Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge, Seattle Post-Intelligencer economic columnist Bill Virgin, Seattle Times columnists Joni Balter and Bruce Ramsey, and the Seattle Times editorial board. They took the time to understand the issue and refused light rail Kool-Aid.”

Ballot measures: Hate 'em, but here's how I'm voting Crosscut, WA - 7 hours ago Sound Transit, light rail's prime- and sub-contractors, and the network of law firms, PR firms, consultants, and others profiting from light rail have ...

The two candidates for Pierce County Council District 3 cited traffic congestion as a top priority at a public forum this afternoon. Incumbent Roger Bush, R-Graham, and challenger Bruce Lachney, an Eatonville Democrat, spoke to the Puyallup-Sumner Chamber of Commerce at the Best Western Park Plaza in South Hill. Bush said he was elected to the council four years ago on a pledge to improve public safety, traffic congestion and recreational facilities. He cited improvements in all three areas. In transportation, Bush cited new road construction throughout the district. He also cited the installation of street lights on ...

Crosscut writer David Brewster comments in his article: “Sound Transit 2 failure would be a political train wreck”, that:

“several factors have made passage (of ST2) less likely…

…One is the drop in gas prices by about $1 a gallon.

Another is the scary economy, making voters stingy with new taxes.

A third is crowded buses, which make a case for more transit but probably a stronger case for more immediate relief than the long lead time of a rail-heavy proposal. “

Brewster also states:

“Eastsiders are ambivalent (about Prop 1) because the rail line would take away bus and traffic lanes from the Interstate 90 bridge across Lake Washington.”

Representative Fred Jarrett confirmed this long ago, and said that the first thing that would be done after passage of last year’s Prop 1 (or ST2), would be that popular, efficient routes such as the 550 between Seattle and Bellevue would be cut.

Essentially, Sound Transit would exchange a popular, less expensive trip, for a more expensive trip, one heavily subsidized by taxpayers.

Now Larry Lange at the Seattle Times is saying that: “As light rail comes, some buses may go“.

“Anybody living in those neighborhoods should be very interested” in what might happen, Metro service development manager Victor Obeso told Seattle City Council members this week.

The new rail service will duplicate service on at least two bus routes: Route 42 between downtown Seattle and the Rainier View area, and Route 194 between downtown, the airport and Federal Way.

According to Metro, both are examples of routes that could be discontinued along with others such as Routes 7 Express and Routes 32, 34, 35, 39 and 126.

Back to Brewster’s article:

“As for King County Executive Ron Sims, he’s already opposed to Prop 1 (though keeping quiet about it this time), is definitely on the bus side of the bus-rail balance beam, and will push to get some of the Sound Transit taxing authority for quick relief for his overloaded Metro Transit buses.”

Ron Sims seems to think that expanding bus service (possibly with dedicated lanes) would be a more responsive, quicker, less expensive way to move people. More buses to more destinations. Routes to respond to demand-where people need to travel to.

Ron Sims on Sound Transit’s Prop 1 bus plan:

“Sound Transit’s bus capital program is only 2 percent of the total expenditure plan for Sound Transit, Phase 2 (ST2). The estimated $17.8 billion dollars for this plan provides just 60 new buses for the three-county area, half of which will not be in service until after 2015. That adds just an average of 1.3 new buses per year in each of the three counties for the next 15 years…

The region’s bus systems are experiencing unprecedented growth, yet their current revenue sources are exhausted…

Buses across our region are full. Now is not the time to ask voters for a big tax increase tying up 30 years of transit investments for little short-term congestion relief. We can do better. Proposing the wrong plan simply because new voters may flock to the November ballot is still wrong.”

This column appears in today's Seattle Times and is based on our Citizens' Guide to Sound Transit, Phase 2 and a piece written for the Heritage Foundation, Reforming State Transportation Policy: Washington State's Efforts to Implement Performance-Based Policies. Guest columnist | Sound Transit's Prop. 1 spends much, delivers little Sound Transit's Proposition 1 would disproportionally spend large amounts of public resources on a transit program that will serve less than 1 percent of all trips. By Michael Ennis Special to The Times ON Nov. 4, voters in King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties will again ...